Toyota - Corolla :: 1989 - Light Grey Smoke From The Car On Start-up
Oct 18, 2011
I have a 1989 Toyota Corolla SR5 AllTrac wagon, manual trans with 160k+ miles. It had been running ok - until I got an oil change. I am wondering if I should do the repairs to get it inspected - new tires, battery, driver-side mirror, and rust repair (small hole near rear wheel well, driver's door; sunroof has rust - that's not an inspection item but needs to be done). The rear-wheel differential has been making grinding/whining noise for about a year; it's probably time to rebuild. Back to the oil change - my car ran great, got the oil changed at Monro; then the car started dripping oil, then was very difficult to start and stalled at stops, even brief ones, also when any gas was applied.
I noticed a light grey smoke from the car on start-up, which went away. I first thought it just needed a tune-up, but when I saw the smoke, I thought there might be oil leaking into the valves. I love this car, but the body is really in need of work. The underneath is pretty solid. In the meantime, I still need a car. I thought of getting a small used gas-saving sedan, and putting some money into the All-Trac to use it for gardening, hauling stuff, etc. , and actually, even though a wagon, it's fun to drive. Can you tell I love my Rosie? My other option is to buy a car ... ick... I don't want car payments. I'm looking at a 2006 Subaru Forester with 42k today, am a bit wary of Subaru repairs, and the steep sticker price.
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Truck: 1999 Ford Truck F 350 4WD Super Duty V8-7.3L DSL Turbo VIN F
Problem: Especially when it is cold outside . . . The truck takes forever to start and while doing so a ton of white/grey smoke comes out of the exhaust.
My starting schema: Turn the key on have the gas pedal pushed to the floor until the "wait to start" light goes out. Then, I turn the key off and back on while still pressing the gas pedal all the way down. When the "wait to start" light goes out again I remove my foot from the pedal and try to start it. I never leave it cranking for more than 5-7 seconds. If, after trying this process several times I will not push the pedal in at all. Also, sometimes I will leave the pedal pushed in while I am cranking it over.
The truck used to start after a couple of tries but lately it won't start at all, even after 20 tries. Sometimes it will spin up for a second as if the engine gets going but then just doesn't continue running. When it is warm out it will usually start after a few tries but doesn't seem normal to me. After I first bought the truck(used) it would start up within half a second after turning the key.This all started after I had to fix an o-ring that was damaged on the top/back of the motor that was dumping all my oil out of the top/back of the motor.
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My mechanic cannot figure out what's wrong with my car My car is a manual trans 1996 Toyota Corolla with almost 154K miles. I had the oil changed two weeks ago (about 1000 miles with my commute), and at that time, I let my mechanic know that it's been losing oil and so check it over. At that time, he changed the oil, cleaned the engine, and added a dye to the oil to show up any leaks.
I took it in this past Thursday for him to locate the leaking, and the mechanic let me know that 1) It came in mostly dry (no oil), 2) there was no visible leaking except for a seepage around the oil pan, which he says could not account for the loss of 4 quarts of oil in two weeks, and 3) it's not burning it out in the exhaust system.
A bit of the history of the car. I got it when it was at 59K, used, and there were a number of things wrong with it that I didn't discover until later, such as that no maintenance had been done to it at all in the 60K someone else had owned it. It came to me needing a timing belt, brakes, and an engine and radiator flush (the radiator fluid was brown instead of green).
At one point at around 70K, as a stupid teenager, I did let it run dry. The oil light came on, I panicked, shut it off, dumped in two quarts (which brought it to full on the dipstick, which I thought was weird), and took it straight for an oil change, where they told me it was dry, which was odd, because I'd just put 2 quarts in it.
After that, there were no issues until it hit about 120K. At that point, I started smelling burning oil and there was smoke coming from under my hood, so I towed it to my mechanic at the time. He replaced the valve cover gasket, the rear main seal, and the head gasket (with engine block machining and all). That more or less cleared the problem up, but then I took it across the country on a 3K road trip, and it ended up accidentally running dry again. Oil light came on, I shut it off, dumped in oil, took it for a lube job.
