Turning to you for help before our local repair shop kills me...

2006 Murano 48,850 miles. We've owned it since December, no trouble at all until the past few days. My wife has been using to commute for work the past week, and it just started on Sunday (or I started noticing on Sunday). After she drives home (about an hour drive) it will sit for a few hours, and then we go to run errands. On startup, there is a puff of white smoke for no longer than about 3-5 seconds, then it goes away and all is well. It doesn't do it while driving. Isn't running poorly, no loss of power as I can tell, gas mileage has remained normal. Doesn't do it if it hasn't sat after being run. When we go from place to place it doesn't do it on startup then. Only after sitting a while....

Ideas? Just bought a house and I can't do a huge repair right now.... Thanks guys!

Sure it isnt blue smoke? Typical valve guide leak results in puff of blue smoke upon start up and once it gets worse it will also show up after engine idle at a traffic light as well as start up.

How often do you change oil?
Your vehcle is too new for a valve guide issue unless you dont change oil properly.

If under warranty then take to dealer otherwise pull spark plugs and check them to see if burning clean and all look the same. Should be no build up and insulator should be clean.

White smoke would be steam which is indicative of a cooling system leak into the cylinder. You may want to check the oil and make sure it is not milky looking. Cooling leak is either cracked head or head gasket.

Nope, not blue. Very white. Like a cloud is coming out the back of my Mo.

Oil is changed every 4-5k miles since we've owned it. We've had it for 10k miles -- it is on the second oil change that I've given it. Not sure about before me, dealer cleaned out anything in the glove box. This isn't certified used, but the dealer "assured me" that it was taken care of. Whatev, he doesn't know either...

No, not under warranty.

Check that oil quickly, look for signs of "milkiness" on the dipstick, if you see then like was stated above you've got coolant entering your engine block and that needs to be addressed right away.

Why is this not under warranty? Your powertrain warranty from the manufacturer is good for 5 years and 100,000 km, you're still within that range and the warranty transfers when the vehicle is purchased used so you are good to go. Take it tothe dealer and have them diagnose and repair under warranty, no charge to you!

Oh yeah... Well, I may have found something. So my wife has been an hour away for the last few days of her job (we moved) and said it happened when she started the Mo to come home. I had her take it to a Big-O here (trusted them, going there for years) and have them check oil, etc. They said "yeah, looks fine to us, you're good"....

So she gets home, I let it sit for 6 hours and take a look at the dipstick.... NOTHING. I did it again and again. NOTHING ON THE DIPSTICK. So I think, hmmm.... I open up the fill cap -- I shine my superbright LED flashlight in and see no oil. I can see pretty much the entire inside through the filler -- and some gunky oil in a place or two, no bigger than a nickel. So..... can not having much oil do that? I'm furious. She drove home like that - for an hour going about 65 or so...

Thoughts? Fill and take to dealer, or?....

5-100 warranty on transmission not engine.

You said no engine noise? if it ran dry on oil then you would hear noise and engine would not last long. also oil light would have come on. All moving parts in your engine ride on thin coat of oil so no parts ever rub together. Thing would have been very very noisey if there was not oil getting to pump.

Fill with oil until it reads full and keep note of how much you added. If just a quart to 2qts then you will be ok. Only time sump will run dry on low oil is when you floor it from a stop and suck all the oil out of the pan so fast that it does not have time to drain back.

If you are looking into the oil fill hole that is in the rocker cover then you will not see oil. Oil drains to the pan at bottom of the engine and is pumped via oil pump troughout the entire engine. It sprays inside the rocker cover under pressure throught the push rods. If you see black gunk then the oil was never properly changed. You should never never have any old sludge in a modern engine. Every engine i have ever owned looks like new on the inside. I change every 5k and use synthetic.\

As far as the dip stick, ary you pushing it all the way in then pulling out? this thing is a PITA to ck oil in due to the funky place the dip stick goes.
Re check oil and make sure stick goes into proper hole and all the way in. If low then fill it with oil , check coolant level and run it then check coolant level again and also oil level again.

Trade cars with the wife, dont let her drive it until you verify evertying is ok.

Took it in to the shop up the street (highly recommended) and apparently I wasn't that low -- half quart -- but I just wasn't getting the reading on the stupid dipstick. Hardest dipstick I've ever used.

