Emissions Test Today
 

I needed to get an emissions test today for the Boxster. The car passed but the tech told me that it smokes a lot on startup for a couple seconds. He said that if it smoked for 5 or more seconds, it would have failed.

Any ideas what might cause that? I will make an appointment with my Indy today, just wanted to get some input from the forum.

Thanks. John

Start with your AOS.............

The horizontal layout lends itself to a bit of smoke on startup. The oil doesn't naturally flow back down into the crankcase like a V or Inline configuration does. Old VW's and Subaru's can do the same thing. What's the mileage?

Talked to my mechanic. He is thinking AOS. I have an appointment to get the 60k service done on Wednesday and he is going to check it out.

I drove it at lunch today and it is smoking a LOT. White smoke on start up and warm up. I am going to garage it until Wednesday.

Car has 73,xxx miles.

I recommend you stop driving it or risk collateral damage. AOS is the most likely cause.

Checking the AOS is a 5 min. proposition with the correct tools. If you cannot park the car until he sees it, find out if you can just get the AOS checked now.

How do you check? What are the right tools?

You need a digital manometer that reads accurately in inches of water:

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psh8cslbxd.jpg

You could open up the intake and check to see how oily it is in there. A lot of oil on the inside of the intake plumbing is indicative of a failing/failed AOS. This is a link to a thread on our site. http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/20332-oil-around-intake-manifold-pics.html

Thanks everyone. The car is at the shop. No Cars & Coffee this weekend!

The easy check would be to see if you could remove your oil cap while the engine was running.

That does not always work with an AOS that has begun to fail (oil fill vacuum in the 5-8" of water), but does work on units well into failure (vacuum over 10" of water).

Got the call from the Indy.

AOS - Gone - $240 repair
60K Service + Tubes - $1200
Water Pump has play - recommend replacemnt - $1100

Also...
Tires need replacement $900 and alignment $240.

I am going with the top 3 and taking the tires up with the shop I got them at and enjoyed less than 10K miles on them. Warranty is 15-30k miles so we will see.

It seems reasonable. The water pump was a bit surprising. He said it is a 5 hour job and I will end up with a coolant flush too.

Should I see if he has the Low Temp Thermostat and replace that?

Glad to see it was the AOS.

BTW the price of the 60k service is high. I paid about $750 for mine. AOS replace is very fair. The water pump is also very high. The pump is about $250 plus other material and another 7 bills for 5 hour labor is high. Definitely replace the thermostat. You may want to shop around on these two items. I'm sure other members will chime in with thoughts on this.

If your going to do the water pump, I would do the thermostat and a drive belt while I'm at it. Belts are pretty cheap. Those are some high prices. I would get 101 things to do to the boxster book and do them yourself.

Wow, $1100 for a waterpump replacement. Was that quote from Beverly Hills Porsche?

Had mine replaced in March for.... $450, including the pump and wait for it.... Lifetime warranty on the pump itself.

Bumping up an old'ish thread, I was reading some other threads on RL today and found a link to the following $38 Manometer that appears identical to the one below in JFP's picture:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N3PPZZY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

According to the reviews/comments, folks think that the Chinese company that makes the higher priced manometers has released this unit under their own name and reduced a lot of markup.


I just bought one and will report back on how it does on my AOS. I have tubing and stuff to make a manometer from a DIY somewhere so I may do that as well and compare to this.

The parts to change the WP (pierburg) including a new thermostat and coolant is less than $350

if you have basic skills, it is not that difficult an DIY

$1100 is crazy expensive, even if they use a Porsche branded WP, which BTW is a Pierburg WP

60K service @ $1200 is also super expensive.. IIRC, Its plugs, oil, tubes, air and cabin and serp belt, about $250 in parts maybe

If it was me, I would get some quotes from other shops

What tires? , check out TireRack
$240 is a bit high for an alignment unless it is a track or string alignment
Its not rocket science to align a Boxster. Any good tire shop can do it. Most are $100 or less. Hell Firestone does a lifetime alignment for around $125 and you can get it done as often as you like

That is the one we use.

Funny, Steve, I also recently ordered one of these newfangled electronic manometers. Here's the one I opted for:
New LCD Digital Manometer Differential Air Pressure Meter Gauge ±2Psi TL-100 | eBay
http://img.toppic555.com/w6/x9/p100/cc221_1.jpg
It's on the slow boat, but is expected any day now. If there is any interest, I'm happy to report back here on how it works.

Luckily, my 986 doesn't have any apparent AOS issues that need immediate diagnosing, but I look forward to using it initially to check out what the regulated natural gas pressure is that I have at my house, and see how much it drops when a 200k BTU tankless water heater fires up.