i have an 03 with 4600 miles on it. i just bought it a few weeks ago and it blows out a small to moderate size cloud of blue smoke every once in a while on start up (mainly on the passenger side but on the driver side as well). i drive the car at least once a day and it does it at least every other day. what is this?????? ive never heard of a car smoking with only 4600 miles on it!!! also is this a sign that im going to develop the notorious engine tick too??? although the car has so few miles, i dont have a warranty of any kind. what would i do about getting this problem fixed? i dont want to just take it to the dealership and spend every penny i own repairing a car with 4600 miles on it ya know? the only mod on the car is a catback system. if anyone could give me some advice about what the problem might be and what to do about it in my no warantee situation that would be great because this is really bugging me. thanks a lot
smoke on startup
- Thread starter REDFIRE03SVT
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i have an 03 with 4600 miles on it. i just bought it a few weeks ago and it blows out a small to moderate size cloud of blue smoke every once in a while on start up (mainly on the passenger side but on the driver side as well). i drive the car at least once a day and it does it at least every other day. what is this?????? ive never heard of a car smoking with only 4600 miles on it!!! also is this a sign that im going to develop the notorious engine tick too??? although the car has so few miles, i dont have a warranty of any kind. what would i do about getting this problem fixed? i dont want to just take it to the dealership and spend every penny i own repairing a car with 4600 miles on it ya know? the only mod on the car is a catback system. if anyone could give me some advice about what the problem might be and what to do about it in my no warantee situation that would be great because this is really bugging me. thanks a lotford will fix the head if your car falls into the right vin number range, i think its all cars built before november, even if its out of warrenty......i think with the low miles you can still extend the powertrain warrenty to 7/75000 for about a thousand bucks. good luck!
had both my heads rebuilt. Valve guides and seals. Mine would puff smoke anytime the car sat for a while. Oil was leaking down into the heads and burning off when the car was started. Mine was getting so bad that it would use 1 qt to 1.5 qt's every 2 to 3 tanks of gas.
After the head rebuild under extended warranty the car has not puffed smoke at all and has not used a drop of oil.
After the head rebuild under extended warranty the car has not puffed smoke at all and has not used a drop of oil.
Just Hammer It And Stop Whining
what an annoying problem to have with such a new car... thank you for the productive feedback.
ok so even if it has no warrantee and the ford dealership it was bought from is in pennsylvania, i can take it to the nearest ford dealership, tell them/show them what its doing and they are going to repair it free of charge??? would it be better for me to get the extended warantee and then come to ford with this problem?? ugh warantee=no pulley :/ .... i just want to know everything i need to know before i go to ford and they try to tell me its normal and they dont have to fix it etc....
ok so even if it has no warrantee and the ford dealership it was bought from is in pennsylvania, i can take it to the nearest ford dealership, tell them/show them what its doing and they are going to repair it free of charge??? would it be better for me to get the extended warantee and then come to ford with this problem?? ugh warantee=no pulley :/ .... i just want to know everything i need to know before i go to ford and they try to tell me its normal and they dont have to fix it etc....
some dealers will tell you it is normal. They will try to cop out of doing their job. Find a dealer that is willing to work for you that has a high ranking service rep for the area and just see where it goes from there.
You might try the oil separator mod if you haven't done that yet. If it's the valve guides/seals it probably won't make any difference but it won't hurt either and it's only $20.
hey thanks a lot. I definitely want to try anything before taking it to the dealership and getting it all torn apart. I've heard of the oil separator thing but what is it and what would i need to buy??? if that doesnt work i'll be doing some research on the service departments around town and see which one i will attack first! thanks a lot for the help.
Same thing here, waiting for fix..
Check this thread out, it lists everything you need. I got everything at Autozone for about $16 total. It takes about 30mins to install. My car only has about 12,000 miles on it and I was suprised to see how much oil it collects. Remove the white filter, it will just get plugged up. It works just as good without it.
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173161
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173161
Since the car is virtually brand new I would think it's the ole oil in the intake from the pcv valve thing. Used to drive me nuts worrying about it too, I get a puff when I restart the car after a short move like out of the garage to the driveway. If you open the intake between the filter and throttle body you will most likely see a small puddle or indications of oil on the lip of the throttle body. When you restart, it gets sucked in, hence the smoke. That's why the separator corrects the problem if it's not caused by bad valve seals or the ticky head. The good news is that I run synthetic oil at about 6K - 7.5K mile intervals and I don't burn a drop!
cobra_bill said:
I've got one, still smokes.
thanks a lot for that advice and the link that helped out a lot making the oil separator thing! I put it on the car yesterday and the thing still smokes on startup..... i didnt take the white filter out of the filter but i wouldnt imagine that making a difference yet. i guess now my last step just to make SURE this is not the problem is to take the intake apart and try to see oil somewhere in there right??? how could the valve guides/seals be shot at 4700 miles???? o well... we'll see if theres any oil in the intake anywhere i guess an if not then its off to the ford dealership....
