Oil smell

[lj04]

Is a faint oil smell normal from startup.

[gl20]

Not noticed on start up but the puff of smoke from the exhaust ( which is very normal) is oil residue so may be you have a very sensitive sense of smell! After a decent drive a warm oil smell is common.

[Rockster]

Could be. Did the engine emit a bit of oil smoke upon start? It doesn't have to be the end of the world cloud sized cloud of smoke just a puff.

Check the engine oil level.

You don't supply any details about the car but a new car or a used car can develop an oil leak at any time though thankfully this is a rather rare problem.

But just to be sure you should at least think about having the car checked out on a lift for any fluid leak sign. If there is a leak you want to know about sooner rather than later.

[lj04]

Slight smoke on start up. Having a pre purchase inspection carried out by Autostrasse. no obvious bad noise from engine or oil leak.

[Rockster]

lj04 said:

Slight smoke on start up. Having a pre purchase inspection carried out by Autostrasse. no obvious bad noise from engine or oil leak.

Typical used car (and new car -- still on the lot new car) behavior. The engine gets started but the car doesn't get driven very much and this often leads to smoking upon the next engine start. It is normal and nothing to worry about, provided…

The CEL comes on when the key is turned on but goes off when the engine starts and doesn't come on during the test ride/drive. The smoking is short lived. Just a brief puff (or cloud) then that's it. If the car is driven enough to get the engine fully up to temperature then a subsequent start should not have any smoking.

The engine doesn't smoke at any other times, under hard acceleration, at upshift or downshifts. (You would have to be in a following car to see this).

Last but not least the smoking is not accompanied by any other signs of engine distress.

When I was shopping a new 2002 Boxster it smoked upon startup. The salesman and I took the car out for a nice test drive. After the drive we could not agree on a price so I left but away from the dealer I thought about what happened and came back a few hours later with an offer of more money (not much more, just the 2 months flooring cost the dealer had in the car). But I insisted on having the engine started again. The salesman obliged and the engine didn't smoke. We did the deal and the car has been mine now since Jan. 2002 and now has 285K miles on that same engine. It still smokes once in a while upon startup.