Smokey LX450's (1 Viewer)

[kstone]

I'm looking for a nice 80 for around $16K. I visited a used car lot in Los Angeles that had 2 LX450s, both with about 100K miles. I drove both and they seemed excellent. But I watched the sales guy start each one up to back it out so I could drive and noticed smoke in the exhaust right after the engine turned over. They did not continue to smoke, but this really makes me nervous. It was not cold in southern CA on Saturday, so I dont think that was it.
Anyone notice this on your 80's?

 

[Hltoppr]

When you say "Smoke" do you mean a white, cloudy smoke or a "puff" of black, sooty residue?

If it's just a slight "puff" of black sooty substance, I think you're OK.  When a fuel injected engine is started, it will run in "open loop" mode for a specified period of time, before the engine and O2 sensors heat up and the computer starts to monitor the air/fuel mixture ("closed loop")  During this open loop period, the air/fuel mixture is usually rich, which causes the black puff at times.

Other guru's chime in with your knowledge if I'm missing something...

-H-

O yeah, white cloudy smoke is bad....

 

[kstone]

It was white, cloudy smoke... I think I'll keep looking, the people that ran that car lot made me nervious.

 

[Hltoppr]

Run Quickly away...

Don't worry, for 16K you'll find a nice cruiser...

-H-

 

[mts]

H has got it. In general, black = excess fuel (not bad), blue = oil (bad), white = coolant (really bad). Not an exact science of course and all variations in between.

Mike