questions about valve guide seals

[solara90]

could of i caused it because

1. I switched to synthetic oil my last change

2. I also am a month over my oil change but not over on miles

3. What will happen if i keep driving it?

[Ilovemylara]

No, I doubt changing from dino to sythetic oil caused the valve seals to go bad. This tends to happen to high milage cars. You'd be fine to drive it, but it will smoke alot, and get progresivly worse. Are you sure its bad valve seals, and not bad piston rings? I would get a compression check first, because if its just bad valve seals you can replace them yourself.

[solara90]

nope, rings are good only smokes one puff when it starts up

No, I doubt changing from dino to sythetic oil caused the valve seals to go bad. This tends to happen to high milage cars. You'd be fine to drive it, but it will smoke alot, and get progresivly worse. Are you sure its bad valve seals, and not bad piston rings? I would get a compression check first, because if its just bad valve seals you can replace them yourself.

[D-money]

your safe to keep driving it I dont even worry about time only milage on the oil your fine until you reach the milage for the next oil change .I had a toyota tercel that started spitting out white smoke when accelerating and i put another 150,000 mi on it with it that way as long as you keep an eye on your oil levels and dont let it run low you will be fine.the solara is a heavy car for a 4 cyl engine its had alot of load to cary thats probably what caused it

[solara90]

yeah it sucks i only got like 97,500 on her... i checked my oil today and it was still full so thats good, but i will be checking it now every time i fill up with gas

your safe to keep driving it I dont even worry about time only milage on the oil your fine until you reach the milage for the next oil change .I had a toyota tercel that started spitting out white smoke when accelerating and i put another 150,000 mi on it with it that way as long as you keep an eye on your oil levels and dont let it run low you will be fine.the solara is a heavy car for a 4 cyl engine its had alot of load to cary thats probably what caused it

[01solaraconvertible]

My '01 2.2 solara has the same problem. It uses about a half of quart of oil every 1500 miles. It too smokes for a second or two in the morning. I discussed the problem with a toyota tech and he advised me not to take it apart. Apparently is a common issue with the 2.2 motors and it WILL NOT keep your car from running. However, it will progressively get worse and eventually foul a plug, or plugs if more than one valve stem seal leaks. Only my #1 cylinder weeps and I have changed the plug twice in about 50k miles. Moonbeam, the car,...is up to 135k miles. It will trigger the cel and tell you it needs spark plugs when that time comes. Likely it will idle rough as well. Hope this helps.

[Ilovemylara]

My '01 2.2 solara has the same problem. It uses about a half of quart of oil every 1500 miles. It too smokes for a second or two in the morning. I discussed the problem with a toyota tech and he advised me not to take it apart. Apparently is a common issue with the 2.2 motors and it WILL NOT keep your car from running. However, it will progressively get worse and eventually foul a plug, or plugs if more than one valve stem seal leaks. Only my #1 cylinder weeps and I have changed the plug twice in about 50k miles. Moonbeam, the car,...is up to 135k miles. It will trigger the cel and tell you it needs spark plugs when that time comes. Likely it will idle rough as well. Hope this helps.

Welcome Friend!

[solara90]

yeah it idles rough.. i jsut changed my plugs and they didnt have any signs of oil.. but they were only in there for about a month while it was doing this

[01solaraconvertible]

Did your car have the correct bosh platinum +2 plug in it? It's Bosh plug #4303. If you look at the base of the electrode you will see a dark glaze of carbon on the cylinder that is leaking. The wire set is cheap as well and easily damaged. It might not be a bad idea to start with a fresh set of correct plugs and a wire set and go from there. Is your check enging light on? When my check engine light comes on and I plug in my obd2 reader it gives me a code that says cylinder 1 misfire. I replace the plug, reset the computer and 25k or so later i'm back to square one. Keep an eye on the oil level, i'd check it every 1,000 miles to be safe.

[solara90]

no i run the NGK iridiums, they were all very light brown. Are you talking about plug wires? i have coil packs. Never had a CEL

edit...
Keep in mind its only been doing this for about a month now