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[Ken L]

I went to Milton keynes with my son yesterday to buy this car so I could drive his current Astra back for him.
 very nice car, air con etc, he took it for a test drive and there were no problems, pulls well no smoking. All the way back to Sheffield it was fine I followed it back all the way, a bit over 100 miles, we stopped at the services, all ok, gets back to his house and drops of the old Astra, starts the new one to take me home...all ok, We got to my house a few streets away and he turns off the engine and we chat for about 20 minutes, when he starts the engine this time it blows out clouds of light blue/grey smoke, smell of oil burning ( we did notice a touck of this smell previously thought maybe a spill on engine) anyway he drove of with a cloud of smoke behind him.
  We think possibly valve seals, anyone any ideas please? but why was it ok all the way back etc??
TIA
Ken

[henryd]

if it only smokes for a minute or so after start up it is probably valve seals,normally causes a puff of smoke after a down hill run with no throttle as well.If you try holding engine at a steady 2500 revs and it smokes constantly its more likely to be ring/bore wear

[JamesV6CDX]

I bet it's the small block Z16XE engine

They are renowned for smoking and burning oil.

I had exactly the same on my Astra. I did all the valve seals, but it turned out to be piston ring.

Even though smoke after idle, when cold, and on the over-run indicate stem seals... it wasn't, it was the rings.

Doing the stem seals excaberated the problem.

Are these any use to you???  I bought them, and never used them

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180508446478&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling

[Ken L]

Thanks guys, this is starting to sound like a major problem. It was more than a bit of smoke for a minute or so, with the engine ticking over there was no smoke until revved up a bit, and when he drove off, then there were clouds, it was fine though all the way home, whats involved on these car in changing the rings? engine out?

[henryd]

you can do it in situ,head off ,sump off,pistons out and glaze bust and new rings if the bores are'nt too far gone

[david_omega]

i had same problem on a Y reg zafira,  it was a smokey old bus.

gave it a full oil change and filter etc.  ran it up the bypass (without hanging about!) then it was fine ever since.

same 1.6 engine, and yes, commonly they smoke a little on start, try the oil change option first.


p.s.  i over filled one zafira by half a liter of oil, it did smoke slightly and smell slightly for a day or two, so i re did the oil so the level was spot on.  this cured that problem also.

so theres a couple of cheap fixes for you.
(oil filter £4.50  oil £11)

[Andy B]

......
(oil filter £4.50  oil £11)

Where are you buying your filters from Simon, theyre only a couple of quid at Vauxhall. 

SWMBO never had any smoking problems on hers, around 60 000 miles before it was written off