Cayman 2.9 exhaust smoke on start up

[Jonny1987]

Hi all,

New to the forum although been lurking on Pistonheads for quite sometime!

After a bit of advice on my 2011 cayman 2.9. On occasional start ups From cold (but seems to be getting more frequent) there's visible blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. It clears after a minute or so but is this something I should be worried about??
I've read that earlier gen1 caymans models can do this but is it normal on a gen2??

Thanks in advance.....

Jonny

[Luke.]

It's fine. It's the nature of the flat 6:

[mollytherocker]

A little blue smoke is normal on start up but a minute is a little excessive. Oil seeps past the rings on a flat engine when the pistons are resting, but it should clear in less than 10 seconds or so.

MTR

[Jonny1987]

Thanks for the replies!

There was quite a bit of blue smoke when I started it today, thinking it might be worth taking it to the local opc just for piece of mind :/

[stup]

Small puff on start up is not out the ordinary, anything beyond 10 seconds though is heading towards excessive. Anything over 30 seconds to as long as a minutes and you have an issue lurking am afraid

[Helicopter123]

Jonny1987 said:

Hi all,

New to the forum although been lurking on Pistonheads for quite sometime!

After a bit of advice on my 2011 cayman 2.9. On occasional start ups From cold (but seems to be getting more frequent) there's visible blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. It clears after a minute or so but is this something I should be worried about??
I've read that earlier gen1 caymans models can do this but is it normal on a gen2??

Thanks in advance.....

Jonny

Hi Jonny,

It's most likely something minor but worth getting checked out by your OPC just to be sure.

Have you got the warranty?

[Dalto123]

Hi - read about this before a long time ago before getting the Boxster and completely forgot. But yes it is normal for these cars to occasionally puff some blue smoke on start up (happened twice on cold start in the Boxster s).

[craigjm]

What mileage is on it? My 2010 CS used to do it quite a bit during the first 10k and its then much less frequent since.

[Jonny1987]

The car is only 8 months old so has the 3year OPC warranty and i've covered just short of 8.5k miles in it so far.

Fingers crossed its just the standard bit of blue smoke the engines produce on start up! Think i will take it back to my local OPC for them to double check everything is as it should be.

[Squonk]

Have you checked your oil level.....an obvious question but I found that here was considerable consumption in the first 10000 miles. I get an occasional puff on start up with my Gen2 2.9 but it literally is a start up issue and does not last after that initial stat up....as suggested get it checked with an OPC

[Martian O]

Pretty normal I'd say. Just always seems to happen when there's a crowd of people standing around though!

[Rockster]

Jonny1987 said:

The car is only 8 months old so has the 3year OPC warranty and i've covered just short of 8.5k miles in it so far.

Fingers crossed its just the standard bit of blue smoke the engines produce on start up! Think i will take it back to my local OPC for them to double check everything is as it should be.

Could be an oil/filter service would help. A new engine suffers from a lot of blow-by which lets water and unburned gasoline accumulate in the oil.

(Want some numbers? Well, I took my new 02 Boxster's oil to be analyzed and with around 4K miles from new the oil had around 7% water content. I bought the car new in Jan. and drove it in very cold temps. What I found from observing the coolant temp is the engine is very cold blooded and even long drives in colder weather do not get the coolant that hot which means the oil also runs colder than it would say in warmer climes, thus the water and unburned gasoline in the oil do not boil off. What I elected to follow, then way back in the winter of '02, was a more frequent oil/filter service schedule, since I couldn't be sure I could get the oil hot enough to boil away the water the only other solution was to drain the oil ever so often. No way I think that engine would have lasted as long as it has with the recommended 15K mile oil/filter services, and I settled on 5K mile oil/filter service schedule. The engine now has over 258K miles on it and runs as good as it ever has.)

Anyhow, back to your car and its engine, by draining the original and likely quite contaminated oil and replacing it with fresh oil the fresh oil is less fluid, more viscous and less likely to make it into the engine where it is burned which of course causes the smoking you report. It ain't all due to the oil being more fluid either. The additive package breaks down and the oil can foam more and put more oil vapor in the crankcase which under some conditions can contribute to smoking upon startup.

Sincerely,

Rockster.