Since that time, it's been occasionally throwing me an oil light when I go downhill (I figure that this is because it's low but not out, and the change in pitch reduces the pressure?). Each time it does this, I've shut it off, coasted to a stop, dumped in 2 quarts (which brings it to full on the stick), and gone on, berating myself. These times have become more frequent, however, even though I now check the oil regularly.
So before I endure the deserved lectures about being dumb, yes, I blame myself, but regardless of my lazy maintenance, it's becoming ridiculous. My car is now finding a way to lose a gallon of oil over the course of 1000 miles, with no discernible leak or consumption.
Also, why my oil light comes on when it's only 2 quarts down on the stick sometimes, and then sometimes goes almost dry without throwing the oil light? I just got it back with the oil topped up, more dye in the engine, and instead of going for 2 weeks, I'm going for 1 week to see if maybe he can catch it in the act of learning this magic trick of vanishing oil.
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My 89 Corolla started overheating when I turn on the AC. If I don't use the AC, the temp. is fine. 2-3 min. after turning on AC, temp. gauge rises and I must turn off AC. My husband, a devout CT listener has some mechanical skills & ck'd it out. He replaced the fan relay, but that didn't fix it. History: the 1st time it happened, the AC was on and blowing cool air, suddenly, the air wasn't cool and I noticed the temp. rising and turned off the AC. I stopped and checked the radiator fluid and it was low, so filled the overflow with coolant. Drove home (30 min.) and it was fine.
A week later, same thing - I'm on the freeway, air is blowing cool, then not and heats up. Ck'd radiator - fluid level is fine. Problem was somewhat intermittent as it wasn't happening 'all the time'. Yesterday, same thing again on the way to see the dentist 40 min. out in mid-afternoon sweltering heat. Had to drive there and back with no AC - quite miserable. Replaced the thermostat not too long ago and the radiator also had to be replaced year before last. I have health issues and really can't handle the heat and fumes and must have AC in this climate. We can't afford to take it to a mechanic. If this car goes, them I'm car-less. It's a great car and keeps on going - 240,000+ miles.
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I have an '89 Corolla with a very odd leak. There is what seems to be engine fluid dripping on to the brake pedal. My oil level is good- no apparent drop in levels and it's clean- coolant is good, brake fluid is good. The leak smells a bit like engine oil, is dark gray/ black and slippery.
Local mechanic says it sounds like a bad heater core. (The heat is working great however.) I recently replaced the distributor cap and wires/ air filter as it was misfiring like nobody's business. Running fine now
This is a second car I bought a year ago to leave on the east coast for summers. it's been really reliable- ice cold AC, great heat, great gas mileage/. Did start to over heat once this summer, but not bad.
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This S10 has 4 wheel drive and the V6 engine and has 88,000 miles on it. Just about everything except the engine has been replaced because it was a work and plow car and took a beating. It is a great plow car, by the way. Recently a cloud of smoke comes out of the exhaust when you start the engine that has been sitting overnight. Mechanic says it is just old, but someone said that replacing the umbrella seals might do the trick. Stopped at my local auto parts store and they had never heard of umbrella seals.
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I have a 2010 Ram 1500 4x4 quad cab, 4.7L, 25,000 miles. When it sits for a few days, it will emit a puff of grey smoke on starting. It won't do it the rest of the day, and even the next day, but after about 3 days, it will do it. The truck sits nose up on a sloping driveway with a slope of about 1'/20' when parked. Truck runs great otherwise. Dealer says that this is normal for that engine, but I doubt it, as I don't see it discussed anywhere. Is the dealer right or just trying to get me past the new car warranty?
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While driving my 2011 Elantra a few minutes ago I just heard a moderate noise much like I had just driven over an empty pop can. Then white/ grey smoke started pouring out of my exhaust to the point I couldn't see the cars behind me. Just had 15000 mile maintenance about two weeks ago. My hubby has a lot of knowledge regarding older vehicles but says he's never seen anything like it before!
