My girlfriend's car has decided to take up smoking. Better the car than her, I guess, but still..... It's a 1999 Legacy, phase II EJ22. Not sure how many miles are on the engine -- it had a used engine put in just before we bought it a year and a half ago, so although it says 158k on the odometer, it is supposedly actually less. A neighbor was following us to town the other day, and said that it's putting out blue smoke the whole way up hills, but not when going down hills. Rings? or valve guides. Seems way too low of miles to do this (my last EJ22 had 330k on it and didn't smoke, but it had a rod knock at the end). She did let it get really low on oil a few times (as in, it needed three quarts to get back to full). I'm wondering if this toasted the engine.

Blue smoke is oil, and if I am thinking correctly if it happens under load it is rings, which is unusual for a subaru.

 

Mileage means less than maintenance history when it comes to the EJ engines.

three quarts low is not good. and that probably explains the smoke.

 

but nothing says you can't buy oil by the case and add some every sunday and continue to drive it.

 

i have nothing to base this on but my guess is rings?????

Check the PCV valve. Bet it's plugged.

I'll check the PVC valve.... and try some engine restore in the oil... that stuff worked on another EJ22 I had, that went from burning a quart every 600 miles to more like a quart every 2000 miles -- previous owner of that one didn't change the oil much...

 

Z