Toyota Repair: RAV4 Smoky exhaust after initial cold start-up, smog checks, toyota rav4

Question
I have a 2000 Toyota RAV4 with almost 64,000 miles on the odometer.  It runs perfectly (no unusual noises)and looks great.  It does however regularly produce a small cloud of bluish white smoke when starting it first thing in the morning or when the engine is cold.  The most that has been done with the history of the vehicle is replacement of the battery and regular oil changes.  I was told by a friend of mine who is a mechanic and specializes in Asian cars that I could either pay over $1,000 to have the seals replaced or use an oil additive regularly to soften the seals and reduce the amount of smoke.  He said he has never run into this kind of problem with the RAV4 and didn't see anything in his database to go from.  He said it's probably a new thing with these vehicles.  He said it's more a nuisance than critical.  The oil levels before each oil change have remained the same despite the apparent burning of oil.  They said that happens (They said sometimes the level goes down and there's no smoke and other times it smokes and the level stays the same).  I went with the oil additive.  It didn't smoke for a few days, but then came back (initial cold start).  I mentioned that to them.  They said to make sure I get regular oil changes and that will be enough if I can't afford to fix the cause as mentioned above.  I guess one problem I may have is if I get tested for emissions in the future.
My question is do you have any other suggestions for this "nuisance" issue or is their advice sufficient?
 
Thank you for your help.

David C.

Answer
This is a fairly common problem with RAV4s and Camrys, which use the same engine, the valve seals are leaking, they can be replaced without removing the cylinder head and like stated above will cost around $1000, it is a very time consuming repair and requires special tools. As long as the oil is kept up there is no problem other than the annoying smoke on start ups, smog checks are always done with the engine at operating temperature so there should be no problem since the smoke is only there on cold starts, in the end , the solution to the problem is to replace the valve stem seals, additives won't help and neither will changing the oil.