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I have a 79 Camaro and I've gotten a new carb(2 bbl dueljet Rochester) and distributor on it. I got timing right I do believe. I have been having problems trying to get it to start. The car just cranks real fast( sounds like good timing) , but it did sputter out the tail pipe and it shoot out dark grey smoke the first couple times then stopped. I had someone try to start the car while I was near the front to listen and I heard an exhaust leak near the manifold. We fixed that but it still isn't starting. Now it just keeps turning over real fast and that’s it. I looked in carb and it’s getting gas, and it’s getting spark. I tried to mess with the carb a little to let it get more air in it. Didn't work, would I maybe have to open the carb a little more to get more air? How to get my car up and running again.
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Was driving down the highway and got a smell in the car, thought it might be diesal from the truck in front. When I got off and came to a stop, car would not accelerate at first, it hesitated and a puff of grey smoke came out of the back. Stopped for a few minutes everything seemed fine then the check engine light came on. I have managed to get it up with just a couple of rattles, but the check engine light is still on. Have I killed the car by driving it home. The light was not flashing it was completely on.
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I didn't notice anything until I was towing yesterday and tried to pass a car to get onto the offramp.
Anyway, I went to floor it so I could get around and, in my mirror, I could see a decent bit of grey smoke coming out. What could it be?
It doesn't smoke at all on startup and runs smooth right away.
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Just picked my 2005 excursion from being bulletproofed. Arp studs, oem head gaskets, turbo cleaned rebuilt, blue spring mod, 8 new Motorcraft injectors, rebuilt heads surfaced, new Ford oil cooler, egr plugged delete, sct x4 on 2nd tow tune, new radiator, new fan clutch, new water pump, and sinister delete kit. I got almost home to last stop sign and took off and noticed grey/white smoke.
Then drove so more for 20 minutes. Everything you come to complete stop and take off it does this. On start up it will puff a little puff then go away. Is this normal after a rebuild and go away after some miles have been put on engine. Or should I be worried. It runs awesome now and idles so smooth with tons of power on tow tune.
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I have driven small Toyota 4X4 pickups since 1980 including an '89 for the past 25 years and > 200,000 miles. One day a couple of months ago it would crank but would not start although battery and starter seem fine. I did some basic testing eventually measuring the ignition coil resistance (within published range) and inspecting the distributor cap (looked fine). Upon reassembly, it started right up and ran fine for a few weeks. I hadn't really done anything beside cleaning the rotor and cap contacts, moving around the wiring while in the process.
A few weeks ago I was driving in traffic just a few miles from home and it momentarily lost power twice within a mile. Check engine light was noted the second time. I was busy watching the cars ahead of me the first time. Both times it resumed running on it's own and I continued on. A couple of weeks later it died three times within a few miles from home.
The first two times I was able to pull off out of traffic. Several minutes later, I was able to restart the engine. The third time I was stuck in a turn lane at an intersection, police arrived right away and the vehicle was towed to the dealer where I had purchased it only two miles away. They have been unable to reproduce the problem but believe they have eliminated the fuel filter and fuel pump as the cause. They have driven the vehicle several miles and left it running for an hour and a half with no problems noted. No diagnostic codes were recovered.
They now want me to retrieve the undiagnosed, unrepaired vehicle. We know it will fail again, probably under the worst possible circumstances. In heavy traffic, a multi-vehicle crash with associated injuries or deaths could result. It's like if the vehicle itself doesn't tell them what to do, they don't know how to approach such a problem on their own any more. I'm not in a position to pour unlimited funds into a vehicle I have recently replaced (with a 2014 Tacoma). There must be a logical approach beyond checking the fuel filter and pump but they seem clueless. I can't safely drive the vehicle and won't offer it for sale until the problem is identified and corrected.
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I have a 2000 toyota corolla, with 1.8 16 valve. 105,000 miles, manual trans.. Just bought this veh. says misfire cylinder 4. So here is what I have done.
I started trouble shooting. swapping coils from cylinder 4 to other cylinders to see if the code follows after clearing it. No, stayed at 4..
So I moved on to the fuel injector. I did the same thing to see if it followed.. no stayed at cylinder 4. I changed the plugs, stilll misfire..
I did a compression check, I have 170 on 1,2,3, and on cylinder 4 I have 0. Yep, none...
I have some black smoke when the car is under load, as in acceleration, shaking and constant miss. lack of power... Trying to determine whether it is the rings or valves or what.. I took valve cover off and checked for broken spring, and they all seem ok. No oil in my coolant or vise versa.
