Smoke coming out of the intakes.
 

Im waiting for a flat bed luckily.. not far from home. Smoke is pouring from the intakes and wheel wells. Smells toxic like cooked rubber. Coolant tank is fine, nothing unusual on the gauges. This was the first long drive since recently cleaning the MAF after getting P0153 and bouncy idle which helped some what. Doesn't seem related though.

AOS dripping oil on exhaust. Or some rubber tubing on exhaust. If temp needle didn't rise, some external failure is my hope for you, bud. Good lucks!

Man that really sucks! Could it have been a power steering hose leak? Hopefully something simple. Good Luck

Sorry for the breakdown. When did you notice the smoke?

Let us know what you find...

I noticed the smoke while driving home. I thought it was a jalopy in front of me. Nope its me... that smell of burnt rubber (belt?) was intense and lingered for a long while. The smoke started up pretty suddenly. I didnt get two blocks up the street before I pulled over and shut it down. Steering seemed fine. I did notice some condensation on the exhaust pipe when I first fired it up. which seemed odd being that it was parked in a pretty hot garage.

Actually I dodged a bullet as I nearly took the car for a very long drive to a remote part of New York (Port Jervis area) where there is zero cell phone coverage, barely any street lighting and very little mass transit. And forget about Uber. The MAF issue was enough to convince me to leave it at home. That would have been a disaster.

P.S.
I tipped the tow truck guy 25%...the GT3 bumper just barely clears the flatbed with the wooden ramps...barely.

When I had those symptoms it was the clutch unit on
Air con pump,

Sorry to hear about your issue. Hope its nothing serious, please keep us updated if we can help in any way. Good luck.

Since it's a burnt rubber smell - possibly any one of the Belt drive pulleys began seizing up causing the serpentine belt to burn?

Good luck from a fellow NJer
Probably going to be another preventive maintenance item to add to the list

I hope it is nothing major

Me too on my Tacoma. The compressor seized up and smoked the belt and melted some stuff inside the compressor which oozed out and solidified into a plastic lump. Luckily? The compressor ran on a dedicated belt so I was able to cut that belt and keep going.

I should have taken a look in there. But man was that smell overwhelming. :barf:


I think I put S-belt #2 in there about 30k miles ago. Seems like a big hunk of tough rubber to cause that amount of smoke. I had the AC blasting full throttle to get the fans on after getting caught in traffic with high ambient temp. The coolant temp was inching closer to the 1 o'clock. About 10 minutes after breaking clear of traffic and pulling off the highway the fireworks show began. I guess as k9dbm mentions it might be the AC pump (so that's another device that has a clutch I didn't know about).

p.s.
Can you rig the fans to turn on without turning on the AC?

If you have a durametric connected, you can manually turn the fans on

Clutch on drive pulley for the AC compressor is pretty standard for most cars. I had one go bad on my 2003 jeep liberty. Fortunately, for that car, there is a clutch kit for $80 you can buy and with a loner pulley puller and an hours + time, got-er done

I have to search to see if there is a similar kit available for the 986

I finally used my AC yesterday and was glad 1st it still blows cold air and 2nd the pulley clutch didn't freeze up

Good luck with this. I'm interested to find out what caused this. Maybe check the air filter for anything odd caught in there?

Did you suck something up into the motor. I've read posts where folks have sucked plastic grocery bags up into the engine and holys#@^. Realize this sounds too easy but thought I would add it. Good luck, hopefully it's simple.....

My bet is on the belt. With the AC on, it puts more load on the idler pulleys and if you have a bad pulley (or an about-to-go-bad pulley), driving with AC on can really push the bad bearing over the edge. Happened to me recently, though luckily the bearing in the pulley was so shi**y that the balls just self destructed instead of swelling and seizing the bearing.

AC compressor indeed....

New unit along with belt tensioner and rollers (preventative) parts are $900 and labor is about 9 hours.
:ah:

I had the AC blasting full throttle to get the fans on after getting caught in traffic with high ambient temp. The coolant temp was inching closer to the 1 o'clock.

You turned the A/C on to get the coolant temp down? Wouldn't that have the reverse effect? When you say 1 o'clock you mean inching towards 250? I've never had mine go much past the '8' (just left of noon on the clock dial) even while sitting on a hot/humid day in traffic for an hour with the A/C going. The secondary(?) fans turn on by themselves regardless if my A/C is on.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1440033959.jpg

Wow. Seriously? Mine always danced around the 0. Even with three big ass radiators now, I still dance around 0 (but I also have a bigger engine now).

I also live in Arizona where temperatures are excess of 110, but yea.

I think he turned his AC on to get his fans running, but if the ECU worked, the fans should turn on automatically.

when I'm in stop in go traffic, a lot of that idling in neutral, which is terrible for the engine, I rarely hear those fans go on by themselves right away. My thinking was that the AC speeds it up.

Sounds like you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Fans should turn on if temps rise.

The AC will activate the low speed fans if they are not already running. 212F will also activate the low speed fans. The temperature will dance between 201.8 and 212. How quickly the temperature swings will be determined by the ambient temperature, water pump health, airflow through radiators etc.

