1994 Toyota Camry What's Wrong with my car?

SLOCK23

MEMBER
1994 TOYOTA CAMRY
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
187,000 MILES

My Camry recently started blowing plumes of smoke; at the same time lots oil started disappearing, about 1.5 quarts per tank of gas, (or more). There are no puddles of oil under the car, so I assume the oil is the cause of the smoke. The smoke comes out simultaneously with acceleration & nearly chokes the car to a stall. It also make a rattling noise under the hood at the same time it smokes. What does all this mean, and what should I do?

3 Replies

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

Hello
Thanks for the donation.

If your vehicle is losing oil and you do not see any visual signs of liquid then this usually indicates that the oil is leaking into the engine's combustion chamber and being burnt out the exhaust, causing the smoke. Normally this is caused by a cracked gasket, possibly your valve cover gasket. It could also be worn out piston rings or valve seals. Engine will need to be tested at repair shop to pinpoint the exact culprit here. The rattle may be the valve train clattering so you may want to start with inspection of valve train.

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009 AT 5:34 PM

SLOCK23

MEMBER
2 POSTS

The value of the car being approx. $2300 if in good condition, is it worth checking into? In other words, if it is either a cracked valve gasket, worn valve seals/piston rings, valve train or all of them, would it be such an expensive repair that it may not be worth doing?

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009 AT 7:50 PM

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

An estimated price including labor and parts for repairing cracked valve cover gaskets on your vehicle will be around $200, which is what we are hoping is wrong with it because that will be the cheapest. To replace the piston rings it will cost around $1,600., Obviously not worth that much. Replacing valve seals will be about the same as piston rings, around $1,200., Because these are both internal components and require a lot of hours of work. I suggest having the vehicle looked at by a reputable repair shop. If they diagnose it as being the valve cover gaskets then I would certainly go ahead and repair it. If they say something else then just ask them for an estimate and they should give you one for free. You can then let them know if you would like to go ahead with repairs or not.

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009 AT 8:15 PM