So I have just returned from a nice 2 week vacation to Croatia, had no problems what so ever. The truck ran fine was not ragged on and even gave it some "off the cement time"! Get home, clean my baby since it was very dirty ( not to self do not take sister and boyfriend on vacation again!!!) and drove it once since we got back last week. Nothing wrong all fluids fine waiting to go in for 60k service. So 2 days ago I decided to take my truck instead the TDI and I go to start it when there is an horrible noise like the truck will blow apart, a rumble like there is thunder under my hood and a huge cloud of blue!!!! smoke coming from my exhaust and then after that there is a puddle of water under the exhaust later. After a minute the truck runs I guess o.k. but I certainly did not take it out that day. My truck has been nothing but reliable so I am a little shocked. Now I am debating if I maybe got a batch of bad gas?? Waiting for an appointment to take it to the dealer. Of course my warranty just ran out in April!!! But the Germans are pretty decent with warranty issues after it expires so if something is wrong I might not have to pay for it. The truck has had all its services done at one dealer and I made sure I have all the documents. Any other 2003 and up have had an issue like that? Mine is a 2004. If anybody has noticed their truck doing that please let me know, and if you have an idea what it might be please let me know too! Not a happy camper right now, and this after vacation!! I guess at least it did not happen while on vacation!

Blue smoke usually means burning oil, thick white "smoke" is engine coolant. You may have a blown head gasket or something like that.
What engine do you have?

I got the V6. I check the oil all the time and it does not look like I am loosing any. Unfortunately I am more than aware what the blue smoke is, that was the disease that got my last car But come on my truck is 3 years old!!!!
Thank you for your input, I was hoping you would all say something nicer

If you are not losing oil, check the coolant level. Also lift off the cover on the engine and try to get a look at the valve cover and where the heads meet the engine block. You will need a flashlight, probably. If you can see where the heads meet the block, see if you can find fluid seeping out through the gaskets. Do you know where I'm talking about? I won't have time to take photos of the location right now. Let me know if you can find the location or if you need more help.
It sucks when you don't know what wrong , good luck!

Pretty sure I can figure it out. I will check when I get off, I am not driving it right now...too scared to start it
Checked the coolant the other day when I re-checked the oil, it is perfectly fine. Waiting for an appointment and for my parts to come in for my 60k service, that way they can take care of both things at once. Just ticks me off, plus it makes my heart bleed because my truck should not be doing this!!!
If it is something major I can guarantee you that I will make Toyota Germany pay for it not me!! Will keep you posted and let you know what it is/was.
Thank You for the advice!

I think the problem here lays with the washing of the truck and letting it sit. My guess is that you got some water into the tail pipe, which caused a clog. When you started the car, the water level in your muffler was high enough to create a little back-pressure upon the initial start-up, which choked the engine until the pressure buildup could cough out the water in the muffler. I wonder if park the truck on a steep incline, hold the brake, put it in neutral, and revved the engine if you would find even more water around the tail pipe?

As a kid, I use to wash my dad's car, and was always amazed how much water could go into the muffler.....and how horrible the car would sound when it was started afterwards until it cleared.

On my 12 year old LS, if I start and stop it "like backing out of the garage" to wash it, then start and stop it "like pulling it back into the garage" after washing it, and I don't start it again for a few days, it sometimes will make a horrible rumbling in the engine, with the idle up and down, and the car shakes... Usually lasts about 30 seconds, with a tiny bit of blue smoke out the back. It has always done this, never fails. And it never fails to resolve itself. But it only happens if I start and stop and let it sit for a few days. I can drive it for hours and let it sit for weeks, and it won't do it. But start and stop and let it sit for a few days....rattle rattle clatter clatter boom boom boom goes the Toyota. I think it's a small amount of extra fuel left in the cylinder heads, matched by an extra few spins of the starter "due to car sitting for a few days" which makes the engine act like it's flooded.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, in my opinion. My engine is in tip-top shape, new plugs, wires, filters, fluids, etc... I pamper that car like a child, yet it will do what you've just experienced too under similiar conditions as yours just did.

