Hi all

Just wondered if anyone had had this problem.

When I drive my car and come to a stop, I get a puff of smoke from the exhaust .
My mechanic seems to think it could be the valve stem oil seals, however I thought I would seek fellow owners advice before allowing him to start working on my engine.

My car is a 1992 c4 with 105k

Any advice is welcome

Cheers Lee

 

hi lee is the smoke coming from the exhaust or can you see it in the mirror out of the rear tyre well if the latter it could be power steering fluid dripping on exhaust the only real way is a leak down test to know

 

If it's coming out the wheel arch it's more likely to be valve cover oil leaks onto the mufflers.

 

Smoke from the exhaust means that your engine is burning oil, and oil in the cylinders can be due to a number of reasons.
I had the same problem, especially after driving at speed coming to a halt at a traffic light or something.
Worn valve guides is a known issue, and my engine had this problem on cylinder 5 and 6. I first tried to change the valve stem seals, but I could feel the valve stems rattle in their guides when prying with my finger. A top end overhaul did the trick.

Cheers,
Tore

 

Thanks guys,

I had the valve cover seals done last year as that's what we thought it was, it helped but it is definitely coming from the exhaust.

I did feel that it would need a top end rebuild Tore? But I may go with the valve stem seals first to see how we get on.

Cheers agin

 

perhaps a leak down test would be a good idea.

 

What does a leak down test show?

 

Here you go. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leak-down_tester

 

It's a compression test.

 

They are 2 completely different tests.