2021 blue smoke upon cold start only 900 miles!!!???

Anyone ever experienced this before? This is literally a brand new truck. Followed the break in procedure 100%
This is making me ill. Any ideas? Catch can?

 

Is it cold where you live? It’s really easy to get a puff of “smoke” due to condensation in the winter. It’s highly unlikely that you have an issue like this with a new truck.

 

How cold is cold for you?

Sounds like it's just residual oil burning off and cold weather combined.

 

Wasn’t that cold. 46 degrees. I just have a hard time believing that this is normal on a 900 mile truck. Never had any new vehicle that I’ve ever owned in 40 years do this.

 

This happened to me once (I started the truck standing outside it and reaching in, then walking back towards the house). It was a couple years from new. I just stood and stared as the small blue cloud waifed away. Said to myself "what the F was that? Hope it doesn't happen again." Watched intently on the next couple of start ups (both hot and cold). NOPE. Never ever repeated itself. It's now been 2.5 years since that episode. Weird.

Hell. In my 1997 T100 I was driving once and the tach went nuts and then straight to 0 rpms as I was going down the road. Then flopped around. Then I watched the road and by the time I looked down again it was fine. Never ever happened again. Weird.

 

Four days ago mine let out the blue belch. 70*F, cold engine and got my campsite fogged for mosquitoes. I'll watch the passenger's side mirror to see if this happens again. Currently 6,100 miles on my 21.

 

OP, any chance you did some spirited driving before the end of your previous drive?

 

About 5 years ago a friend had a hemi Ram do this enough he provided the dealer videos of it. Once the truck spent more time in the shop than in his possession he hired a lemon law attorney and got the truck replaced. Me, Ill just watch mine for now.

 

In my case it's absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. It was noticed by my wife who is recovering from a mild case of pneumonia that was sitting at the picnic table in the line of fire when I started it. It would be prudent for me to have her video from outside as I start the truck. At least for a while to see if this happens again.

 

Thanks. We caught it quick. Now the steroids are hell but that's only a few more days. Coming from Ohio to the Gulf for the winter and the Dr said it's common when the cold weather hits. Cold my ass.

 

I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Monitor dipstick for oil level going down or up (indicating fuel dilution)

Check air filter ducting for signs of oily residue (a stuck or defective PCV).

Other possibilities that can give this symptom:

bad gas
some sort of residue in exhaust piping

 

This is timely for me as this just happened about 30 minutes ago and it's freaking me out. I have a 2020 Crewmax, 15k miles. I last drove it Friday night, got up this morning and when I started it, it made a loudish clattering noise followed by a big cloud of blue smoke. After that, it drove 100% normal. I'm in MA, temps were upper 20's. Also possibly related, it uses about a quart of oil every 4-5k miles. Not sure if I should take it to the dealer or not. Any thoughts?

 

Interesting to see these issues. I guess I should pay attention to mine.. I've only seen steam from mine and it doesn't use any oil(check it at every gas fill up)

My father's never has and he's at 60k on his 14.

 

Typically with Toyota vehicles, the condition you are describing is caused by a leaking valve seal. A small drop of oil can leak past the seal into the combustion chamber and burns when the vehicle is first started. Just a tiny drop of oil can cause a few seconds of blue smoke. I've seen improperly installed valve seals from the factory, but never on a 3UR v8 engine. If it is blue smoke, get a video of it and show the dealer. They will probably need to keep the vehicle and duplicate it.

 

Thanks to all who chimed in on this. I have not seen it once since it happened. Going to keep an eye on it. Hopefully it won’t happen again, but just to make sure I’m going to stomp on this thing real good tomorrow and seat those rings!

 

At 900 miles it isn't even close to broke in, go out and beat that thing like a red headed step child! I run the piss out of my vehicles and they run great & dont burn oil. Had almost 300K on my last Tacoma & just rolled 100K on the Tundra.

 

That truck has no idea what it’s in for tomorrow lol….

 

Does it only happen on cold starts?

Never on restarts/warm starts?

 

Beast Mode

 

Installed JLT catch can on mine, so I can assure you all that your trucks are using some oil. Not a massive amount, but more than you might expect is going straight into your intake from the pcv system.

 

Have never seen any blue smoke from mine in the 18k it has been driven. Also, after 5k I check oil before changing it, still at same place on dipstick.

 

Normally a puff of blue smoke on cold start indicates a worn/leaking valve guide seal. But most of the time you'll only see it on high mileage engines unless something was installed improperly or bad parts were used.

If the engine also consumes large amounts of oil between changes that's a bad sign. Personally I'd throw a fit about it and try to get it rectified by the dealership.

 

I'm not gonna get into a pissing match with anyone on here, because that is not why we are here but those that think these piston rings need to be broken in, seated, whatever you call it are just plain wrong. That used to be true, maybe, but Toyota uses a completely different finish on it's cylinder wall and there is no reason to drive the vehicle differently to break it in.

Just my 2 cents for what it's worth. I've been a Toyota technician for many many years so I'm not just some idiot guessing here.

 

As others have said, probably a good idea to do some full throttle acceleration two three times in a row. Reality is that the machining tolerances and the materials on modern rings and cylinders make this mostly unnecessary, but a lot of people baby their motors early on and a good early on break in procedure never hurts. You don't need to bounce it off the rev limiter or run to Red line but some hard starts and then using the transmission to downshift will help finish seating the rings.

Just turned 60,000 miles on my 2017 the motor maybe uses an 1/8th of a quart of oil over the 5000 mile interval.

I am thinking of adding a catch can though just for the long-term ownership.

 

Ok update: beat the sweet Jesus out of it yesterday and No blue smoke this morning? Gonna watch it for a few days…

 

Mine hasn't either. My wife isn't finding any humor videoing my tailpipe anymore.

 

Guessing that's your driveway in your screen name picture? Looks like it has somewhat of a slope. Any chance your truck was parked on the slope when you noticed the blue smoke?