Got a huge plume of vapor at startup this morning at work, never seen that before. It's a 2005 997S with 76,500 miles. Car has been running strong, no issues a part from a water pump replacement last spring.

Drove it home with no CEL ran fine. Parked at home then jumped back in to go to the grocery store, very rough idle on startup - flat-six was shaking my seat more than normal then calmed down. Very odd.

Went about half a mile, CEL came on. Immediately turned around and parked it at home, shut it down. Tried starting it again, won't start.

On the short drive did notice another random plume of vapor when I was in 5th gear at about 40 mph which I thought was odd.

Called my Indy, flat bed tomorrow. He's leaning towards AOS failure.

 

Here are those codes for a 997:

P2187 Sys Too Lean at Idle Bank1
P2189 Sys Too Lean at Idle Bank2

 

I would say AOS failure as well. Hope all is okay. Had a 06 Cayman S that blew a AOS and when it went the car smoked very bad and shut itself down within a few minutes. Pulled all spark plugs and cylinder 1 was full of oil. replaced unit, got oil out of cylinder 1 and started it. Will take a few hours of running the engine before all the oil is burnt out of the exhaust. In some cases its best to remove exhaust and clean oil out before starting.

 

Did your Cayman burn a lot of oil in the months before the failed AOS?

 

Was not my Cayman but one we had in our inventory. I don't believe it was burning any oil. AOS gave out without any warning that it was going to fail. literally car was idling on our lot and a loud pop noise was heard and smoke came rushing out the exhaust. In that short time of about 3 seconds before engine was shut off it filled the entire cylinder 1 with oil and caused a hydro lock. It was a messy job. I see a lot of 996's that smoke on start up that is normal. Not too many 997's do but if they do a little it is normal. When the smoke comes pouring out and you can hear a whistling noise that is the AOS. Porsche should have installed some time of check valve into the AOS to prevent oil from going into the intake. Have a friend who had a AOS trash his Cayman S. His let go on the track at 6,500 RPM's though. Good luck with it.

 

AOS confirmed. Parts ordered and she should be back on the road by Friday. Thanks all.

 

Wasser, did the hydro lock crack the cylinder?

Para, glad your car is okay.