Newbie Seeks Help!

[ade w]

Morning peeps, am a newbie here so please be gentle with me! Have a problem with blue smoke when starting up the car after it has been parked for more than about 8 hours (typically when cold). I have a 97 corolla 1.3. Was wondering if anybody has any ideas what may be causing this and how I can sort it. Cheers!

[MarcTS]

Hi, welcome to TOC.

Where is the smoke coming from? Exhaust/Engine/Cigarette Lighter/Radio/Parcel Shelf/Sun Visor etc? :D

[Panners]

Does the smoke smell of oil?

It's likely to be you valve stem seals, which is usually a head off job.

When they wear out and the engine's been stood for a while, you get a little trickle of oil down into the cylinders which burns when you start up, the result is the blue smoke you see.

If you're handy then it's a relatively straightforward job to tackle (with the correct equipment of course)

The actual seals themselves will only set you back a handful of pounds and a mechanic will most likely spin the job out as long as possible, so the cost will quickly escalate once you add in the Richard Turpin factor. I know very little about Corolla engines at the moment, but I replaced the seals on my old Golf, stripped it out in the morning and running in the afternoon!

Things to bear in mind are you'll need a new head gasket set (will include stem seals) new head bolts, spring compressors, torque wrench, the list goes on...

At the end of the day you'll be the one deciding if it's worth it to you personally, and if you like your motor to run well then you'll end up having a crack!

Also, there's a fella on this Saab forum thinking about doing it without removing the head at all, you can read his post Here.

Good luck.

[ade w]

Thanks for the reply, apologies for not clarifying where smoke was coming from. Was exhaust, and usually clears within 60 seconds or so of car starting. Thanks for link also, most helpful :)