Hello out there. New to this forum and have not owned a Porsche yet. But that is about to change. I am looking at a 997.2 S that looks good. It has 38,000 miles, is in pretty much pristeen condition. I have driven it and found no short comings other than a brief period where I could detect a burning smell for about 10 minutes after I started it. . The smell went away after a few minutes. I do know that the car had had a lot of service work done by the dealer before it was put up for sale; including new spark plugs, coolant replaced etc...so I am wondering if what I was smelling for a few minutes was just a little spilled fluid from the service. It did go away as I mentioned.

I am looking now for a Porsche mechanic to check out the car. I will ask him to check the compression in the engine, look at the spark plugs to make sure no engine block cracked, etc...Any suggestions as to what I should look out for with these cars would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Signed,
Almost a Porsche owner.....

 

Get a good PPI, if they are going to test compression then gets the cylinders checked for scoring. Trust me a few hundred up front will save you a lot in the long run.

As far as the smell - no idea - but I would test drive the car a few more times to make sure.

And the most important rule is don;t rush, take your time. There are lots of cars out there. Make sure it is the one.

 

Well that's a good sign they were proactive about doing the 40k maintenance. Very possible the smell was just something spilled during the service. Especially if they did coolant and oil changes.

 

I am looking at very similar cars, but am a little lost as to where people are really transacting. Could you share how much you are paying?

 

Unlikely the smell was due to something spilled. All the times I've had my cars serviced I've never had a problem with a spill save one time the tech in adding anti-freeze to the Turbo's coolant tank spilled some. I smelled this when test driving the car after picking it up after having the radiators replaced and was concerned there was still a cooling system leak. The tech told me what happened and we flushed the coolant tank area with water which rinsed away the anti-freeze and I never smelled the odor again.

The engine runs a bit rich upon cold start and if one is not used to this the engine can have a bit of a stink to it. I mean how many times in the normal course of using our cars do we start a cold engine and then get out and stand behind or near the the engine?

I might add that depending upon the wind once in a while when I start the engine of one of my cars I get some exhaust odor in the cabin. The cabin air intake pulls in the exhaust fumes as they waft forward and over the car.

Another source of an odor is sometimes as the car is driven down the road the hot exhaust will get a piece of plastic or paper blown up and this can stick to the exhaust and stink, can smell like something burning as the piece of plastic or paper chars away. Driving on wet roads, even through some sprinkler run off, can splash the engine and exhaust with water and this can produce a rather odd odor (to me it smells kind of metallic, ozone like).

Best advice I can offer is take a 15 mile test ride then follow it with a 15 mile test drive. Experience the car as you intend to use it. If the CEL stays dark, if the engine runs ok there is no need to compression test the engine. If the CEL comes on if the engine doesn't run ok then you walk away. Let the seller worry about the cause.

Afterwards have the car inspected carefully for any leak sign. This requires the car be lifted up and checked from underneath.

Oh, before you buy the car be sure of what warranty the recent service and parts used in the service come with the car.

 

Could just be cosmoline and normal. The last 2009 C2S I drove had the same thing.

 

Get a copy of the invoice showing the work done on the car before being sold to you. Insist on this.