valve stem seal

[bluebomber]

Im about 99% sure my valve stem seals are leaking... i was wondering.. how safe is it to commute to work? about 3 miles away from home....

 

[NOSNUSE]

i wouldnt drive it for to long like that but as long as you keep an eye on the oil level you should be okay.

 

[bluebomber]

yeah it smokes a lot from the exhaust.... and i guess the oil leaked in while the car was sitting, getting body work done. Im hoping i dont get stopped by a cop

 

[sonicnofadz]

Before you assume that it is your valve seals that are causing the excessive oil consumption/smoke you may want to do a compression check (if you haven't already). If the car has high mileage you might need a rebuild.

 

[bluebomber]

Before you assume that it is your valve seals that are causing the excessive oil consumption/smoke you may want to do a compression check (if you haven't already). If the car has high mileage you might need a rebuild.

ok here's teh deal.. i bought the car last friday... it has 113k on the clock. The guy said it started smoking out of the exhaust real bad... i said ok i'll check it out.... I test drove the car and it ran fine.. no overheating or anything.. just massive amounts of smoke from teh exhaust.. whether at idle or in motion it was smoking bad... well i drove it home.. had no problems.. just the smoke....which was making people give me stares... I get home and decide to trouble shoot.



I check the turbo.... there is no shaft play and the seal was fine. I then took off the spark plug wire cover.. and discovered there was oil in there.. not much but enough to make you wonder... i then started removing the wires and the spark plugs.... there was oil on one spark plug.. and the other spark plugs where fine... now since there was oil in 1 cylinder i decide to do a compression test.. and compression came out to be 150 across teh board....... I put everything back and was about to take off the valve cover but i couldnt get a bolt off teh exahust mani.. and it started getting dark.. so i gave up... but oil level are find, and so is teh oil pressure.

 

[sonicnofadz]

Yeah, your assumption is probably correct then, it is MOST likely your valve seals...mine were pretty hard and crusty around 100k miles. What color smoke is it coming from your exhaust? Its oil and not steam right? Since your getting 150 across all cylinders, this means your rings are still decent, and you have a good seal with your valves, and the gasket isnt totally blown. Although I've had cars that leaked fluid from the head gasket and still gave a good compression test reading. If the smoke is white it may be coolant and not oil.

 

[turbowonder]

Its definetly the smell of burnt oil.. because coolant discipates and dissapears.. while oil lingers for awhile... coolant lvls are fine and there isnt any overheating.

 

[philipkrotch]

if u have oil in where ur spark plug wires are, u mah have a leaking oil cap which could run into your plug wells and cause it to smoke, but it would be very minor if at all. hmm...your problem is weird. your compression might be high also because there is oil in the cylinders. who knows. its always something else with these cars.

 

[boostedinaz]

I have the exact same problem, I mean exact. I have 150 across the board but havent doen a leak down test because it seems no one in AZ has a tester. My car smokes pretty bad and i am hoping it is the valve seals also. Any help thoughts would be great.

Michael