Bluish smoke on startup...
 

I just bought a 01 Boxster 2.7, a very low mileage 30000 km (< 20000 miles) car.

Had been enjoying the car tremendously but today, I noticed that there was a big cloud of bluish smoke coming out from the exhaust when starting the engine from cold. Just one cloud, when I got out of the car to see, there was no more smoke coming out from the exhaust.

This is the first time I've noticed it.

I did notice that when I checked the engine oil level, (on the dashboard), when engine is cold, the oil level is way high, above the high mark. When I check again when the engine is hot, the level is just at the high level.

Can this be the problem - engine oil too high ?? Or can it be something worse ???

I bought the car, before I found this forum, so now I guess I'm alittle worried about IMS, RMS etc...

* A second question - as this is the first boxster I've driven - on lighter throttle, ie not full throttle and less than 4k rpm, the engine is very smooth and refined, on full throttle and above 5k rpm the engine seems to take a different personality and produces a loud mechanical metallic roar that frankly scared me... looking at the tacho, the rpm sweeps towards the red line with much gusto though... Is this normal or should I have the car look at ??

Do a search on this forum for this problem. It should clarify things for you.
These cars will puff some smoke on startup once in a while. It is nothing to be concerned with. Normally I would say don't worry about it, but you said there was a "big cloud" of smoke. "Big" is relative. Search the forum and try to figure out if you're seeing what others normally see, or if it's something other than that.

You need to drain the oil until the DIPSTICK reads between the high and low markers when the engine is cold. Make sure the car is level. Too much oil is a bad thing.

The puff of smoke could be normal, especially if the car wasn't warmed up before you shut it off last time. It could also be a failing AOS.

Blue smoke is not a symptom of a failed RMS and is only a symptom of a failed IMS if things are very far gone.

If you don't want to change the oil, i.e. drain it out of the engine drain plug, to get the level down, you can take some out by just pulling off the filter canister. I forget how much it is, but you can search the forum or maybe it's in your Bentley manual (if you don't have one, get one if you're planning on doing much of anything yourself).

That "loud mechanical metallic roar" at higher RPMs doesn't sound good though. Roar, yes, metallic, no.

Thanks all for the replies....

As for the high rpm noise - as it turns out, the plugs were worn out, the fuel filter was extremely dirty, the differential, tip oil extremely dirty.... Looks like this 9 yr old car with extremely low mileage never had a major service.... might still be on its original plugs and transmission oil. On the bright side, the engine oil, brakes and coolant seems to have been changed regularly....

After replacing all that, it now idles and revs beautifully, with a smooth roar at high rpm.

It still gives me that embarrassing cloud of blue smoke at startup every now and then. Much to the amusement of my neighbour who came running over to tell me ! Ha Ha... guess I'll have to bear with that.

The blue smoke is simply a byproduct of the typical layout of a flat horizontally opposed engine. VW bugs are the same way with the cylinders laying flat, a little oil (and that's all it takes..a few drops) to seep past the rings while parked and cooling down. Once you fire-up that oil burns off and you have a bug fogger on your hands. You'll notice it won't happen all the time because the piston rings will seat or the ring gaps won't be at the bottom of the bore to allow the seeping. It's normal...don't worry about it.

If it smokes contiuiously you probably have an air/oil separator going bad and it's allowing oil rich air into the intake and burning.

Enjoy you car my friend. :cheers:

Not to start another oil debate, but if you are using the pitifully thin 0W40, you may consider changing to 5 or 10W40. It appears oil is seeping past your rings or you are parking on a right/left incline.

You can certainly use a heavier base oil in Singapore, since you have no cold temperature worries.

for what its worth...i tried parking backwards on my inclined driveway....its still smoked on startup. i havent tried l/r slant......09 2.9 bought new 7,000 miles on it now.....still smokes on hot or cold startup....smoked after coming home from dealers 1 year service....sometimes BIG smoke. strange it uses no fluids

I'm on 5W40 oil, but as the temp is over 26 degrees C all year round, including nights, I would have thought the lower oil viscosity rating is irrelevant ?

Anyway, for the smoking is only occassional, so I've gotten used to it.

I'm now alittle concerned about IMS, since this is a low mileage older car, which some post says is higher risk than a high mileage older car. Will probably do the LN Engineering bearing change at some point in time but figuring out whether it's a double row or single row bearing is a problem ! Singapore is a long way from the US, so ordering both sets and returning one could be a expensive exercise !

shlim8,

As far as the other posts about parking on a hill, left or right...well it doesn't matter. Again the engine cylinders lay flat, the oil that seeps past the rings while the engine is at rest and cooling down (pistons and cylinders shrink at different rates) is a tiny amount left in the base of the cylinder behind the piston. It's miniscule and nothing to worry about.

The optimum way to park and not have the oil seep is to park completely level, and even that won't work.

Again, enjoy your car and drive the wheels off of it. I've been to Singapore a couple of times, beautiful county and city to be driving a convertible. I've ridden the tram to see the Mir Lion. Still can't chew gum hu?

Was the car pointing uphill, and parked for a while, when the "blue smoke" incident occured? If so, it probably means nothing.

I have a 2000 S with 139,000 miles on it. Bought it for $6,000 a year ago, no service records, and I am assuming the car will be a basket case. The 6 speed manual started sounding like a rock crusher, so I took it out to have it rebuilt. While the car was apart for 3 months, I installed the IMS solution, RMS, new chain tensioner, AOS, flywheel, clutch, coolant tank, water pump, thermostat.

The car NEVER smoked at all on startup, and now it gasses out my entire yard and my neighbors yard about every 3rd cold start. What did I screw up?

I have a 2000 S with 40,000 miles. If the smoke is bluish, it's probably oil. Consider replacing the spark plug tubes. The seals go bad over time and when they leak, you'll see a lot of oil smoke on startup. They're cheap and not hard to replace. My Boxster smoked after I first bought it, but it was just the tubes. I replaced them and it hasn't smoked since.

White smoke is likely a coolant leak. Since you just worked on the cooling system, it's possible something isn't tight and is now leaking. If so, you may be able to spot crusty dried coolant near a leak.

Good luck!

Could be that you have too much oil.
These engines like when you have oil level at the two bars under the max level mark at the oil cauge on the dash. Anything above it and you'll often get blue smoke for a moment at the cold start up.
This is cheap to 'fix', if the oil level is a bit high.