BubbaT

I could use some help. My 02 Boxster with 25K miles just started to show some exhaust smoke when started (white vs. black), most often cold. This just began and has occured 5-6 times over a couple of weeks. No work performed recently. All fliuds look clean and not declinig. Coolant is the ussual culprit but no loss. Would appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

Jetpilot

Welcome to one of the fun habits of a Porsche. This happened to me about 2 weeks ago (2003 Boxster w/ 19K miles) - in the morning and then that afternoon. This is caused by residual oil and burns out quickly (white smoke) - If it does it only on start up and for a breif moment and it is white - don't be alarmed.....BUT if it continues and it is white (and you look like Uncle Buck driving down the highway with a HUGE smoke trail) - you might have an oil seperator problem - Black smoke? No Beuno - go to your mechanic. Your probably fine ....

Macster

enter combustion chamber when engine off.

If engine not up to temperature when shut off, if oil old, engine overfilled with oil, oil wrong type or gradel, if parked on slope, these can exacrebate the tendency for Boxster engine to emit a brief puff to small cloud of oil smoke upon startup.

But it should be just a brief puff or a small cloud.

Anything more can be an air/oil separator and if this bad or going bad there's serious risk to engine if it is not taken care of promptly. If AOS suspected best to avoid driving car and get it to qualified shop to have at least the AOS eliminated.

My '02 (with just over 194,000 miles) has now gone through 2 AOS. The last one caused engine to emit quite a bit of smoke upon startup even though engine oil fresh, not overfilled, and engine very much up to operating temperature when shut off and car not parked on a slope. Big cloud of smoke that persisted.

Had to have car flat bedded to dealership 90+ miles away for AOS repair. Afterwards, everything just fine.

The 1st AOS did not cause engine to smoke until at the end just before I decided to have car flat bedded -- on advice of service advisor who warned me of the risk to engine of serious damage if I continued to drive car -- to dealership for diagnosis and repair.

What it did do is result in a huge amount of engine vacuum at idle so much that while I was able to unscrew oil tube filler cap I could not remove it against the pressure difference.

Sincerely,

Macster.

BubbaT

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I will follow up on the AOS.

BubbaT

THANK YOU. I'lll start sleeping again!

VTCMart

If you are a backyard mechanic the AOS is easy to swap out, shouldn't take more than 2 hours, most of that spent cursing at the lower fitting clamp thats in a tight spot, pretty deep in the engine compartment. Also be sure to remove the air intake up near the throttle body to clean out all the oil that has built up there.