i've posted here before awhile back. i thought my problem to be mostly cured, but it has come back to haunt me.
i have a 1999 lexus gs400, with somewhere between 90-100k mi on the odo. when i had bought the car about 4 years back, it had been dealer serviced on regular dino oil. the first oil change i had done on my own after purchasing the vehicle was with 5w30 motul synthetic... and that's when all my problems started. the car immediately started to smoke from the tailpipes, and the exhaust was always blue (worst at startup), and my oil level was dropping at a slow, but steady rate. i had asked a mechanic about this and he thought that by going synthetic on an engine with so much mileage, the heavy detergent factor of the oil has caused the valve stem seals and guides to leak.
in a panic, i had searched online for help and ended up here. i had to dump the motul in the engine and replaced it with 10w30 castrol gtx and went on the seal leak application with auto-rx, and have since been on the maintenance program. the blue smoke had since diminished to the point it only gave a small puff of blue on cold startup, lasting maybe 1-2 seconds at most. i was no longer burning oil.
unfortunately, i had a (non-car related) accident that required hospitalization/emergency surgery, which laid me up for 6 months. i was not able to properly store my car and it was sitting outdoors all that time. i just recently got it started up and did not smoke at all, but after doing a major service with my mechanic, the blue smoke returned. for more than 5 seconds on a cold start, there was enough blue smoke from the exhausts to haze up the mechanic's single-bay garage. every other subsequent startup now also has a 2 second smoke period as well. i haven't put that much mileage since the service... 200 miles at most, so i cannot determine if there is oil consumption present.
what have i done wrong? is there any hope, or am i looking at an expensive head rebuild?
Excellent question, it seems very few people read about the Auto-Rx Maintenance plan or think it is some trick to get you to buy more Auto-Rx.
The Auto-Rx Maintenance plan (maybe it should be called final application) It,s the heart of the Auto-Rx Sucess Story, and where all the benefits start saving money.
This "blue smoke" issue probably has more to do with it sitting for so long before you put it back into service. I would take it out on the highway for an hour long drive. In time the smoking should diminish to the level it was before your accident.
You might consider doing a 2nd treatment to eliminate or at least reduce this problem. Or as an alternative increase your maintenance dose from 3 oz to 4 oz. Have the PCV valve replaced on a regular basis.
i've done about 200mi of constant hwy driving in one day (literally getting off at one exit and turning around to go back), and the smoke is still there.
someone is recommending that i forget about auto-rx and use seafoam(?) instead, and then run a hi-mileage oil afterwards. does anyone know what this "seafoam" is? where i live up here in canada, i couldn't find it on the local store shelves.
