2006 Cayman S White smoke

[superc]

I was hoping someone would be able to put my mind at rest, having not had the car that long and hearing horror stories about the 3.4 engine and seeing rather a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust for the first few minutes after starting the car is making me nervous. The smoke seems to be present whether cold or if I have just gone into the shop for a while. After a couple of mintues the gases coming out of the exhaust are clear.

A little background is that it got its warranty extension from Porsche back in June and was serviced in July, I am just hoping this is not a sign of anything major about to happen. If anyone who knows more about Porsches could tell me if this is normal or whether i should get it into the shop for a check up?

Thanks

[mrdemon]

yes they do that but not for a few minutes.

just start and you might get a puff of smoke on start and the 1st couple of throttle presses.

if it smoking for a few minutes it's broken :-)

[jontymo]

They all pretty much smoke on start up, not really noticed how long for as i drive off without leaving it to long when started.

Get it back into Porsche to be checked.

[superc]

Thanks for the replies guys, that does put my mind to rest . I think it must be less than a few minutes but paranoia was starting to set in .

[cay]

Mine smokes like a train this time of year, especially when it's cold and damp outside. It is most noticeable if you leave the car idling as it can carry on for a while.

It doesn't really do it when warm and hardly at all in the summer.

I figure it is just condensation, car doesn't use any oil and hasn't blown up yet.

[Richard Hamilton]

If the white smoke feels a little oily to the touch, it might be the air/oil separator has failed. This is quite common on the M96 and M97 engines. Not an expensive fix on the 986/987.

An occasional puff of blue smoke on startup is fairly normal. Since changing oil to a 5W-40, mine hasn't done it at all.

[alcatraz236]

I have white smoke pouring out of mine at idle this time of year (cold and damp)

[Richard Hamilton]

I was talking about white smoke, not water vapour. I think there are two separate issues - one of which is not!

[Chrisp5782]

What does the smoke smell like, sweet?

[Rockster]

superc said:

I was hoping someone would be able to put my mind at rest, having not had the car that long and hearing horror stories about the 3.4 engine and seeing rather a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust for the first few minutes after starting the car is making me nervous. The smoke seems to be present whether cold or if I have just gone into the shop for a while. After a couple of mintues the gases coming out of the exhaust are clear.

A little background is that it got its warranty extension from Porsche back in June and was serviced in July, I am just hoping this is not a sign of anything major about to happen. If anyone who knows more about Porsches could tell me if this is normal or whether i should get it into the shop for a check up?

Thanks

You have to be sure of the time and the type of "smoke"...

First these engines can smoke upon engine start. In this case the smoke is oil smoke and arises from a tiny bit of oil collecting in one more cylinders and of course being burned off when the engine first starts.

Where does the oil come from? Well, my theory is it comes from the generally lousy AOS (air oil separator) which is supposed to remove oil vapor from crankcase fumes from but doesn't do this very well sometimes.

As a result some oil is deposited on the intake walls where it runs down and into one more combustion chambers.

In this case the techs I speak to tell me that as long as the smoking is brief -- that the amount being emitted drops off immediately after the engine is started -- and the engine does not exhibit any untoward behavior and the check engine light (CEL) stays off, the smoking is normal and nothing to worry about. Short trips or engine run times that do not have the engine getting up to temp seem to exacerbate this smoking behavior. (New cars on the lot smoke like the chimney of a fireplace burning damp peat upon almost every engine start. I knew this and when I went Boxster shopping and test drove one upon start the engine emitted a bit of smoke. We took it in a test drive. Back at the dealer later I had the salesman start the engine again and it did not smoke. Just another small sanity check...)

Now as the weather gets cooler engines will emit water vapor and it can be quite visible. This is too also normal. But where it can differ from oil smoke is the water vapor is maybe not visible at first (dead cold engine) but gets more visible as the engine warms up. Or if the engine was already a bit warm it can start from the engine start.

Water vapor though starts to dissipate as soon as it comes out of the exhaust. An oil smoke cloud hangs together even as it is carried away by a breeze.

If the "cloud" looks/acts like water vapor but has an anti-freeze smell... that's a sign of a coolant leak into the combustion chambers and that's never good.

Of course you need to check the coolant level. If it is low, or drops, and there's an anti-freeze smell to the exhaust fumes... get the car flat bedded to a shop. Not even worth topping up the coolant tank at this point.

Also, anytime there is a change in the smoking... if it becomes prolonged, appears even when the engine is warmed up and has not sat that long, or smokes at other times under hard acceleration or under closed throttle coast down followed by hard acceleration... these are signs the smoking is not normal and the engine needs to be looked at by a professional tech.