Should I be concerned?

[mathmos]

I've got a 2013 Cayman S 981, I've owned it for about 4 months now and the car is approaching 20k miles on the clock.

I've always noticed a bit of smoke from it, and always understood that was reasonably normal on start up. I also put it down to the weather being cold and some of it being viable condensation.

However yesterday I was picking my wife up from the train station, it was about 7 degrees outside so not particularly cold, the water temp was the normal 90 degree's indicated and the oil temp was approaching 70-80 degree's so the car was almost fully warmed up. I hadn't been driving it hard, it hadn't sat for any length of time, however as I sat for about 5-10 minutes waiting I noticed quite a lot of white smoke coming out of the back of the car....not huge plumes but enough to be noticeable while I sat.

Thoughts?

[Trev450]

Does it use any oil or make any unusual noises? Difficult to be constructive without seeing it, but it could be the early signs of an AOS failure.

[mathmos]

I've done about 6k since buying the car, I haven't filled up any oil. When I bought it I checked and the electronic display had it as completely full, on checking today it's gone down by 2 notches. So doesn't sound excessive, but I have nothing to compare against....I would guess based on current usage it will need topping up in another 5-6k so 10-12k between top ups?

I haven't noticed any horrible noises or anything like that!

[Trev450]

On that basis the oil consumption is well within accepted parameters.

Have you smelt the smoke (not kidding really). Can you detect any odour of coolant or burning oil?

Edited by Trev450 on Thursday 28th April 11:20

[Flat-6]

I'm not sure on the 2013 models but the earlier ones had an "air / oil separator" device, which can clog up and throw chunks of goo into the engine. Not an expensive part but definitely worth checking out.

There is no reason that low oil should create smoke AFAIK.
WHITE smoke is usually burning coolant, blue is oil.

I would seriously get it looked at (sorry!)

[Rockster]

mathmos said:

I've got a 2013 Cayman S 981, I've owned it for about 4 months now and the car is approaching 20k miles on the clock.

I've always noticed a bit of smoke from it, and always understood that was reasonably normal on start up. I also put it down to the weather being cold and some of it being viable condensation.

However yesterday I was picking my wife up from the train station, it was about 7 degrees outside so not particularly cold, the water temp was the normal 90 degree's indicated and the oil temp was approaching 70-80 degree's so the car was almost fully warmed up. I hadn't been driving it hard, it hadn't sat for any length of time, however as I sat for about 5-10 minutes waiting I noticed quite a lot of white smoke coming out of the back of the car....not huge plumes but enough to be noticeable while I sat.

Thoughts?

Smoke? Or water vapor? Smoke hangs together even with a breeze. Water vapor dissipates even with no breeze.

A common failure symptom of the AOS is to upon cold start the engine to emit copious amounts of smoke.

It is quite rare for one of these cars to smoke when started up with the engine hot.

However, the most recent AOS failure my 2002 Boxster experienced manifested this smoking while hot.

Everything started out fine. I had driven around 10 miles and the engine was up to temperature. Cold starts prior to this drive had not manifested any smoking at all. Stopped at a stop light and when I took off I glanced in the rear view mirror and spotted a huge cloud of smoke.

I quickly scanned the dash for any signs of trouble but everything was ok. The engine was running fine.

But oh the smoke...

Realizing what was wrong -- AOS -- I tried to nurse the car to the dealer which was around 10 miles away. I managed a mile or two but got caught at a light and the smoking returned and this time the engine started running rough. I sought out a parking lot and called for a tow truck.

Of the 3 AOS failures this last one was the only one that never smoked upon a cold start but instead smoked after the engine was hot.