Ok, the saga of my new car continues. So, just bought my xkr...37,000 miles. I noticed its smoking a little on start up, (but the smoke goes away after a minute or so). Is this serious?
As I did not know what oil was in the car when I bought it, I had the oil and filter changed first thing to a synthetic oil.....and could it be that it had been running something else before, and the change brought this on?

 

If it's still under warranty take it to the dealer and complain about it. If there's a problem they should fix it.

A little smoke every once in a while on startup is ok. But if it's happening every time you start up there's likely a bigger issue such as leaky valve stem/valve cover, something associated with intake, etc.

 

what's the oil level at on the dip stick? might have been overfilled?

 

Did you happen to start the car cold and move it like backing it out of the driveway, then turned it off for a short while then start it again? This happened to me once in a new MB and the dealership explained it was due to unburned fuel and a bit of unburned oil left in the combustion chamber from a combo of sitting overnight and the cold start cycle that did not complete fully the first time it was started and stopped.

 

Had this happen just yesterday....
Shocked to see smoke on startup, but it was exactly as you described... At the start of the day I backed up 12 Feet to wash the car. Started her up again an hour or two later and had smoke... My heart took an extra jump as all the possibilities rolled through my head...
Needless to say I've been watching closely for more and never replicated the problem...

Vince

 

Do not panic yet. I understand that you just recently purchased this car and you did not know what oil it had. It could be that you changed from oil to synthetic or it could be that the viscosity of the oil you are using. Most of the time when you have smoke on startup it is related to the valve seats. If the car has not been driven much and based on the mileage I would say that is correct I would not panic and drive the car and see what takes place until the next oil change.

 

funny...that's exactly what happened....i got up this morning...started it up...backed it up a couple of feet to wash it. shut it off, and restarted an hour later...and smoke...bingo.

 

Glad it was as I thought, and nothing to worry about, and as I explained it happened to me with a brand new MB

 

Glad I found this thread 2008 xkr. . Started the car moved a few feet Started a few hour later and bunch of blue smoke which I have never seen before

 

Unless Jaguar has changed something which I doubt this is sometimes typical of normal valve seal leakage. There is a small rubber boot type seal with a teflon type material in it on each valve stem. On cold start as you would expect the seal has a slight clearance until it warms up and expands. Depending on the wear and the oil viscosity you will get slight leakage. Considering you have a multi valve engine you can have several of these leaking. When you start and then shut down the engine there is a higher chance of some of the oil to leak down the valve stem. It sits on the back of the valve and when you start the engine a while later you get a little blue/black smoke mix out the tail pipe. Remember on a cold start the engine ECU runs on open loop and send a richer mixture for cold start thus the black/blue . The way to do a visual verification to see if you have a problem is to find a long down hill run and have someone drive your car and you follow it. Drive around 50 mph and take your foot off of the gas and observe the exhaust. No smoke ,OK , blue smoke then you have a valve seal issue. Just my logic and I'm sticking to it

 

+1 on jagtoes 'old school' comment

 

In other words, a non-problem.