I just pulled mine doing a blower swap and there was plenty of oil residue in there.
the valve guides could have pretty much been shot from the start. Ford didnt do a very good job on them to begin with.
Trust me if you have put on an oil seperator (like I did) and still have smoke on startup especially like if you let the car sit overnight and it smokes a fair amount then you need to look at the fact that oil is leaking down from the heads and burning when the car is started.
Pretty simple really.
the valve guides could have pretty much been shot from the start. Ford didnt do a very good job on them to begin with.
Trust me if you have put on an oil seperator (like I did) and still have smoke on startup especially like if you let the car sit overnight and it smokes a fair amount then you need to look at the fact that oil is leaking down from the heads and burning when the car is started.
Pretty simple really.
yeah yeah i know haha there is no other way that the oil could be getting into the engine...i just dont want to accept it... o well, just gotta go to ford and see if i can get them to fix it.
hey, do you know if when they replace the valve seals/guides they remove the camshafts?? sorry im new to this whole DOHC setup.... if so would anyone suggest getting higher performance cams since the heads are already going to be torn apart??? would i be able to get ford to install them instead of the stock cams when they re-assemble the heads???
hey, do you know if when they replace the valve seals/guides they remove the camshafts?? sorry im new to this whole DOHC setup.... if so would anyone suggest getting higher performance cams since the heads are already going to be torn apart??? would i be able to get ford to install them instead of the stock cams when they re-assemble the heads???
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I have no clue how it is done but I am sure the service department will be willing to do the cam swap for you but it will more than likely cost a pretty penny to have them do it.
REDFIRE03SVT said:
They'd probably give you a lot of difficulty when asking for non OEM cams to go in.
And from what I've been seeing, its more of a sound mod than a performance mod on these cars. AKA not worth the hassle.
SO went to ford and talked to the service manager and they basically said that since i have no warranty, any work that would be done to the car would need to be paid for. Then i talked to a mechanic there who is their "mustang expert" who has a 03. He said that the engines are built loosly and they do tend to smoke on start up sometimes. Not all of them smoke but some of them do... he also said that without a warantee ford wouldnt do anything about it unless there was a MAJOR problem with the car. he said that even the oil separator that i made and put on there would void any warantee that i did have if a service manager saw it on there....?? that oil separator btw is already about half full and thats not even a full week of driving! is that odd??. anyway, he offered to take the valve covers off and take a look around and pull some spark plugs and take a look and basically make sure everything is in perfect working order as far as the top end goes. he also said that i should switch to a full synthetic oil so thats my project this weekend. im taking it in monday morning. any thoughts about any of this?? we'll see what all he finds when he goes rooting through the heads!
Ford wont do anything if it isnt under warranty so no suprise there. Plus they will charge you much more to fix it if you are paying out of pocket. I have the service papers for when my heads were rebuilt with the time spent to fix it and the cost if you want it. It shouldnt cost anything more than what I was charged.
The seperator will NOT void your warranty if you still had one. They would have to prove that it caused your heads to go bad.
Changing to synthetic is a good thing to do IMO. Some people have said that it causes the smoke issue and have changed back to dino oil but I dont believe that either.
Hope you get things resolved. I am sure if he looks at the heads and gives you an honest answer you will need to valve seal guides and seals replaced and I am pretty sure that it will cure your smoking on startup issue.
The seperator will NOT void your warranty if you still had one. They would have to prove that it caused your heads to go bad.
Changing to synthetic is a good thing to do IMO. Some people have said that it causes the smoke issue and have changed back to dino oil but I dont believe that either.
Hope you get things resolved. I am sure if he looks at the heads and gives you an honest answer you will need to valve seal guides and seals replaced and I am pretty sure that it will cure your smoking on startup issue.
man if you're burning that much oil is there any way there is damage to the engine internals? i.e. cracked pistion rings at least? i'm not modular expert but i had the same problem you're having with my sti and each time (two times total) that was the culprit.
good luck!
-jake.
good luck!
-jake.
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