is my smoke serious??

[bobchiba]

hey, im in the uk, I have the baby brother of the 535i, the 530i (6cyl) and its started to smoke on startup after its been sitting for more than a couple of days, its bluey smoke, and lasts for about 3-4 serconds after ignition. Also, it takes a few turns to start up. As long as its in daily use, and bar any of the described problems its still silky smooth and all fluids/idle etc are fine. (also to note it drops a very small amount of oil, nothing to worry about i dont think). It also doesn't smoke at all apart from this, ie, no smoke on acceleration etc.

Ive been told this is the beggining of worn vavle seals. My question is, is this a serious issue, ie., is this neccessarily going to get worse, and how much, excluding parts, would i be looking at to have the head of, reconditioned tec, and this fixed, in uk prices (not main dealer obviously)

ANY ADVICE MUCH APPRECIATED!!

[repenttokyo]

probably the valve guides . valve seals leaking yes. Is it serious? that depends on whether you can live with the smoke, really.

[bubba966]

I've had the valve seal leaking on my truck for nearly a decade. Other than the small amount of oil that leaks down (while it sits) and gets burned up on startup it's nothing I care to fix anytime soon. Just have to put more oil in it, and it probably shortens the lifespan of the spark plugs a slight bit. I also have no cats on my truck, so the small oil burn can't effect those.

I suppose if you've got cats and don't get the car up to operating temp to burn the crap off the cats over time it could cause a problem.

[632 Regal]

they all smoke after sitting a couple days or more. If it really concerns you then replace the valve seals but other than that unless you have big oil consumption dont worry about it

Ive been told this is the beggining of worn vavle seals. My question is, is this a serious issue, ie., is this neccessarily going to get worse, and how much, excluding parts, would i be looking at to have the head of, reconditioned tec, and this fixed, in uk prices (not main dealer obviously)

ANY ADVICE MUCH APPRECIATED!![/quote]

[dauchande]

My shop teacher in high school said to put a dollar bill up against the exhaust while the engine is idling. If the bill gets sucked up against the exhaust, then yes, you've got warn valve seals. Dk if this advice is still valid these days, but it makes sense to me.

[whiskychaser]

My shop teacher in high school said to put a dollar bill up against the exhaust while the engine is idling. If the bill gets sucked up against the exhaust, then yes, you've got warn valve seals. Dk if this advice is still valid these days, but it makes sense to me.
If thats true its going to get me a lot of beer in bets:) If you stop exhaust coming out the engine dies - so how do you make it suck?

[dauchande]

If thats true its going to get me a lot of beer in bets:) If you stop exhaust coming out the engine dies - so how do you make it suck?
I'm not saying that the exhaust is always sucking inwards, most of the time it blows out as normal. I think the idea (at least at the time) was that if a valve isn't closing all of the way, then when the cylinder goes down during the intake cycle, it's sucking the exhaust fumes back into the cylinder from the exhaust manifold (and hence, all the way from the exhaust) which would cause your dollar bill to be pulled towards the exhaust for a brief second. I would assume this is more pronounced in 4 cylinder or smaller engines.