2008 camry blue smoke??!

[LoMbArD]

Already? My mother-in-law just bought a new camry. She has only had it for a couple of months. She was over for the holidays and the car sat in my driveway for almost a week. When she started her car up to leave a nice puff of blueish smoke came from the tailpipe. The car also sounded awful, really loud lifternoise maybe, didn't quite sound like valves tapping to me, but then again I am getting a bit rusty. About the time the smoke stopped coming out the tailpipe (maybe 10-15 seconds) the engine quieted down.

Ideas? She is faithful getting oil changed every 3k miles (she was married to a mechanic for 20 years)

Thanks,

Lombard

[Scrapper]

what kind of oil does she use? and does she take it to a shop and have it changed? if she has shop change it there probably using cheap oil i don't think in a 2008 the valve seals i wouldn't think would be bad. how many miles you have on this car? you might want to check those lifters tho.

[Mike Gerber]

You don't say how many miles are on the car. If it is a 2008 Camry with less than 36,000 miles, the car should still be under warranty. If so, I would take the car to a Toyota dealer and advise the service department of what happened. If there is something wrong with the engine, you want to get it on record as soon as you can. Also, check the oil level. If this was actually oil (the blue smoke would indicate it is) you want to check the oil level to see if it is burning oil to the point where it wouldn't be safe for the engine to drive the car. If it is low, top off the oil level to bring it to the full mark. If you have to add oil make mention of how much oil had to be added to the dealer when you bring the car in.

Mike

[Brian R.]

Although Mike is on point with most of his statement, I would disagree with telling the dealer about a low (or high) oil level in the engine that you corrected. Although theoretically, it would assist in finding the problem, I always think long and hard about giving anyone (particularly a dealer) any way to push the blame for a problem on someone else. If the oil level was slightly low (for example), it may not have had any effect on the engine, but putting that thought in their mind might get it put on paper that the oil was low and jinx any possibility of convincing them that there was an intrinsic problem with the engine. They will jump on any hint that something other than a manufacturing error or engine defect caused a problem that could potentially cost them money.

I suggest bringing it back to the dealer and playing dumb, other than describing the symptoms that were observed. Also, bring any receipts that you can find for maintenance done.