Hey guys,

Apparently this happens if you get rid of the cat, but my car blows puffs of smoke at weird times. Only when I stop, and occasionally when I take off a very small amount will come out.

Is this from a cat being removed from the exhaust? Or do I have valve stem issues?

Cheers.

edit:
Oh I changed the spark plugs and did an oil change a month ago (been blowing smoke for awhile now, mechanic wasn't worried about it) and the plugs were clean, and could have stayed in longer. But I wanted them changed, and oil consumption wasn't much. I check after every drive when I've got the oil temp up and its always a good amount of oil in the system. When the mechanic did an oil change, there was still plenty in there. AP1 2001 model. If that makes a difference with anything.

 

Is there a reason you can't look under the car and see if the cat is there?

 

Don't have the equipment to jack it up.

 

I thought Australia was the "land down under" but you can't get under your car??

If yo uget down low enough you can still see if the cat is in place or if it was replaced by a test pipe. Puffs of smoke isn't any good regardless. What color is the smoke? White, blue, or black?

 

I'll have a look when I get home.

Probably blue in colour, but hard to tell from inside the car.

 

what color is the smoke?

white- could be valve seals. while your car is not moving a small ammount of oil seeps down into the cylinders causing a small puff of white smoke while taking off

grey- cooling in the oil, either bad intake manifold gasket or possibly bad head gasket

black- tons of fuel. the early 00-01 had a very rich ECU from the factory.

these are just suggestions.

 

Black is the closer in colour. Its a blueish black smoke.

I'm getting about 400km per tank, which doesn't seem too unreasonable. Got too dark, I'll have a look in the morning if it has a Cat or not.

400 kilometers = 248.548477 miles

 

Blue is oil-black is fuel. I think your fuel consumption is fine.

The lack of a cat won't make smoke and conversely, having a cat won't stop smoke.

The fact that it isn't just at startup can be troublesome. Do you add oil between oil changes and if so how often, probably anything more than a quart every 750 miles sounds like a lot.

 

Nope. No oil in between changes. Last oil change there was still plenty in there, didn't consume too much according to my mechanic.

Might take it to another place shortly and get their opinion on it.

But it's weird, the car doesn't lose power under acceleration, only puff smoke when I stop. Then its a small to large cloud, and nothing else. Occasionally it will puff a small amount when I take off.

I can't say for certain, but I find it worse when I am stuck in heavy traffic, start and stopping all the time. So not sure if heat is a factor or not.

 

Could be valve seal. Is the valve cover venting to atmosphere or back to the intake manifold?