Hey everyone, looking for the input of more experienced owners here.

I have a 2006 Cayman S with >227k km on the clock. Tiptronic transmission. I live in southern Germany and have owned the car for about a year.

I drive the car 3-4 days per week. Commute is about 15 km each way. Some days I take the back roads and have a max speed limit of 89 kph. Other days I take the motorway and run the car at 150-170 kph.

My concern is that I am getting white smoke on startup.
After reading some other posts here, I’ll add some details.
- The smoke is not blue and doesn’t smell of oil. It smells like exhaust.
- I don’t detect any sweet smell of coolant.
- Car is very regularly serviced at the dealer.
- According to the gage, I am not losing any significant amount of oil.
- I only have the smoke when i start up in the morning, and then when I start up in the evening to leave work. No smoke that I can see when at normal operating temperature.
- The smoke doesn’t hang in the air, but quickly dissipates. However, there is a substantial cloud first thing in the morning. I am sure the cold weather is a contributor but our 996 doesn’t do this, and our BMW 330d doesn’t do this in same weather conditions.
- The condition existed in the summer, but the cloud seems to be larger. Again, this could be temperature related.
- When the car drops off of “fast idle” after startup, the cloud seems to lessen, but doesn’t immediately stop.

Any thoughts on this, or other details that could be important?
I don’t mind asking the dealer to pop in a new AOS if that seems to be a contributor, just not sure as I am not seeing a drop in oil level.

Many thanks in advance.

 

I think what you need to figure out is: Are you seeing smoke, or just vapor/condensation in the exhaust. What you are describing sounds like vapor to me (but, I am not there). The fact that is does not smell, is more white in color, and dissipated leads me to believe its vapor.

Yes, weather will play a big roll in this. The higher humidity it is the more likely you are too see the vapor in the exhaust on cold start up.

Can you park somewhere warm and relatively dry for the day? Start it mid afternoon? If it is oil from bore scoring it will be a problem in warm weather (because the oil gets around the scored sections and burns). If it is vapor, it will likely not happen in that warmer weather / cold motor conditions.

Overall though, If you aren't using oil, I wouldn't stress.

 

Both my 987.1 and 987.2 do this sometimes, and did it when they were low mileage.

Pretty sure it's water vapor.

But with your mileage, you should have a knowledgeable person stand behind your car when you start it to smell it. They can tell you with more certainty.

GN

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I think you are the only one I know of with more miles on their Cayman than me. Mine is an 06' S with 112,000 Miles. I daily drive mine as well about 50 miles one way. I also get occasional smoke on start up, especially on cold mornings. It tends to go away after about 10 seconds or so when it does happen so I am not overly worried about it.

I replaced my AOS last year as a precaution thinking that may be part of the problem and nothing changed. I do burn about a quart of oil every 4,000 miles or so.

 

A little puff of smoke is a normal byproduct of cold start enrichment especially on very cold ambient temperatures. If it doesn't dissipate after a reasonable amount of time, then you have a problem that will need attention. Many people point to the AOS every time they see smoke out of the tailpipe, but in many cases its because of aging fuel injectors causing fuel to pool in the cylinders after shut off. A more serious problem with S model Cayman engines, is cylinder bore scoring which causes excessive oil consumption and again, a smoking tail pipe is a symptom.

 

@mytime1 Thanks for your reply. Interesting that the AOS didn’t have an impact.

 

So it’s more than a little puff, but I am not using oil in any noticeable amount. I am leaning more towards a fuel management issue. Is it possible to have the fuel injector issue you mention, without CEL coming on and throwing codes?

 

Yes, a little fuel pooling in the cylinder will not throw a DTC.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to change out the AOS to rule it out. Easy DiY on the Caymans and Boxsters.