Condor Man

I was wondering whether it was normal that when I start the car, after not driving it for a few days it smokes for the first 3 - 5 seconds..

My car is a manual 2005 TT with 3,500KMS and i have just had it serviced 1,000 KMS ago.

Your advice would be appreciated.

Wachuko

Normal. Our car's engines (heck, almost all flat configured engines from Porsche and back to the old beetles) do that.

Search the archives, this has been discussed in the past. Do not worry unless the smoke does not stop after a few seconds.

porschedude996TT

I have dealt with this for years on previous 911's. The first thing is I found that my cars (1972 911, and 1991 Carrera 2) both tended to do this when the oil was either diluted or needed changing. The second thing is finding an oil that works with your engine. With my '72, I used conventional motor oils of different weights and brands. I found that in my engine 20-50w worked the best. I even tried single weights at one point (40w).

With your newer engine, I would not recommend conventional motor oils. I would find a different synthetic. Maybe Redline or Royal Purple.

Kevin

Can't run that high of a weight of oil in these engines due to the vario cam.. 5W 40 is a nice oil if you can find that weight.

wross996tt

First, what color smoke? Second, mine did this before I had new turbos installed (it also "used" oil). Now I have no smoke and I never have any loss of oil...go figure.

FotoVeloce

My 993 did this for about a week after I accidentaly overfilled it a few cc's First start-up was a world class James Bond smok screen. Then it just did a little at each starte.. then just a little at each first start of the day.. now it's clean again.

If you recently changed added oil.. perhaps just a tad too much? JAT. If it does not stop.. that's a big worry...

tkerrmd

wouldnt change the oil from what porsche recommends. Just my 2 cents. Some smoke is ok. Keep the oil fill away from the very top.

Condor Man

The colour is a light grey.

I wouldn't think that the car needed new turbos given that the car is near new. However, I felt that perhaps when the car was just serviced that they may have topped it up too high.

Having stated this, I just completed a track day and clearly used some oil as it was down 2 bars from the top and it still smoked yesterday when it started up.

wross996tt

I was NOT suggesting you needed new turbos, but that when I replaced mine the smokling "symptoms" went away, was it the new turbos, better break-in, better installation, who knows? White smoke is coolant, black smoke is unburnt fuel, and blue smoke is oil. Here is a thread that might interest you:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...t=smoke+colors

Garey Cooper

Another 2 cents worth of opinion!

1. Occasional smoke on start-up is normal. It seems to be most true on days when it hasn't been driven for a while but it will also happen at other times. This is well known for "most" turbo's.
2. You can fiddle a LITTLE with the engine oil you use; as suggested above 5-40 Synthetic is okay particularly in warmer climes. If not stick with the standard 0-40....
3. MOST Turbo's will use oil, how much seems individual as some people say; "mine never does".....but in my immediate acquaintance they burn more oil than most other types, including other Porsche's.