Porsche boxster S smoking on startup.

I have a 2003 Boxster S that smokes on startup occasionally. Sometimes it is considerable blue smoke. Any of you guys heard of this. The dealer says it is normal. I have 23,000 miles on it. I don't drive it that hard. Was also wondering what someone should expect for life of one of these motors?

Thanks. Any input would be most appreciated..

John

Reply to
rveng
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I have a 2003 S and there is no smoke on startup. If I recall correctly, white smoke is from water, Black is from unburned fuel and blue is from oil. This being said, do you use any oil? If so, how much? Give me the exact details of when you start it up (how long it has sat, outside temp, etc.) and I will try to duplicate it with my wife starting the car to see if I can see anything at all.

As a side note, how do you like it?

Dan

Reply to
Dan

Your dealer is correct. Horizintally opposed ("flat") engines will smoke occasionally on startup. My 2002 996 does. It seems to happen to me mostly when the car is on for just a moment then shut off (as in back out of the garage to wash the car) and sits for a while. Because of the configuration of the cylinders oil is more prone to sometimes accumulate in the cylinder and then get burned on startup, I think.

If you've ever been at an airport when a light aircraft starts up it's much the same - many general aviation light aircraft are powered by flat

4 or six cylinder gas engines and typically blow a puff of smoke on startup.

Regular service and oil changes are probably the best insurance for prolonging engine life. Porsche recommends 2 years or 15,000 miles for oil, but since I only put on about 7K miles a year I change oil and filters annually.

Reply to
Jim Keenan

Your dealer is correct. Horizontally opposed engines will smoke occasionally on startup. My understanding is because of the configuration of the cylinders motor oil is more apt to accumulate in the cylinder than in a V type engine where gravity tends to drain it away. On startup the accumulated oil gets burned. My 2002 996 does this occasionally, usually when the car is started up for just a moment (to back out of the garage for washing) then shut off and sits for a while.

Regular service and oil/filter changes are probably the best insurance for engine longevity. Porsche recommends 2 yrs. or 15,000 miles between oil changes, but since I average about 7K miles a year I have the oil and filters changes annually.

Reply to
Jim Keenan

It usually happens when the car has been sitting a while maybe a week. But it occasionally does it after it has just been run. You guys may have something there on just when running a short bit of time. I was at the resteraunt the other night and I had to start it again toi move it into a different spot. After eating it smoked quite a lot but always quits. This smoke is definately from oil.

Dan I love this car. It handles like a dream, it has great styling and I feel quite comfortable in it. I would love to have a few more inches in the leg room department though. I have had zero problems and porsche has been a dream to work with on service.

Thanks for your response

John

Reply to
rveng

Reply to
spam

My BMW motorcycle is a horizontal and smokes after a week or so of sitting .... just like my 01 Boxster.

Reply to
Sailor

I sold Porsches for a couple of years. About once a week we would crank all the cars in the line and let them run for a bit to maintain the batteries. You could tell the cars that hadn't been driven for the week prior by the smoke coming from the exhaust. These were brand new, never titled cars. So, I can tell you that if your car sits for a week or so at a stretch, this is very normal.

Reply to
Fred Aston

Smoke on startup of any flat horizontally opposed engine after some time at rest is a given.

Oil will at rest gather in the valve covers and no matter how good a valve guide is, it must have some clearance to be able to move the valve to an open or closed position. Oil resting in a valve cover will eventually seep through the seals and the guides into the cylinders. Also it takes very little oil on startup to make a great deal of smoke.

On a radial engine where some of the cylinders are located upside down, you should always manually pull them through a couple of revolutions simply to avoid hydraulic lock and catastrophic damage. It is simply the nature of the design. Every radial engine you have ever watched fire up in the old war films smoked on startup.

So never fear, at least with a flat design, you at least you don't have to hand crank it to avoid damage, unless your Porsche has really been sitting a long time, then I may actually recommend it.

Reply to
Vern

To the original poster:

While some smoking on startup is a characteristic of the flat-6 Porsche engine, for various reasons, any smoking accompanied by cold/warm/hot starting or driveability problems is cause for serious concern.

Could be something relatively simple to fix like a leaking fuel injector but could also be something much more serious. (My '02 started smoking on startup and the cause was a failed air/oil separator which almost cost me the engine. The separator failed in such a way that excessive vacuum pulled quite a bit of oil from the engine into the intake and this oil was pumped through the engine. If I had continued to drive the car, this oil could have caused a hydraulic lock up of the engine and at anything over idle this could have destroyed the engine.)

If the smoking continues after startup, appears on deacceleration, under hard acceleration, if accompanied by a howling noise, excessive vacuum at the engine oil dipstick tube or oil filler tube (with the engine running at idle), shut off engine and get car to nearest qualified service department with strict instructions not to start engine, drive car, until source of symptoms found and corrected.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Fred Ast> I sold Porsches for a couple of years. About once a week we would crank all

Reply to
Marc Warden

Same thing happens with my 2000 'S' especially if the car is not used fo= r any great length of time. I think it's normal.

Reply to
Dennis

If all of these cars are using synthetic oil it seems strange the smoke has a blue or blue-gray tint.

My experience is that syn oil doesn't have this color.

Reply to
Jef

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