more info on blue smoke?? anyone..

[bobchiba]

Hi...recently posted that my 88' 530i was smoking a little....basically I've been away for several months and left my car at home...my dad took it out occasionally for me to keep it running so to speak, and finally chatted to him today to get a proper description of what happened.

I'd say it had been standing for 2 weeks maybe, and he said when he started her up it sent some blue-ish smoke out that back for several seconds, and then subsided. Got home today and investigated. Took a few cranks to tick over but no smoke at all on startup. Also it has not/does not blow smoke on any accel/de-accel. Apart from that it is super smooth as always, idles better than most new cars and drops a very very small amount of oil that does not concern me. (also to note, it is parked on a steep driveway when not being used).

Obviously there has been some oil getting into the/a cylinder while it was standing, but could this be something a bit of cleaning or maintinance could fix....at the moment i don;t think there is a significant valve/guide/stem problem and im hoping its down to the fact its a 20yr old car with 130k miles, and nothing more than that

Any advice guys.....??

[BMWDriver]

Same happened to me once or twice, but it turned out to be too much oil I put in.

Has the head gasket been redone ? Do you have synthetic or regular oil in there? I found I use less with synthetic 5W40, on top of not having to add coolant as often as before.*Check the spark plugs, take a pic and post here; they give a good indication.

What's your approximate oil consumption?

[632 Regal]

if my car sits a week or so oil seeps down the valve guides and I get a little blue haze. If I start it more often it doesn't happen. I dont worry about it at all.

[winfred]

pretty much it's 20 year old valve stem seals, they seep occasionally and are nothing to worry about

[bobchiba]

ok cool.....cheers guys, Hopefully be fine...If it every gets problemeatic maybe check the sparks or a compression test maybe.

[bmwrp8]

pretty much it's 20 year old valve stem seals, they seep occasionally and are nothing to worry about

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