Help! Smoke + Oil Pressure Light = ?
 

Hey guys, need some help.

I finally get my new (to me) '01 S from California and am having an adrenalin blast opening it up and see what my new love can do. "Spririted Driving" as they say. Drove it around off and on for the day. I finally get home, shut off the engine, and notice some smoke coming from the engine area around the back passenger side of the car. Wholly crap - my new car!! It eventually goes away and I leave her for the night.

This morning, I notice some oil on the ground (not a lot though) and when I go to start it - I'm on the bottom bar of the OBC oil gauge and my oil pressure light is flashing at me like crazy. Funny thing though - I check the dipstick and I'm smack-dab perfect in the middle of the 'perfect fill' lines.

* RMS was just replaced
* Car just had an oil change.
* Also - coolant tank was just replaced and refilled (so didn't think that could be leaking).
* PPI on car called on replacement of above (which was done by dealer)

I originally thought the oil was overfilled (hence smoke) - but I've since ruled that out.

I'm really worried about driving it anywhere in it's current state. From your experience, any idea what this could be and how it can be fixed??

THANKS BIG TIME for your comments.....

My 2cent says to flat bed it to a trusted Porsche mechanic. Sometimes "guess and by golly" isn't the best plan.
We can only make suggestions/assumptions based on your descriptions. If you're mechanically inclined you could climb underneath and see if anything jumps out at you.

As I said, it's just my 2 cents worth.

It doesn't sound good. I'll spare your central nervous system and refrain from listing all the worst case scenarios.

If I had to guess, which is all I can really do on the internet, I'd say that the repairs failed.

The seal may have worked loose (or may have been improperly installed), there is a guideline for replacing the seal - not all engines can have the seal replaced, but must instead be replaced themselves. Did the Dealership rush the repair just to address the PPI and move the unit?

Or, Oil lines leading to the trunk may have cracked or collapsed (since this area too was messed with when the coolant tank was replaced).

Or, the AOS may have failed (best case).

But whatever the cause, you have obviously lost the integrity of the oil system (since it's leaking on the ground).

I would not run the car, but have it towed to a Porsche Dealer or qualified Porsche independent to find out what is going on. Good Luck!

You could try and contact the dealer in CA where you bought it and let them know what happened. It's worth a try in case it turns out to be a worse case deal.
Like Bastard, I didn't want to make any calls on this one. Was the dealer a Porsche dealer that sold you the car?

How much oil was on the floor? Was the oil that was on the floor, smack dab in the middle of the car or closer to the passenger rear tire. If closer to the tire it is most likely the AOS or a bad bellows. A bad AOS can also lead to a cracked oil filler tube because of the back pressure. It will be fairly easy to spot. May need to get it up on jacks, put the top in service position, remove engine cover and remove the right rear tire to get a closer look (especially at the bellows.) I did my AOS, bellows and oil filler tubes last month, fairly easy to do. Should be able to see also if they failed to connect the oil filler tubes correctly when they where working on the reservoir. Good luck and keep us posted.

Whoah.... too late LB - my nervous system is already shot now, and I can't imagine the spousal scorn on the way should this be expensive (she's already not happy with what I paid). :eek:

Unfortunately, I didn't buy the car from Porsche Dealership and do think I have much recourse with those guys from CA. Part of the contract was "As Is".

I'm not hugely mechanical, but what I don't get is why the dipstick reads that I'm full of oil - where the sensors are saying otherwise? Ever heard of just the oil sensor having the issue??

Yea, it's possible the oil sensor went wacky, but that's not likely to explain the presence of oil on the floor - it could if the sender was leaking, just not likely.

You say you bought it from a non-porsche dealer. Did they do the repair work?

If so, it may confirm my suspicions that the repairs were faulty - especially where the RMS is concerned. It's not like replacing most camshaft seals. There are special tools necessary to both diagnose the problem and repair the seal, something a non-porsche dealer is unlikely to have at it's disposal, or know anything about. For one thing, the new seal must be recessed 2mm deeper than the old seal (13mm deep instead of 11mm) to insure that any ridge or burrs created by the first seal on the crankshaft doesn't damage the new seal and so the new seal has virgin cankshaft material on which to seal properly, not usually a requirement on any other brand camshaft seal replacement.

As I said, everything here is speculation. An oil pressure fault indicator is serious enough to warrant not running the engine until it gets sorted. Without proper pressure and flow, it doesn't take many minutes and you've got serious internal damage.

I wish your initial Porsche experience wasn't marred by this, but it'll get better.

Have it towed to someone competent enough to diagnose the problem and keep your spirits up.

The issue could be relatively minor, but it's not worth running the car until you know for sure. Best of Luck and keep us posted.

If you bought the car in CA, the dealer was supposed to offer to sell you a 3 day right to return contract. Did they do that? If not, you may have some recourse.

The AS IS language is very strong here, so your only hope would be if they did not have you sign a waiver on the 3 day deal.