Smoke coming out of my exhaust when I start my car...

reply to post by lovebeck


Start planning to replace car in next 6 months, engines knackered and cost of fixing it isn't worth it.

Steam indicates coolant leaking into your cylinders either through a blown head gasket, cracked head, or cracked cylinder liner. Don't take this lightly.

a reply to: lovebeck

The Toyota Camry for many years (including your model year) has had problems with internal oil sludge buildup. The sludging is due to the fact that the internal oil passages are too small and become even more restricted by the lack of changing oil at regular intervals.

The crankcase breather system could be faulty. A failed PCV valve ($10) if its not operating properly, could contribute to smoking from the tailpipe. This would cause the breather system to suck up oil from the crankcase and the engine will start to burn this oil in the combustion chambers.

As mentioned here by others, you could very well have valve guide seals that are faulty or worn piston rings. Other culprits are worn spark plugs, insufficient or weak spark, fuel system or injector problems, ignition timing problems, etc. The list goes on. Have a qualified mechanic diagnose the problem. My guess is sludging.

Good luck!

originally posted by: Pimpintology
That's called blow by. Your piston rings are bad.

i doubt it. if you take off the oil filler cap while the car is running and hold your hand over the whole you can see how much oil is blowing by the rings.
if your rings were that jacked the car would be running like crap.

to actually see it out the tail pipe you would have to be losing compression on all cylinders.