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From: Steve B. on 19 Apr 2007 16:27
On Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:11:49 -0500, me(a)privacy.net wrote:

>My 2000 Mazda Protege is smoking blue smoke at start up
>until it warms up and then it clears up.
>
>Has abt 127k on it and I am the 1st owner and have
>taken great care of this car
>
>What is likely cause? Valve guides? Ring job?

Once the cat warms up it will burn up the oil so while the exhaust
looks clean the engine could still be burning the same amount of oil

Are you using a lot of oil? If not my wild guess would be valve seals.
If you are burning a lot of i would guess rings. Best thing to do
would be to have it checked out by a pro....


>
>I was hoping this car would NOT develop such major wear
>at 127k. is this abnormal or normal?

I'm not a Mazda man myself but I don't hear many complaints about them
having this type of problem. Looks like you were just the lucky one.

Steve B.
From: me on 20 Apr 2007 12:39
Steve B. <none(a)none.com> wrote:

>Once the cat warms up it will burn up the oil so while the exhaust
>looks clean the engine could still be burning the same amount of oil
>
>Are you using a lot of oil? If not my wild guess would be valve seals.
>If you are burning a lot of i would guess rings. Best thing to do
>would be to have it checked out by a pro....

Good advice!

I will check oil level real close over next week or so
and see if it is using it rapidly. If yes.... I will
suspect rings

But would rings wear out at 127k?
From: Steve on 21 Apr 2007 21:48
me(a)privacy.net wrote:

> My 2000 Mazda Protege is smoking blue smoke at start up
> until it warms up and then it clears up.
>
> Has abt 127k on it and I am the 1st owner and have
> taken great care of this car
>
> What is likely cause? Valve guides? Ring job?
>
> I was hoping this car would NOT develop such major wear
> at 127k. is this abnormal or normal?

If its JUST at startup, it could be valve stem seals. Not a big concern.
But if it smokes on deceleration or when taking off from a stop, then
its probably valve guides or rings.

I hate to say it, but I've seen a lot of Mazdas and Mitsubishis putting
out blue smoke over the past 10 years or so. More than other brands. In
the case of Mitsu, its been an ongoing problem related to valve guides
dropping out of the heads and also a short/high ring package that
doesn't control oil as well as it should. Don't know exactly what the
common cause with Mazdas is.
From: me on 23 Apr 2007 12:33
Steve <no(a)spam.thanks> wrote:

>I hate to say it, but I've seen a lot of Mazdas and Mitsubishis

Yeah If I had to do it over again I would have bought a
Toyota or Honda and not the Mazda
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