Exhaust Smoke Question
 

I have noticed, over the past few weeks, that each morning I get into my 2001 Boxster that I purchased in November with 42,000 miles as a CPO Boxster, when I start it up, for the first say 3 or 4 minutes, there is a small but unusual amount of smoke that comes from the exhaust, I find this to be very odd since at no other time during the day when i'm out running errands or work or whatever does this smoke/exhaust appear, only when I get into the car in the morning. Does anyone have any ideas of what I need to look at or might be the cause or any similar experiences?

Because of the Boxster's engine design it will have a small minor amount of oil that comes out of the exhaust. It is not unusual,but the question is how dark is your exhuast smoke? Mine does it during the morning when I first start it up but not later in the day.
This is from www.986faq.com
"The Boxster engine uses a flat six cylinder design. Because of this construction, oil residue remains under the piston heads and burns off at every start up. This can produce a white puff of smoke. It should only lasts a few seconds. This is normal, and no correction is necessary."

Hi,

Some slight smoke on a Cold Startup is normal for an Engine with Horizontal Cylinders like a Boxer Engine. This is because Oil won't flow back to the Oil Sump under Gravity as it would with an upright V engine. Most likely, once the Engine has completely cooled and things contract, such as the Rings, some Oil can pass the Oil Control Rings and get into the Combustion Chamber. It also can enter through any open valves as well. Add to this that some moisture will also condense inside the Muffler and add to the effect as Steam.

With 42k mi. on the Clock, you could also have an Oil Separator starting to go bad, but the smoke you'd see due to this would not be nearly so slight as you indicate.

It's most likely nothing. Keep an eye on it, and your Oil level, and take the appropriate remedy if it worsens. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Thanks for the info, I luv my Boxster and try to keep an eye on everything :-) Happy Motoring to All, Spring is near, ready for drop top weather!!!!!!!!

I thought it was cool enough to take a picture:

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/3980-caught-smoke.html?highlight=caught

The previous owner of my '98 had that problem because the oil was over filled at an oil change. Oil was drained to correct level and problem solved.

This is a strange one for me, I have owned my MY 2000 986 for over two years and have not once seen the smoke on start up.

Then one day in the moutains, I fired it up and saw the infomous smoke which disapated quickly.

The only thing I can attribute it to is it was parked on a step incline for the night. I have not seen it since :D

Actually parking on an incline will bring on the smoking in many cases.

Harmless.

:cheers:

Long live the smoke! The ancient Porschemans worshiped the smoke and thought breathing in the smoke brough virility and long life.

First time it happens, it can wig you out.

I remember thinking, "valves, bad rings?"

:cheers:

Mine will smoke at start up if it has been sitting for a few days. It dissipates very quickly. The first time it did that, it spooked me (WTF?????), so I immediately went in a did some internet surfing to see if it was a common issue and haven't given it a second thought since.

Smoke on startup
 

I got my 2000 986S, 60k miles, about 4 weeks ago. Imagine my dissmay when after a couple of weeks ago I turned the key and a huge plume of blue smoke came out the back of it. I only use the car at the weekend and have since realised that following (in order of severity of the amount of smoke) will effect the plume.

When the car has stood for a week after previously not running long enough to get hot.

Not used for a week, but having been 'driven' the previous occasion.

Parking on an incline (left to right rather than fore-aft as many flat streets have due to camber) exaserbates the problem also.

I intitially thought something serious was up, but with my rudimaentary knowledge of the boxer configuration , and the fact the smoke dissapeares after about 20-30 seconds I am fairly sure nothing more serious is awry.

Could there be a better view? Let me set the backdrop...Foggy London morning after a breakfast of tea and blood sausage...a dashing figure in his James Bond 3 piece suit walks out to his sports car. With one turn of the key, deep growl and puff of smoke, he's off to Scotland Yard for another boring day of saving the world.

I would love to live in London for a year.

Cloud of smoke during acceloration
 

I have only had my Boxter S for 2 days, yesterday when I was out and about, I ran it for about 30 mins to let it heat up, then started to give it some boot, to my dismay when I passed a Car there was a large white cloud of smoke once I eased off the accelorator.

what could cause this??

the car has barely been used for 1 year, has 37,000 miles and seems to run fine apart from the worrying smoke.

thanks
Scott.

Hi Scott. It's a Boxster not a Boxter hahaha. Thats ok, I did that too when I first bought it. The name is a combination of Boxer engine style and Roadster layout so Box and ster together for the name..

