[Che]

Upon startup my car puffs out a burst of white smoke - not each and every time, but with a pretty consistent pattern. My guess is i've got a bung valve stem seal and it's dropping a bit of oil into the combustion chamber when the engine rests in certain positions. Curiously one valve has always sounded louder/tinnier to my ear than the rest... but maybe i'm just tripping.

If my stem seal is buggered - is this something that'll need fixing, or will it be OK as long as my oil levels are OK? Could the smoke be caused by something else? It's the smell of burnt oil too - it's not steam.

[alien]

when that happened to me it was hardened stem seals... lucky for me it was a recon motor so it was fixed under warranty.

the general consensus on here is to "leave it be" - but i hate that kinda thing so would get it fixed lol.

[Scrawny]

It's not going to do any damage, it'll just slowly get worse

[nick_75au]

White smoke would more likely be steam wouldn't it If it was blue tinge then oil, white might just be condensed water in the exhaust or more seriously a dodgy head gasket