Crono: that picture is most likely of the post-01 cluster. The temp gauge is much more buffered than pre-01 and sits at the point shown to relax the monkey behind the wheel a bit. Pre-01 will dance up and down following the actual temp of the engine more closely.

Perfectlap: why is idling in traffic in neutral horrible in your opinion?

I had it checked out with the Autologic, no issue was found.

Crono Your fans turn on (high) right away when you hit traffic?

Epap, enigne idling in traffic gets EXTREMELY hot. I heard Jake Raby make a similar comment about this being no good,
I think it comes up in the low t-stat threads or maybe about the importance of proactively replacing the water pump every 4 years.
That being said, I'm not sure how much running the fans on high is going to help there but I do it anyway.

I buy that it gets hotter than when traveling at 70mph, but the water pump and most parts are still continuously exposed to coolant temperatures (which will kind-of regulate engine temp/heat soak in traffic): the hotter engine bay/trapped heat will heat the block and because there is not much air flow when sitting still, the heat soak will conduct back into parts on the engine, most of it to eventually be dumped into the coolant, and shed off by the running fans. Sure the temps are higher but why in any would it be extremely bad?

At any rate, the fans running will help this situation I would think...

Jake Raby discuses here:
http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/43114-yet-another-ims-solution-2.html#post327793

This engine, by design has the highest loads on the valve train at idle. Internally lubricated components that are only cooled and lubricated by the engine's oil need a constant flow of that oil to provide full film lubrication and to keep them at a sane temperature.

Low speeds have proven to kill these engines more than anything else in my research."

What causes the engines to have the highest load on the valve train at idle???? I don't buy that for a second. you're telling me my 5 timing chains, IMS shaft/bearing and cams/valves are under less stress and load when I'm WOT going through all gears at 5k rpm? The only thing I can think of is the chain tensioners and variocam. Still doesn't make any sense.

The second sentence of Jakes is inherently true of any moving part requiring oil, and mostly just a statement. If I'm not mistaken, the moving parts DO get a constant flow of oil, EVEN at idle...unless the oil pump just decides to take a break < 1000rpm...

I know Jake has a lot more experience than myself with these engines, but this doesn't make sense to me.

For a daily driver that sits in traffic for 60+ minutes a day, I can see how that might kill an engine over time. But I don't think that's your case, P-Lap...if I recall this isn't your DD. Turning the A/C on every time you are idling, however, could cause your condenser to fail. (I'm not saying that was the cause, but if you are constantly cycling it off/on every time the temp rises, it deserves mention).

If per Jake R. idle is the issue, why not hold the rpm at 3k when sitting in traffic? And again, if your temp is going that high, there may be another issue. I always thought that turning on the A/C had the reverse effect (I realize the fans in the 986 may be slightly different that most cars), but back in the day we used to put the HEAT when the engine ran hot to bleed off as much hot air as possible. (Insert bad flashback about being in the back of station wagon with the heat on in August).

This is yet another thread that makes it sound like these cars are fragile, and I don't think that's the case.

As I recall the Vario cam solenoids actuate at 3000 rpm to phase the cam shafts into the proper position for low rpm operation. The actuators extend tensioning the chains in order to effect rotation of the cam shafts. This increased cam drive chain tension is what accelerates wear of cam drive components.

Above 3000 rpm this tension is relived as the cams change phase for high rpm operation. There are other loads associated with wot but it appears the cam drive is the most dominant point of vulerabilty. Oil film strength on cylinder walls seem to be better at higher rpm.

Well then let this be an experiment:

I currently sit in 2 hours of traffic each day, with another hour per day of 75+ driving and high revs. Car is running as lovely as ever, with proper pampering of course. Going through so much gas allows me to run a fuel treatment and injector cleaner almost once every two-three months, more often than normal oil changes, coolant flushes etc. The reality of it is: my car ran ********************!er when I only drove it 10 miles a week. AND, when something catastrophic happens, I certainly will not regret it saying "I wish I had driven and enjoyed my car more before having to throw it away".

I know the variocam activates at 3k rpm(along with a variety of other conditions being met), but the conclusion that anything <3000rpm is 'hurting' your engine is nonsense. In fact, I would go as far as "keeping your revs above 3000 for the sole reason to minimize engine idle related wear" is probably one of the more stupid things I've read or thought about related to my car/engine. And with the IMSB in the picture, that is saying something...

Are fuel treatment and injector cleaners really efficient?
Or it's more likely a placebo, especially if you stick to "quality" gas?

I'm sure its more of a placebo than not, especially for me because I would never touch anything less than the measly 91 octane we get here in CA...But I like to experiment. I'm sure things like throttle body cleaning and MAF cleaning are much more effective in producing noticeable results. But hey, I'm driving so damn much, a cleaner can't hurt.

My fans turn on at a certain temperature, or if I turn on AC. They turn off if there is no AC and it cools to a good amount.

I had a very similar event last weekend with one of my SUVs. The belt popped off (burned through) a minute after I shut down. I Just finished replacing the compressor and tensioner. About $200 in parts for an 03 Ford.
Compressor bearing made noise on startup for a few days before the smoke, but it went away as soon as it warmed up.
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1440196341.jpg

Speaking about fans: is it damaging to turn the car off while they are working? For instance, when I get home and park the car, should I wait for the fans to turn off or I can turn the car off without waiting?