car runs good, 170,000 miles. I know these little car burn oil, especially when they get this many miles on it. The only time i actually see a cloud behind me is when i am stuck in a traffic situation where it is a lot of stop and go. I dont see it at a a usual stop signal type of situation where you stop for the light and go. The first time i seen it was trying to diagnose my A/C not working where it was idling for a good 10 min and then i revved it up to about 3K and let it come back down. Big ole cloud of smoke then cleared out. Out of curiousity i asked a fellow coworker if he has ever seen it smoke, he is usually behind me when we leave work, he said no. Seems to me like the oil or whatever is building up at idle and then cleaning out when i take off to normal speeds? Could the PCV system be the culprit? Maybe Turbo leaking oil?

 

In my experience, smoke after long idle time means the PCV system needs a refresh. At 170k miles, you’re probably due for valve stem seals, too.

 

What does this entale? the PCV refresh?

 

The PCV is integral to the valve cover. There are some kits available that you can replace the PCV diaphragm, but at that mileage, I would just get a new valve cover.

 

At 170,000 on an N14 motor, you should be looking at valve service. That's far beyond where most of these cars have issues with exhaust valves breaking. At that point, the car is inoperable and you're forced to do it.

As for the smoke - is it black or blue after that long idle period? Black would indicate to me a PCV issue, blue valve stem seals. As I said, being an N14 motor with this mileage on it I'd recommend a valve replacement/service sooner than later. The exhaust valves in that motor are known to fail, and if you're going through the expense/time of pulling the head off just replace all of them.

The seals themselves aren't that expensive, and technically can be replaced without removal of the head or valves. Your call.

Happy motoring!

 

Valve stems on high miles like to leak. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ide-seals.html

PCV / AKA Valve Cover replacement weeds out if the valve stems were already done. Valve cover is an easy and quick fix. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-gasket-431665

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-leak-n14.html

 

Thank you for the video, seems doable. I have just done the timing chain myself. I think I will change the valve cover to see if that helps first. ECS website has multiple ones to choose from, I am not the kind of person that has to buy OE but I am the type that will spend the money to do it once. What is recommended? Are the aftermarket ones any good? What about the Aluminum ones?
Also what are the good tools to buy? I bought some cam alignment tools from amazon and i hate them!! How good are the Schwaben tools sets? Site says not available till Sept 5?

 

You can get tool kits in a few places. But the Schwaben tool kit seems to offer the best quality/rep for the cost.

I'm getting by with a cheap Amazon kit. I'm not a pro and it's very likely that this only gets used a handful of times in the next 5 years, hard to justify spending hundreds on that.

 

If I was going to buy a cam cover today, I would probably get this one:
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-bremmen-...127646555~brp/

 

Update, I purchased one of the Aluminum ones from ECS. It has been three oils changes(9,000 miles) since and it has dropped the oil consumption by about a half quart per oil change,3,000 miles.