Caught the smoke!

[Rail26]

After many attempts, I finally caught the smoke from startup on camera. This was after a week of not driving it (out of town). I thought it was a cool picture.

[WoBoxster]

My car does that too. Not as quite as much smoke

[99-Boxster-MK]

Thats awesome

Mine only smokes if its been sitting for a few days... I wonder what the people in my garage think..

Mike

[deliriousga]

The same in mine, but about 3X the smoke when the oil separator fritzed on me.

[whttkrasst]

Hi there - picked up a new 2005 the week before last, and have been too busy enjoying it to say hello.

I noticed this morning this smoke issue, after it was parked all weekend. Good timing I guess.

Is this normal for this car? Seems to be common, and I know they use oil, so I figure it's probably ok. That true?

[deliriousga]

It's normal to have a small cloud of smoke, especially if it's been sitting awhile. A huge cloud (say one that would cover the entire back of the car) is not normal. Also, it is not normal to have smoke coming out of the exhaust after the engine is warm. That's a sign that something's wrong. I've never had a case where the Boxster "used" oil unless something was wrong.

I think MNBoxster (I believe that's who it was) explained it best when he said in the flat 6 engine, oil is trapped in the cylinder so at startup it blows a little smoke. Key word being "little".

[whttkrasst]

Thanks. Mine was about like the pic shown above, so that looks like a little to me. And, it doesn't smoke while driving, or not enough for me to see it. And, this was the first time I saw it, after sitting for 2 days. So, I'll assume it's okay and keep an eye on it.

As for using oil, the electronic dipstick is down to the first mark just below full and I have 600 miles on the car. That also seems reasonable for a new engine. The dealer said it'll go through some oil and need to be topped off now and again.

[SD987]

I've had to put 1 quart in over 8500 miles (twice, half a quart), I think it's worth it to run that self-diagnostic oil check on the 987 every now and then, rather then wait until you get the low-oil warning. Just make sure you do it when the engine is cold to save yourself some time (otherwise it counts down from 5 minutes) and of course get a better reading.

I haven't had the Boxster sit long enough to get the white smoke in that situation, however, I did see a humongous cloud of white smoke at start-up once, when I'd driven it in the 95-120 mph range for a long stretch of time and didn't let the engine idle long enough before shutting-er down.

[deliriousga]

Originally Posted by whttkrasst

As for using oil, the electronic dipstick is down to the first mark just below full and I have 600 miles on the car. That also seems reasonable for a new engine. The dealer said it'll go through some oil and need to be topped off now and again.

Make sure you check it after the car has sat for at least an hour. Checking at a fill up will give you a false reading that's lower than it really is.

We have gotten into the habit of turning the key to "on" every morning before starting the Boxster to check and it has never been low. A check at the pump and adding may cause an over-full situation.

Here is some interesting info about smoke on start-ups:

"The smoke can be from couple different things and applies to all Boxsters and 996's. One is do to oil getting into the combustion chamber. The oil can seep past the rings on rare occasions or more so get past the valve guides. The oil seeping past the guides is usually seen when the car is driven and then parked on an angle sloping front to rear or visa versa and not side to side. The front to rear slope retains the oil forward or rear in the cylinder head depending on the bank and the slope. A forward slope in a Boxster allows this to happen in bank 1-3 and the opposite for bank 4-6. The 996 would be the opposite bank infiltration do to the configuration of the engine.

A second can be do to the gas itself and or the spark plugs. The gas is blended differently for different regions and can degrade at different rates. This degrade and different blends with Ethanol can glaze or foul the spark plugs. Cars that do not tend to use a full tank of gas within the 30 days will do this. Once the spark plugs are glazed or excessive soot or carbon has formed from the gas the problem will persist. The The car smokes in these cases do to the DME upon cold starts is adding more fuel to compensate for the absorption of the fuel by this soot or glazing. These coatings act like a sponge and soak up this fuel so more fuel is added. Once the car is running and goes into Lambda mode it is now compensated for and the smoke stops. All of this happens in only the first few minutes of start up.
To remedy this it is advised to add a cleaner with Techron on a regular basis and initially change the spark plugs. The first several tanks should get twice the amount of cleaner as suggested and then reduced to the specified amount on the can.

Scott Slauson - PCA WebSite - 12/4/2005"

[986_Ron]

Rail,

My 2000 does exactly the same thing. Seems to be somewhat random too. Some mornings it does it and other times it doesn't. Always seems to be the first start of the day after sitting all night...

[986Jim]

..........

[bhduxbury]

lol jim