big smoke

[chip-boy]

started the cayman up this morning and had a large puff of blue smoke. lasted about 5 sec or so, then cleared. I had the car now for 5 weeks and put on about 900 miles. After being warmed up, i checked the oil level, which is fine, as its at its top marker. I just concerned, as i know people say they all smoke, am i just becoming paranoid. as mentioned previously the car is 4 yrs old with 26.5k miles.

any advise? the car has come with a 12 month indie warranty

[Trev450]

Yes they all really do it now and again. So long as it stops its not a problem.

[chip-boy]

yep clears after 5 secs or so. will post a clip up at some point, see what peoples opinions are....

thanks for the reply btw

[Magic919]

You'll get used to it.

[smiffy555]

Yep, mines done it once in the 1year of ownership so far.

Crapped myself when it happened!!

[Automental]

My 996 scared me sh**tless when it did it for the first time too. Did it quite often for a bit but now hasn't done it for weeks.
Might this be because the oil level has dropped a tiny bit? Are they more likely to smoke if slightly overfilled?
Anyone know?

[STiG911]

If a flat six is left for a while - two weeks or so - then oil can weep past the pistons and gets burned off when the engine is next started. Like previous posters have said, five seconds and its gone. No worries.

[ro55a]

As above, all comments correct. Had it on 911's and my boxster, seems to be worse during the winter or as stated left for a couple of days.
One thing to note, if for any reason the smoke does not clear, which is again believe it or not perfectly normal, then chances are the oil air separator is on the way out or has a small split. This is unlikely on your car with age and mileage but something for the future to consider. Oil air separator is £100 - £150 part with a few hours labour.

All that said, it's just your first experience of the smokey start up. I absolutely pood myself sideways when my Testarossa did the same thing, it has flat twelve and the same issues. Chill and enjoy.

[anonymous-user]

STiG911 said:

If a flat six is left for a while - two weeks or so - then oil can weep past the pistons and gets burned off when the engine is next started. Like previous posters have said, five seconds and its gone. No worries.

Some say this but I have seen no evidence of it. My 997 is very often left for 2 weeks or more and never smokes when it is started under those conditions.

In 6 years it has done it twice, both times when being restarted after being started and turned off after a very short time, eg. moved out of the garage and stopped, then restarted after a while

[Rockster]

REALIST123 said:

Some say this but I have seen no evidence of it. My 997 is very often left for 2 weeks or more and never smokes when it is started under those conditions.

In 6 years it has done it twice, both times when being restarted after being started and turned off after a very short time, eg. moved out of the garage and stopped, then restarted after a while

Cause the oil doesn't seep past the rings.

The oil comes from the AOS which is lousy at removing oil vapor from the crankcase fumes. The fumes with some oil vapor continue on into the intake where the fumes have to make a sharp right turn.

• This* is a better AOS than the AOS...

The intake wall gets wet with oil. While the engine is running this oil gets drawn into the engine and burned and one doesn't even see any oil smoke. The amount of oil is really really small. The engine is hot and burns the oil more completely. Plus the converters are hot and operational and they process any remaining unburned hydrocarbons and that's that.

But when the engine is shut off this intake wall oil runs down and a bit of it collects on top of the intake valves or even in the combustion chamber of one or more cylinders.

Upon cold engine start this oil then causes the smoking.

About all one can do is keep the oil level full but do not overfill the engine will oil. Change the oil at reasonable intervals.

This is rather important: If the oil is run too long it gets contaminated with unburned fuel and water and if the engine and its oil doesn't get hot enough this builds up and the oil becomes more fluid and prone to foaming and this results in a high oil vapor load for the AOS to deal with, which it is already unable to deal with entirely. (The oil also becomes less good at lubing the engine.)

I like to let the engine idle a moment or two before shutting the engine off to give any of the oil on the walls time to make its way into and out of the engine ( and also to let the engine shed some heat before shutting it off ) but this doesn't always result in a smoke free engine start the next time. I think it helps, but it is not a cure all. None of the above is a cure all.

[chip-boy]

but how often is too often?
seems to be mist of the time I start the car. as said have checked the oil and it's on the top marker. yep I'm becoming paranoid and it's spoiling my experience of my 1st Porsche :0(

[Magic919]

Do you park on a slope? If the car is off level left to right it will be worse.

Other than that you might have a faulty component or scored bores. Maybe get someone competent look at the car.

[Bennachie]

Do you mean the top marker 'cos if it is the top line then it is overfilled by about 1/3 litre.
'Full' is white up to the top but one bar of the digital gauge.

[chip-boy]

will get a photo of the oil level.
if I wanted the engine to get checked out, can anyone recommend someone in the northwest?

[Rockster]

chip-boy said:

but how often is too often?
seems to be mist of the time I start the car. as said have checked the oil and it's on the top marker. yep I'm becoming paranoid and it's spoiling my experience of my 1st Porsche :0(

If your usage of the car is mostly short trips and the engine, engine coolant and engine oil do not get up to full and hot operating temperature and remain fully up to temperature for a while and if you do not let the engine idle a moment or two before shutting it off, the smoking can occur quite frequently. Every start? Possibly but unlikely unless there are other contributing factors.

But often enough it seems like every start.

Other factors? Overfilled oil is one.

The techs I speak with report seeing this smoking behavior all the time with new cars and used oars on the lot because of the frequent engine starts and no real engine run time, and often with customers' cars because the cars get shuffled from lot to service bay to wash bay to parking lot again and often smoke upon at least one start at the dealer. The techs tell me as long as the engine is not exhibiting any other symptoms/odd behavior, the CEL remains off, and I would add the oil level is ok and that the oil not too old (thinned out from contamination) you do have really anything to worry about.

My advice is to get off line and spend this time then driving your car. It will smoke less and you will have less imagined engine troubles thrown at you to fuel your anxiety.

[anonymous-user]

chip-boy said:

but how often is too often?
seems to be mist of the time I start the car. as said have checked the oil and it's on the top marker. yep I'm becoming paranoid and it's spoiling my experience of my 1st Porsche :0(

It is normal - forget it. Rockster gives sound advice - log off!

[rimkah]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eh2d3MKKW4

they all do it

[chip-boy]

thanks everyone for the replies. will stop worrying and get driving the thing
I have a few changes for the car. so will you posted.

[Chromed]

It says in the manual that this is totally normal.

[Martian O]

Chromed said:

It says in the manual that this is totally normal.

Never seen it mentioned in the manual?