3rd Feb 2003, 12:20

The Camry will smoke when run on synthetic oil. I changed mine back to regular oil and the smoking stopped. Mileage on my car is now 195000 miles. It has never needed an engine overhaul. Best car I have ever owned.

24th Apr 2003, 12:23

My engine smoked on regular dino oil. That was due to sludge. Got it cleaned (denied warranty coverage for $3000 repair, but later paid back under Toyo sludge policy), switched to synthetic, no smoke every since. Before sludge I changed my oil about every 5000 - 6000 miles, better than the 7500 miles required in manual for my driving. After sludge and engine repair, changing every 4000 miles using synthetic. Overkill? Probably, but I do not want to have to deal with this kind of problem again. Was a nightmare to get fixed and settled.

10th May 2006, 22:11

I have to say, was your previous car anymore reliable than a Toyota Camry? I would be surprised if it was because Toyota's are one of the world leaders in car manufacturing. The problem that you are having is really rare in cars that Toyota manufactures. Sorry to say..

29th May 2007, 05:27

We've had oil related problems on both our Camrys.

Regular oil meant sludging and synthetics meant excessive oil consumption and blue smoke. But we thought it's better to blow some blue smoke and refill once a month than sludge up the engine so it's the synthetics for us. Now new Camrys are built to use synthetics so this is no longer an issue. Sludging is not a problem on 2002 and newer.

29th May 2007, 16:35

I own a 97 with a 3.0 V-6. Never fussed over what type of oil other than 5w-30. No sludging, no engine overhaul, no trouble whatsoever. We have 192,000.