I just bought a 2000 Toyota Avalon with 70,000 miles. I have this issue where when i start the car (after its been sitting for more than 8 hours) ALOT of smoke comes out when im backing out of my parking space. by the time im driving its gone , if i start my car a few min later it does NOT do it again. It only happens when i wake up in the morning and when i go home from work. Any idea what this might be and what i can do to solve it? Let me say again that this does not happen everytime i start my car and does not happen when its running , but it does happen everytime i start the car after its been sitting for 8+ hours. Color of smoke is whiteish grey
Check your coolant level immediately. If it’s low, chances are it’s entering the combustion chambers, which would explain the whitish exhaust. Has there been a recent change in the amount of smoke?
It just started yesterday , But i just had an oil change last weekend and they said they topped off all fluids.
Any drastic change in temperature or humidity yesterday?
Nope i live in arizona its always hot. It has happened at the coolest part of the day (yesterday morning) and the hotest part of the day (yesterday afternoon)
if losing coolent and your oil (from the dip-stick) looks milky, then i would suggest bad head-gasket(s).
sounds like the head gasket,for sure!
This smoke is most likely oil being burnt. What seems to happen is that some of the valve guide seals become leaky so that when oil sits above the seal for a long time enough gets down to the valve head or into the open cylinder that you get the cloud on startup. You would want to make sure that the drainback passages for the heads are open and oil is not pooling under the valve cover(s). If you don’t see the oil level dropping much between oil changes, you might just live with it. If you want to fix the problem, the valve stem seals can be replaced without removing the heads. It is rather involved because it requires removing the cam shafts, cam followers, valve spring keepers, and valve springs to get to the seals. I have not seen any diagnostic step to determine which seal(s) is (are) bad so you should probably replace all at the same time.
Hope that helps.
Valve guide smoke is very blue. OP says the “smoke” is white/grey indication coolant.
Might be less drastic than imagined. We have a steroidal-Toyota (Lexus) and had the same symptoms.
Or problem was a small device/valve between the power steering resevoir and someplace on the engine.
Apparently the device is used to sense demand on the engine by way of a vacuum hose. When the internal flap wears, it allows power steering fluid to seep into the engine. You park overnight
and get anywhere from a quick puff to a major cloud upon starting, white smoke.
Your symptoms are exactly like ours in that parking for a few minutes or even a few hours does not allow enopugfh fluid to seep through and hence you get no smoke on start up.
Fix that valve and you’ll be fly. About $80 including labor, if I remember right.
You can verify bu checking the level of steering fluid. If it is low at all, than that’s your problem. If it gets real low you’ll notice a moaning noise, particularly when turning tight.