Pc007

Hi guys

Today I checked a 996 turbo 2002 with 45.000 miles on it. As I started the car there was involved in an immense cloud of blue smoke...dealer said its normal...but I was wondering about this.

Any ideas on it? Is it that normal? The car didn't have any smoke after from the tailpipes....

Any thoughts?

Thanks

rmc1148

Wont say its normal as mine does not do this but has been mentioned by many and has been attributed to engine design. Did car do this on restart?

promocop

NORMAL on mine

5ive0

Mine does it 10% of the time. Sometimes without any spirited driving. Mine only has 13000miles and it was babied for most of them. So it seems like it's not uncommon. I can't imagine my spark plugs lasting as long with the smoke, but I'll guess we will see.

Macster

Probably normal. My 03 Turbo does this once in a great while, more often than not when the oil is getting close to the 5K mile mark and due to be changed.

In the case of this 02 the engine has been started but not run any length of time and this can have the intake walls a bit oily. The car sits and the oil runs down into a cylinder and the smoking at start up is the result. Even so, the engine should not exhibit any untoward behavior at the startup or at any other time.

Did you subject the car to a nice test ride then drive? If not you really should have.

You want to experience the car as you will use it, give the engine (the car) time to manifest any issues. You do not want to observe any smoking at any other times during this test ride/drive cycle.

Kevin

We are starting to see turbocharger failures. Turbine side seal failures typically. Have your shop pull the inlet piping or turbocharger to IC hose and check for oil. If dry, check and see the engine oil weight. Changing to a 5W50 oil can reduce the smoke show.

Mongo84

Kevin what needs to be replaced if you are seeing oil on the inlet piping?

Kevinmacd

Mongo84 - Usually the seal

Kevin

The turbocharger needs rebuilding. That's a great time to upgrade to hybrid turbochargers!

"02996ttx50

i've seen maybe 4x puffs of smoke at startup in two different turbos over six years so i wouldn't call it "normal".

drh

A quick start to back out of the garage will cause mine to puff on restart.
It never puffs after I drive it a bit and park it back in the level surface garage.

I did notice a little oiliness on the boost hose when I was changing the plugs a while back.

Ck986

I experienced this today. I left the car parked on a slight incline for about 1-2 hours. When I started the car a plume of blue smoke came out, my wife even commented on it. Funny thing was when I started the car in the morning 1st time in two weeks there was no blue smoke. I get blue smoke on start up from time to time but it's not very often. My old boxster use to smoke up on every start with a small puff of smoke and a large one when left for a few weeks. My car had no oil in the hoses that connect to the turbo about 1-2k miles ago when they were checked and I run 5w40 td oil.

Macster

The turbo engine is not as likely to smoke as the NA engines as the AOS of the Turbo is a bit better than the AOS of the NA engine, but an occasional and brief puff of smoke from a turbo engine is normal, as long as it is not accompanied by any other untoward behavior.

I said "occasional" and "brief". Were one to see this frequently especially after enough driving the engine was fully up to temperature and the engine was allowed to idle say up to 2 minutes before shutdown then this could be a sign of something amiss.

'course smoking at any other time than at start up is not normal.

"02996ttx50

good to know. i would have thought it be anomalous given the infrequency of occurrence i've seen em.

one other thought is that odd angles or grades when parked can i would imagine pool oil in places it might not ordinarily. that might contribute to startup puffs. i'm just glad i don't see but *maybe* one puff every cpl years. the car, i mean

fly2low

The only time I have seen smoke is when I start the car to get it out of the garage. Run time 20-30 seconds. On the restart to pull it back in it blows a large cloud . This happened nearly everytime I did this, and with both of my turbos. Similar to what drh stated.
Never smokes otherwise.
I now push my car out of the garage