What does it mean if blue smoke comes from the engine of my car?

Answer 1

It means your engine is burning oil along with the fuel. First thing to check would be your oil level - if your engine is overfilled, oil will end up in your induction system. If the oil level is good, then oil could be getting by the piston rings or valve seals. Typically if the valve seals are bad, the smoke will be thick when you first start the vehicle (especially cold) and then fade as the engine keeps running. Worn piston rings will cause the smoke to be constant or intermittent as the engine runs and load changes. A compression test and cylinder leakdown test will tell if the rings are worn.or sticking. If you can only do a compression test, check for even pressure among all cylinders with a variance of 15% up or down being ok. If any or all of the cylinders are reading low (check specs for your vehicle), pour a little gear oil down the spark plug hole and turn the engine by hand a few revolutions. Recheck compression again. If the pressure goes up to normal specs, your rings are the culprit. If you have an automatic transmission with a vacuum modulator, the diaphragn may be leaking and allowing auto trans fluid to get pulled into the intake manifold (this is rare). If that is happening generally the vacuum hose will be soft and bloated and your trans fluid level will get low even though there are no external leaks visible. Disconnect the vaccum line and if it is wet with trans fluid then that's your problem.

Answer 2

As everybody has said it is burning oil & it could be either piston rings or worn valves/guides/valve stem oil rings.
To determine which it is do this simple test.Drive your as fast as you can, legally, with full throttle, then take your foot off the throttle for about 5 secs, then while looking in the rear view mirror put the throttle to the floor. If you see large amounts of blue smoke from the exhaust it is the valves/valve stem oil seals. If not it is piston rings.

Answer 3

The engine is burning oil as well as petrol. If the blue smoke is intermittant it could be your piston rings. As long as you keep the oil topped up it's not the end of the world. If it's constant or in large amounts get it checked out quick as it is probably more serious.

Answer 4

In general, blue smoke is from oil consumption, possibly from worn valve guides or rings. White smoke is from a coolant leak, such as a bad head gasket. If it smokes worst when the car starts, and then clears up, it is most likely valve guides. If it smokes all the time, it is probably rings.

Answer 5

Is it a lot of smoke? I had that happen one time to one of my cars and it was a censor that connects to the transmission but has a tube which connects with the carb and large amounts of transmission fluid was being dumped into the carb which ended up in the cylinders and burned but more was going into my oil and causing the oil to over flow.

Answer 6

it could mean its burning oil,or a vaccum leak.it might just need valve seals.if it just smokes in the morning then its probably valve seals.what its doing is oil running down on the valves and when you first start it,its burning the oil off.it wont hurt the running.just keep an eye on the oil.

Answer 7

generally means you need a ring or valve job..
it isnt all that bad.. depending on the car you have.. if you have any auto repair skills what so every... depending on the car you might be able to do it...

you could look on line and see if you can find the instruction for that car /engine type and see if you think you can do it...

on older cars it is a cake walk..

Answer 8

If it's coming from the ENGINE, you have a leak, if it's coming from the EXHAUST pipe, it's burning oil of some type.

Answer 9

Yes it means you are burning oil and you probably need new piston rings.

Answer 10

Means your burning oil.