Things are okay - oil looked good (saw it myself) so I think all is well. It hasn't done the 'smoke' since then. Fluke maybe?

Just watch it. Check coolant often and make sure engine is not using it. Coolant leak can be as tiney as a pin hole in head gasket and can fester over time.

Yes dip stick is a total PITA so be careful checking it. Need plenty of light to see where it goes.

Did the shop confirm that there was some sludge build up under Rocker Cover? Likely it will not hurt anything and with regular oil change with quality oil it will clean out much of it. However as i stated the build up is indicative of the lack of proper oil changes prior to you getting the car.

As an example of improper oil changes:
My last boat had a pair of 454's that were strong. Both had sludge build up from prior owner. I did very frequent oil changes for about 3 years then pulled top end of the motors apart and finished clean up of the sludge and noted the frequent oil changes seemed to have cleaned the bulk of the sludge. Top end work was just preventative maintenance on 20yr old motors and the things were in perfect shape. Of course these GM Industrial (not automotive) 454's are a hell of a lot tougher than most if not all other gasoline engines.

I am not saying you need to do any engine work but just watch it and again do your normal oil changes with quality oil. Synthetic oils are champions of cleaning sludge by the way and also they completely prevent sludge as these oils do not break down as easy as conventional oils.

I'll keep my eye on it. The coolant level has remained constant, can't find evidence of anything external. Fingers crossed.

As for the sludge -- it was very minor. There was a spot the size of a nickel as I looked down through the hole. I felt around with my finger on the top, but didn't get any sludge. I think we're good. I switched to synthetic, so I'll just be diligent about oil changes for the first few times (at or before 3k miles) before running a longer oil change interval. Now that the wife and I will be commuting together, the Mo will be our weekend and errand runner.

Thanks guys!

hey - you are doing what I do - which is use the Murano essentially as a weekend car. However, the white smoke could be a warning for a head gasket problem. I believe there are a few ways to test the functioning of the head gasket without any big removing of parts etc. Might wanna look into that.

If it is a head gasket problem, is that something that would be under warranty or recall? 49k miles seems a bit early to have issues with something like that...

The Head gasket problems in the Murano tend to occur quite early, if they occur at all. The replacement head gasket for the 09s and 10s I know were available in February 2010, but I do not know when they first became available. They were redesigned, ostensibly due to high failure rates.

Compression check can detect head gasket issue. One other way would be to let it sit for a week, pull all 6 spark plugs out and hit starter and see if any fluid comes out of the plug hole. At this point however I would simply monitor it.

I hoped I wouldn't have to post anythin for a while - but less than a week later...

My Mo stopped doing the white smoke thing for about 3 days -- and then it started again. It is still only when it sits overnight or for a long period of time. Going to the grocery story, the pizza place, movies, etc. is doesn't do it. But if it sits overnight in our garage it does it. Oh, and there is kinda of a gas-ish smell, rich smelling, but doesn't rich = black smoke?

Would it be a gasket problem if it only does it at startup? It doesn't continue to smoke at all, just a puff (sometimes a cloud, really) but then after running for 5 seconds it stops....

Recommend best course of action?

Check out the following diatribe:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_can_caus ... he_exhaust

Somewhere in all of this lies your answer. It doesn't have to be your head gasket. It could just be overnight condensation. Many of the answers focus on the nature of any smells to help pinpoint the cause, with antifreeze smelling a hit sweet as a likely indicator of a head gasket issue. ( channel cracks etc allow coolant to mix into the engine compartment is my understanding if occurring).

Let it sit for a couple of days and pull the spark plugs and have someone turn the engine over and see if anything comes out of the spark plug hole. Put clean paper towel over the holes to capture the fluid if present so you can see if it is the green antifreeze. Or red antifreeze, not sure what is in yours.

If just a slight leak the compression of your engine will prevent it from entering as the coolant pressure is approx 9 to 18lbs, cant remember exactly.

Since it is not getting into your oil it would appear the rings are in good shape.

Thanks for all the help guys -- took it in to the Nissan dealer in the area (have an extended warranty thought them) on Saturday. They looked it over and lo and behold, I have only 960 miles on this oil change and the oil isn't even registering on the dipstick!! Some serious internal leaking going on -- and this on a 50,000 mile engine. I've had it for 9k miles and changed the oil twice. Before that, it was a lease return....

