Hello all

New XKR owner and i have started to see an odd issue. I have started the car a couple of times and moved it a short distance and then turned it off (it ran for no more than 2 minutes), i have come back to it a short time later (less than an hour) and then started it again and i get a cough of blue smoke. It does not smoke on initial start or if i start and give it a good run and then say stop for gas and then restart its fine. The oil in there is 5w 30 and it's not over-full. i am trying to think what might cause this and i am coming up short, i have considered a PCV issue and will need to check both PCV valves to make sure they are not blocked this i would ave thought would cause it to smoke more often if not all the time.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated.

Russell

 

My initial thoughts would be valve seals. This would happen when the engine is cold and some oil leaks by the valve stem and when you start the car it blows it out . Which exhaust system do you have . If PAE then you can't tell which bank the problem is and you would see smoke from both exhaust tips. If standard exhaust which has separate right and left pipes you would see it from the bank that is leaking. Remember at cold start the oil is thin and the components hare larger tolerances. PCV is a place to look 1st to see if you are pushing to much oil vapors into the cylinder heads. Keep an eye on your oil level.

 

I also get blue smoke on a cold start. It seems to last a minute or less. I was wondering if this is normal or could indicate a problem like valve seals or piston rings. Is this a normal behavior or should I investigate further?

 

Google tells all

https://www.carsdirect.com/car-repai...ttling%20noise.

 

i was thinking valve seals to begin with, however initial start in the morning gives no smoke, i have only noticed that it smokes on the 2nd start if only run for a short time on the first start. Also if run for a good time on the first start (until fully warm) then re-starts are clear.

The car has the std XKR exhaust, not sure what PAE stands for..

 

I would avoid cold starting the car and only running it for a few seconds - this is no bueno. Avoid this and see if the issue goes away.

Replacing a PCV valve is easy and cheap. They DO need to get replaced at some point.

 

Normally i do try to avoid this, there are those times where i have little choice unfortunately.

I am going to see how things progress in the near future.

i should have mentioned that this car only has 30000 miles so it has been driven very little, with this in mind perhaps the valve seals have hardened to a point when cold and after a decent run they warm up and become flexible once more, i can see that happening, however i would imagine initial starts to show the blue smoke

I have the valley pipe job somewhere in my future so depending on how things go and what i might find it might be well worth changing the seals.

 

PAE is performance active exhaust which was a option on the later 5.0L cars. It had an X pipe in it which would allow both banks to blend in exhaust so you would have seen blue smoke from both exhaust tips. Also as the engine heats up it expands and would seal the valve stems better.