I started up my car (06 w/ 25K) this morning and was alarmed that it started to idle really rough and I could hear a rattling/bad mechanical sounds noise from the engine bay. I shut it down and smelled burning oil. I checked under the hood to make sure there was enough oil as I had an oil change last week and it was the only thing that has changed on my car. There was enough oil, I started it up again, rough idle, a little noise. I went out back and saw that white smoke coming from the exhaust. After a few moments the smoke cleared and idle was back to normal.

Any suggestions what might be going on and anything I can check? I'm concerned with how the oil was able to get into the cylinders and whether I should continue to drive it for the rest of this week (60 mile commute each day). This is the first time it's ever happened.

 

something like this happened to my wife's Lexus, I think she either pressed the gas before starting it up or pressed the overdrive button before starting it up.

we waited a few hours, and it eventually subsided.

but it would be worth taking it back in to wherever you had the oil change and make sure that they sealed all of the caps. they should look at it for you free of charge.

 

May have been a big drop of oil in the plenum that fell down into the combustion chamber and was burned causing a misfire.