I haven't driven my SLR in a few months and fired it up over the weekend to keep my battery from dying again. When I fired her up, my whole garage filled with blue smoke. Definitely oil smoke. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible that the valve stem seals can go bad in just 850 miles? It cleared up after it warmed up and didn't do it at all after a short drive at operating temperature. I also noticed that the engine is quite noisy at start up. I couldn't find anything in the owner's manual about starting the car frequently. It seems not to do this when I drive it more frequently. Any input is appreciated. Thank you

 

Yeah I think that is normal for most cars when they haven't been driven in a while.

 

It's normal for the 55 motor if it sat for a while. Now if it does it everyday, then no, you have issues.

 

Yea that's totally normal. I freaked out the first time it happened to me. It's because of the Supercharger.

 

Hard to say without doubt just by reading, but it sounds completely normal.

Funny though that when my 560SEC came out of 8 months of storage, started as though I had driven it the previous day.

Some cars were also like that, others were noisy and indicative of storage.

 

That is normal, no problem at all. It is a problem when there is no blue smoke by starting up the 5.5 Litre engine.

 

I had noticed the same freaking thing with my SLR a while back..

Its totally normal..had my dealer check it out and they also confirmed it, it's normal.

 

Thanks guys!! I feel relieved. If there is anything worse than owning a lemon, it's owning a $400,000 lemon!!!

 

Normal, M-Bs and Porsches are mini cloud factories when you let them sit for a few weeks or more without starting. It also seems the bigger the motor the bigger the cloud of smoke............you should see what any 65 AMG when it gets started after sitting a while.

 

Totally normal, Oil settles into various places in the combustion chambers valves,and supercharger and when started blow through the system.
Bad valve guides would be indicated by oil smoke on acceleration after a period of decel with engine braking. I have had some pretty high mile SLR's come through and not had any engine (mechanical) issues to deal with yet. Wish I could say the same about Porsches and Ferrari's

 

There is nothing "normal" about this. Not starting a car for several months can damage the engine if you do it often enough. If all the oil inside the engine is dried up or evaporated, internal engine components will grind on startup before oil gets to them, and damage the engine over time. To keep it oiled properly, you need to start the car at least once or twice a month.