Black smoke arrives

[Preston Brown <pbrown@econ.yale.edu>]

After she got to work this morning, my fiancee called me at home to report
that our 86 5KCST had been blowing "a lot of black smoke" out of it's
tailpipe on the highway.  She said it wasn't constant; it came in bursts.
She also said it wasn't a problem at lower speeds.

She has been complaining as well of a small oil leak for a few weeks.  I
suggested earlier she take it into the shop to have it checked out, and
now (since she really freaked out) I know she will.  

The poor audi has been quite expensive to maintain over the last 2 years,
but until this point it has had no engine trouble.  The odometer is at
130K.  Does anyone have ideas about what the problem might be (I assume it
involves burning oil) and if so, is it going to be feasible to fix from an
economic point of view, or should I start looking for another car?

soon to be much poorer, one way or another,

Preston

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 -Preston Brown
  preston.brown@yale.edu