Wow, that's very insightfull. I've never heard of that problem but it makes perfect sense. Croatia will be relieved to read that. Nice work.

Thanks bluewave, always nice to feel appreciated! Hellofa fish you got there in your avatar. I take it you're a fisherman too? That's one thing I'm really looking forward with this 4Runner, is getting back out onto the dunes of the outer banks and do some surf fishing...been way too long.

One other thing to remember about the stumble-rumble is the settings the car has to protect itself on a cold start, and probably why the LS does this too. It's been super hot here since I got the 4Runner, so I have no real basis of comparison yet, but based upon the LS, I'm guessing the engine will idle a bit higher when it starts cold, and settle back down when it warms up a bit. They do this thanks to the EPA emissions standards. A warm car emits less polution, so automakers want the engine to warm up as fast as safely possible. But, the engine also runs very rich in this phase too, so it can protect the parts. More oil, more fuel, more coolant goes through to make sure everything gets lubricated asap. Start it and shut it down while in this phase, well, you can see how a little bit can get left to sit inside the pistons...just waiting for the next start, when it's in rich mode again...a double dose... I've talked with several other LS guys with the 4.0 V8, and they all have it too. It stumbles, rumbles and makes you freak out like you're killing the engine. But in all honesty, you're just putting a bit more stress on the cats, that is until it's warmed up and run a bit.

nc211, thanks so much for your reply. It was very interesting to hear your opinion and I will certainly keep it in mind. There is just one problem...I did not wash the truck. I came home and vacuumed and detailed first, because of the dust everywhere and when it came time to wash they announced rain so I choose not to wash it! However it did rain for a few days in a row. Could the rain do it? It was not just a few drops, it was a puddle the size of basketball and bigger. Checked where TheBlueWave told me to look, cannot see a drop anywhere unless I am totally blind.
Again thanks you two for taking the time to answer. I agree with nc211......that fish is huge, what kind of fish is that???
I tried catching some when I was home, but the darn adriatic sea fish seem much smarter than lake fish.....the only ones that fell for it where the "dragon fish" they actually look look like dragons!! and they are poisonous!! I mean not crazy poisonous but I have seen fishermen who grabbed it the wrong way and their fingers are stiff forever from the poison. But fishing was bad anyway it was sooooo hot that the fish retreated to the cooler bottom of the sea even the poor guys that fish for a living had a hard time. O.K. I am going on about vacation I need to stop, I just want to go back! 2 weeks not long enough! But I saw lots of pictures from people spotting sharks, yiikes! Not cool at all.

Don't think we have the Dragon Fish around here... However, being southern by nature, I've seen "and caught" my fair share of the very popular Budweiser fish.

Croatiangirl, when you cleaned up the truck, did you start and stop it while it was still in the "cold" cycle of the engine? Or when you turned off the truck, you didn't rev the engine and then shut it down while it was still in the revved up rpms? To me, honestly, it just sounds like you had a slight moment of a "flooded" engine. You had too much of something go through the combustion cycle, which made the truck cough. If you haven't ragged the truck it's whole life, changed the oil on time, etc... I have a hard time believing what you experienced wasn't but a one-off moment of sputter-clutter. Somehow you got a little too much fuel and oil put into the engine at startup, for a brief moment, but the computer fixed it. It's exactly what the LS does too sometimes, and usually when I shut it down while the rpm's are up around the 1,000-1,500 mark "which is the range for the cold starts on the car".

If you experience it on the road while you're driving, or on every startup, then I would worry and have it checked out. But if it was just this one time in it's entire existance with you, then I would just chalk it up to a "fluke" thing.