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I replaced the rings on all 8 injectors put in 8 new glow plugs and a relay. My truck is still putting out grey/ white smoke at start up. It goes away after about a minutes. Truck runs a little rough a first then smooths out. I know some smoke after doing a job like this is to be expected but I was thinking I t would go away by now. I've been running through my head what I might of done wrong but I can't think of anything.
Does it just need all new injectors and not just rings ?
2001 f250 7.3
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Obviously its not a good thing, but this seems a little severe for a truck that hasnt had any issues prior. The truck is a 1998 F150 4.6 and was running just fine until POP!! A puff of grey smoke coming from the throttle body and followed by (obviously) a rough idle. So basically, I know that any metal fragments were directly sucked into the intake and based on the size of the chipped area (roughly 1.5cm). I am wondering what type of internal damage this would (or already has) caused.
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I have a 1989 Toyota Celica ST and I am having a few concerns with my engine. The engine has less than 50k miles on it, and I took it to the mechanics a week ago and was told nothing further than what I had done (tune up, oil change, change of filters) would be needed for the engine to run optimally.
Even after taking my car in, I am still experiencing a few problems.
1) Sporadic Idle - When the car is idling, the RPM shifts around. At some points, it will be so loud that it sounds as if engine parts are clanking together, and at some points it is so quiet that I wonder if my car is on.
2) Slow Start Up - Sometimes when I start my car, the engine sounds as if only 2/4 of the cylinders are running..then, after about 30 seconds, the car will turn off. This has never occurred when starting my car the first time of any day, and has never turned off while I have been in transit.
3) Problem Starting Up after putting in gas - Whenever I fill up my tank from about 1/4 full, it takes my car at least 3-4 minutes to idle smoothly.
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I have a 1989 Toyota Camry station wagon. I was driving it tonight on a slow neighborhood street and it just died. When I tried to start it back up, it won't start. I have power, all lights and things at full strength. When trying to start it it makes a high-pitched whirring screeching sound. I don't know where the starter is located, but the sound seems to be coming from around the spark plugs or behind/under them.
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I have a 2001 toyota corolla with a manual transmission that I just bought that has about 130,000 miles on it. It runs very well except for it runs out of oil about every 150 to 200 miles. The car does not seem to be leaking oil, however revving the engine in the slightest causes the car to smoke from the exhaust pipe. We tried changing the oil as well as putting in high mileage oil and sea foam motor treatment. This worked slightly but not much.
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2005 6.0 133000 miles... Truck has been stuttering and running rough for about 2 weeks, warms up and is somewhat better. Would stutter in the RPM range of 1600 to 2100 RPM, can push down on accelerator and power through it with no problems. Checked codes and got PO269 Contribution Cylinder 3. Changed all filters and oil change along with a bottle of hot shot secret in the oil. Truck is now blowing blackish grey smoke under throttle and when idling that smells like fuel. No coolant in oil, and no oil in coolant.is the injector shot, or injector sleeve bad?
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I own a 2010 Toyota Corolla S the 1.8L 2ZR-FE engine. Today after work I started the car in a sheltered car garage and as soon as I started the car the after the initial start up sequence the check engine light stayed on and the traction control light stayed on and right next to it on the left side the "VSC Off" light kept blinking and flashing. I turned off the car and started it several times to see if that did anything and to no avail nothing happened.
While I was driving those lights stayed on and the VSC off light kept on blinking.
I also checked the brakes and the brake fluid and they all seem to be fine, I even checked the fuel door as well.
I am not sure what is wrong. I was looking at some of the complaint sites and most people say it happens when you drive through a deep puddle or if it is cold and wet outside. But that didn't make sense because I drove in the snow and those lights never turned on. The only time I used the ETS button is during the snow storms and I drive at low speeds.
I need to know why this VSC off light is blinking? Is it a bad sensor or is the ABS/ETS brake system broken or is it an ECU issue or is it because of an alignment. Since I was told to get an alignment soon.
See also: 2010 Toyota Corolla Question: Check engine light on and "VSC off" light blinking with the ETS light on.
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