So today I start my car up to change the oil and on startup it starts making a horrible clanking noise and is shaking, it sounded like a Cobra mustang... I saw some gray smoke come out of the exhaust. I shut it off immediately and then started it up again. It started up fine with no abnormal noises or shaking this time but it seemed like there was still a little more than normal gray smoke coming out of the exhaust. It was heart wrenching. I changed my oil and everything seems fine again. Any ideas as why it did this? It was 4,000 miles on royal purple oil.

 

What oil filters do you use? A faulty drain back valve can allow the oil from the filter to drain back to the pan and have a bad startup like this...

 

if it is starting to take a little bit long to crank also I would check the crank sensor
03-05 easy to get to under the engine... newer... good luck at 2o'clock positon, but not likely to fail

 

Thanks guys i'm going to look into it. I use a purolater oil filter.