Anyway are you getting this smoke when the car is still cold? or is this after it's fully warmed up and you let off the gas and see the white cloud? If you can see it in your rear view, it's a lot of smoke thats comin out.

Be sure, that it's white and not grey. Grey smoke is unburnt fuel that comes out when you suddenly let off the gas and full combustion doesn't complete or when your hard on the gas and it hasn't been tromped on in a while they run rich.

Hi Jim,

the car had been run for about 80 min's, I had stopped at mcdonalds for about 20 mins, but the temp gauge was at its normal. It has happened again today, but not nearly so bad, it does seem to be when I am letting off the juice after a decent blast.

Initially I was really shocked, but the performance of the car is fine? there is no "Burning Oil smell" so your suggestion seems feasible.

it is hard to say "white or grey" I will keep a close eye out for the colour tomorrow.

My main concern was if it is white smoke, that generally means head gasket gone or water in the oil doesn't it?

thanks

Burning coolant is white, but it's like "James Bond smoke screen white" as in looks like a big puffy cloud is following your car that you can't see through. If it's only a bit and whiteish, then it's grey and unburnt gasoline. Thats part of the fun tho, spitting unbunt gas on your opponent... :)

thanks for the info Guys,

basically the worst time this happened it looked like a white cloud about 6 meters radius that spat out the back and "my opponent" had to drive through it lol it looked like smoke machine smoke from a night club.

if it is coolant, does that mean there is something wrong? if so, what can cause the coolant to burn?

like i said, this car has barely been used in anger for about one year, could this be a major contributing factor?

if it's smoke machine white then thats cooland burning. There are many things that can lead to coolant burning but a poped headgasket is generally the most common. The easiest way to detect is to do a compression test, tho that doesn't always uncover the problem.

Pull out your plugs and look at them to see if any are 'wet' with coolant. Coolant is a sealed system so it shouldn't go anywhere, is yours low?

Yes, Jim is on the right track. If you have white smoke and are losing coolant, the direction is not a good one.

Let us know.

hi again,

I just checked my levels and if anything they are on the High side, they are above the maximum mark the car is cool, in the manual it says when the car is cool the level
should be between the min/ max marks.

could too much coolant cause the smoke?

an addition to my last comment. (please read last comment)

the smoke is not there all the time, just every so often, I have been using the car in anger again today and I haven't seen anything. you said "a fluffy cloud that follows the car" do you mean if the smoke is there all the time?

the exhaust generally does not spit out smoke "white or otherwise" is has just been on the odd occasion.

thanks for all this advice guys, what a great forum!!

Exhaust smoke
 

it done it again today, worse than ever, I keep checking my coolant levels but they do not drop at all, if this is a cylinder head gasket popped, wouldn't the collant level be dropping??

I am getting real worried now.

Scotty, get it checked out... this way you won't be so worried and you'll know what's going on with your fine ride.

How's your idle? My idle started to get worse and worse because I had a bad oil separator which was leaking a tremedous amount of oil into the throttle body and intake system. I would get misfire codes and what have you. I swapped the separator and cleaned out the throttle. Runs perfect now, and no more white smoke. Do a search on WHITE smoke. You should see a post where I uploaded some pictures.

ralegen,

my idle seems fine, I will keep a very close eye on this over the next couple of days, I have contacted my dealer and he says I could be lack of use, he has asked me to keep a very close eye on the coolant levels, and I will drop it into him later this week.

I will keep you posted guys.

thanks again.

Hi Again Ralegen,

I am looking at the pics on your other forum and this looks identical, did this only happen to you on start up, or did it happen whilst you were driving too?

I too get this at start up, but it seems worse every so often when I am giving it some gas.

Only on start up. Someone suggested to disconnect the battery, reconnect and start the engine without revving it up. From what I've learned here, our boxsters will learn and compensate any problems. When I did this, my idle was all out of sync and my CEL started to flash. I freaked out and shut it off. I reset the car again (battery disconnect) and gave it some gas; this ultimately helped prevent my car from being immobile. After finding my problem, it makes perfect sense. It was like any person trying to inhale while water/mucous trickles down the trachea.

On a day to day basis, the white smoke got worse and worse. It started out intermittently present, but as time progressed, I undoubtly expected overcast of smog upon every startup. The only reason why I let it go for so long was because I accepted the fact that our engines will do this, due to position/design of our engines. However, knowing that I had an idle problem AND progressively worsening white smoke, I dove into fixing it myself. I only spent less than $150 for the parts and about 3-4 hours of my time. Saving a few hundred dollars and having the relief of that nightmare was well worth the time.