Blowing Smoke - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

Guest toyfan

My 2003 Matrix XR with 29--- miles has begun blowing large quantities of smoke when I accelerate hard and get up to about 65 miles per hour. It only lasts about 30 seconds. The check engine light comes on briefly, just flashes or does not appear at all. The dealer has not been able to get a code. They replaced the vaccuum switch valve but it did not solve the problem.

Gas mileage has dropped from slightly over 30 mpg to 27. Acceleration is a little rougher and it does not start as easily. These last two items may not be related since they began to occur before the blowing smoke problem.

Since the check engine light does not come on and stay on the dealer will not do anything.

I would appreciate any help in either identifing the cause or how to convince the dealer that they need to do something.

Determine the color of the smoke - white, black, or blue. White sould indicate the presence of coolant, black of too much fuel or A/F ration too rich, and blue would show signs of oil consumption, worn valve guides or rings. This will not necessary be the problem, but will point you in the right direction.

Degraded fuel economy and rough idling at these low miles would be signs of possible problems with emissions, fuel system, or ignition system. Could be as simple as the throttle body needs to be cleaned. Could also be an ECU/emssions issue - since this is related to the 9th generation Corolla - first year models tend to have funny behavior, from past experience.

I would lean on the dealer - the car is too new and has too few miles for you to tolerate any visible signs of smoke from the vehicle. See if the dealer has a OBD-II logger - that plugs into the diagnostic port and records ECU data in real-time. Even if a code is not set - you can gather enugh data from the data logger to zero in on the real problem.

Good Luck.