When the LS did it the first time, about a week after I had it, it freaked me out badly! I took it back to the Lexus dealership and insisted it be checked out.... All checked out fine, but to be sure, I had them do the womper 90k service, which included new fluids from stern to bow, new belts, new filters, new water pump, new timing belt, new plugs & wires...new everything "$1,800". They even replaced the engine computer due to a TSB problem the car had. AND not two months later....the car did it again. It was then that realized it would only happen sometimes upon turning off the car in the cold cycle, and/or if the car's nose was facing down for a long time "like parking down a steep hill". For some reason, a little too much fuel and oil would hit the engine upon startup, and cough/sputter/rumble for a few seconds. In the 3+ years and 50k miles I've owned the car, it's happened maybe 6 times.

The fish is a Lake Sturgeon, caught in the Rainy River near Lake of the Woods, which shares shoreline with Minnesota and the Canadian provinces of Ontairo and Manitoba. Basically the middle of North America, we go up there once a year to fish for them during the spawn because they are the biggest fish available to us without going to the ocean. That beast is 57", we guessed around 50-60 lb., but we release them quickly and don't weigh them.
Thanks for the compliments on the fish, my biggest yet (I'm the one on the right)! Check the hobbies thread in the Off Topic section for links to more sturg pics if you want.
If I were you I would start the truck and try to run it to see what happens. If you are really afraid to do that, have it towed to a Toyota dealer and start it in front of them, or better yet have them start it!

nc211, I have never and I mean never ragged on my Truck. It is my fourth baby after the dog and cats, and it gets treated really good! I am on time with all my services, I use the "good stuff" and I treat it well. It is the newest car I ever owned, it was 1 year old when I bought it from a young soldier who could not afford the upkeep. I will start it this weekend, no I am not that afraid to drive it I do have the german AAA so I am not worried about getting stuck
I just freaked out when it did it, because all I saw was bills coming my way. I never cold start, I always let it idle down after driving. Like I said I try my hardest to keep it in good shape. I do it even with my older cars, and so far it paid off. Other than a broken hose on my VW I never broken down. Since it has to go in for a service anyway, I will just have them check it out since I am going back to Croatia end of October, yeay!!
However I do think the "dragon fish" is only native to the adriatic sea. They are really ugly I have a picture on my Desktop I will try to post it later. Funny thing, first year I did not know what they were, they were swimming around my feet and I was taking a million pictures of them. a couple of weeks later a local fisher told me that they were poisonous, I was not laughing no more. But he did say they were delicious to eat! But the small 3 fish surely would not have even scratched my appetite So I threw them back into the sea, lucky fish!
TheBlueWave, ha I was right I was guessing it was a Sturgeon. There is not many fish states side that I can see getting that big, but then again there has been a lot of places that I have not seen. I want to try deep sea fishing next year, there is companies in Croatia that organize these trips. They have huge Tunas, and Swordfish (scary), and also smaller Sharks. But we are talking small, do not feel like catching anything bigger than me But unfortunately they get a few great whites that swim over from Italy (wrong direction go the other way) or they follow the stupid cruise ships that throw food overboard. So those I really do not care about!
The day before I left I read in the paper that there was a great white in Montenegro and since that is at all not a distance for a shark I was really careful. Normally I swim out far but not that day!
But the worst thing is going to the National parks, and there are a few, and the trout are swimming in front of you and you cannot catch them! And they are huge and there are so many! They would look good on a plate with some potatoes too

The fishery I got that from is on the rebound (my fish was about 1.75 meters). Back in the day, 200+lb. (almost 100 kg) fish were speared and netted by the thousands every year until they were almost gone, to smoke the meat and get the caviar. There have been reports of fish over 45 kg being caught in the same waters as that one. Now the laws only let a person keep one fish per year, in a strict slot size.

Lake Superior also has giant Lake Sturgeon, but the lake is so huge they're almost impossible to find and catch. Lake Trout in Superior sometimes get to 50 lbs (~20 kg).

If you can't catch trout, try live bait, that's what I do when they won't take flies or spinners, as long as its legal. In many trout streams and lakes in the states live minows are illegal.

Staying on topic, good luck with the truck. Most Toyota engines are very reliable and tough so as long as nothings blown, I think you will be fine.