Needless to say I'm irritated. The warranty or Nissan better cover this, or I'm going to pitch a fit... To top it all off, we were going on a trip on Thursday, and this is our highway trip car. No way I'm taking my beater to California and back...

Update -- Nissan will cover the entire thing. I get a new engine. The techs were amazed at the level of wear and stunned that the seals were stuck. Oil everywhere. They said that because I had used synthetic, said it probably kept it from seizing on the road somewhere (perhaps...). They said I had approx. 2 quarts in the engine. So, easy math, my Mo burned through 3.5 quarts of oil in 960 miles...

But heck, if they are willing to admit this shouldn't happen on a car with 50,000 miles (9,000 by me, 41,000 by the previous lease owner) and fix it and provide me a loaner, who can compalin. I get a new engine out of it.

So this engine -- is it really new, or remanufactured? And if new new is it 2006 spec or 2009? That would be cherry - a 2009 engine in a 2006 body!

Nissan Remanufactured engine.
My son has a 350z Anaversary Edition that had issue with burning oil, defect on that particular car with higher hp, defective piston rings. He go a Reman engine. Reman will have all the upgrades and most of the time is a better engine than a new one. Block is already seasoned etc.

Sounds like Nissan did you right, I believe you will be very pleased with this vehicle from now on. However techs are prone to make errors, so make sure the installation gets inspected after 30days of running to make sure all fittings, bolts etc are tight. In my opinion all bolts need to be re torqued.

This just in, problem not resolved!! I'm livid about this - so basically the car has issues, rings are stuck to the pistons, 50k miles, shouldn't be an issue. Obviously the car is still under powertrain warranty by a year and 10k miles.

Long story short, the extended warranty company and the dealer are hashing it out on who pays. The extended warranty says it shouldn't because the dealer should have caught the problem before it sold it, the dealer cries innocent, how was it to know, blah blah blah. Now they're in a "I'm not paying" deathmatch... Now apparently I'm at fault for not "noticing the signs." I was supposed to have noticed rough running and excessive smoking... Like I said, a puff of smoke at startup then nothing, and as far as smooth, it would turn 1800rpm like butter at 65 on the freeway.

I need my car and my life back, I can't borrow my mom's car forever....

Rings get stuck due to a build up of varnish on them and this is due to lack of proper oil changes in most cases. I feel that if you have the records from the 2 changes you did and have record of dealing with the current issue then you should be ok. Bottom line is that you purchased extended warranty and this is a contract. You need to pull out the policy and read it and verify that you have complied with its terms. If you have complied then in most cases they will be responsible and it will be their duty to pay and then seek recovery against the dealer or manufacturer.

The Great Engine Debate is over. I'm getting a brand new engine. Thank you Nissan for stepping up and taking care of this.

Thanks for the support guys! I get my baby back in a little over a week. Hooray!!

Got my baby back today! I'm owner of a brand new engine. Sooo good to have her back. The Rogue they gave me as a loaner was nice, but it wasn't a Mo.

Here's to many many miles of trouble free motoring!

Glad you got a good result. Break in the engine properly

Dude at the dealership (tech and service manager) both said that it is a brand new engine from Nissan, but the replacement ones that Nissan has shipped out already have been broken in. They did say to get it in right at 3500miles for the oil change, but that I didn't need to baby it or not use cruise/vary my speed. I've been taking it easy, but i've already put 1k miles on it in the past month, so I'm beyond it anyway. She runs great, all is working perfectly.

I know this is an old post, but I'm having the exact issues on my 2012 Nissan Armada. When starting the vehicle I get a puff of white smoke. It does not smoke while driving or when making frequent stops. I just purchased it with 56,000 miles due to having a few miles left on drivetrain warranty. The vehicle looks brand new as the previous owner took extreme care.

After many trips to Nissan and $$$ spent troubleshooting items that are outside warranty they are now telling me I need a new motor due to sludge. They say the previous owner must not have changed the oil frequently. My question is there anything else that can contribute to sludge build up other than neglect? I have service records for this vehicle that the previous owner took to Nissan for each preventive mainteance schedule and several oil changes during many of these. I understand that oil the oil changes don't show up on the car fax, but many other preventive items due.

Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.