failure to start, then start w/smoke!
 

drove to work today, started fine this morning. Worked all day, got to the parking lot, start..... only not. battery is fine, but no start, it was gettin gas, and you could see the tach moving a little bit, but no start. Tried again, gave it some gas, burst into life, but some damn oily smelling smoke (blue) was coming out of the exhaust!. let it sit while i cleaned the snow off, and it stopped smoking, idle'd fine. Drove her home, still purrin away just fine.

Fluke? or sign of problems?

(92 claret 180k miles)

Check the oil. Is there anti-freeze in it? Check anti-freeze. Is there oil in it? You may have flooded it when trying to start, if it's super cold out(snow), it may not start right away, giving it gas would flood it. Just a couple thoughts.

could be a bad valve seal. If it is, though, it shouldnt be a one time occurance

dangit, well i can't get it looked at for real for like another 2 months and minimum 1200 miles of driving, so i hope any problems it has arn't terrible. I dont really know how to check the oil to see if there is anti-freeze in it, other than to go to the oil change place and get an oil change (ill do it i suppose this coming week when i can). Coolant in the res. is fine, again not sure how to check in the rad itself.

Sounds like something on a diesel board :eek:

Calif???
 

nice Texas flag!!

uh, it could just be the pcv valve letting oil in the intake, this is just a random shot in the dark, but it could cause oil in the intake

"giving it gas would flood it"

Good thought. ;)

it is burning a bit of oil under normal driving conditions, i thought at first it might be a small oil pan leak hittin the cat (happened in my honda) but alas not the case. sadness. ill have it looked at when i get home i guess and hope that its not too bad, or ill have to sell it again