My
2007 Cayman S
suddenly began billowing white smoke. It has 110K miles on it and I assumed it was the Air Oil Separator and ordered the part. Taking the old AOS out I found oil in all the tubes and cleaned them out before reassembling. Fired it up and it it purred with no smoke. Went for a test drive and a half block later the white smoke returned like a WWII Navy destroyer laying down a smoke screen. Does anybody have any thoughts? Since the last oil change it burned 1 Qt. of Mobile1 in 12,000 miles.
That sounds like water/HG …. Don’t drive it! Check your coolant level for starters and if you can drain the oil… take off your oil cap, there could be signs of slug on that too…
12000 miles and only burned a quart?? That’s really good, BUT going that many miles on oil is way too long…. With that many miles I’d be changing every 5k
Do NOT drive the car.
Do NOT pass go.
Please check this out ASAP
:
White Smoke From Exhaust: Causes and How to Fix
White smoke means moisture is getting in there... aka likely coolant. From the linked article:
What Causes Coolant Or Water To Enter The Combustion Chamber?
Thick white smoke coming out of the exhaust typically indicates a
blown head gasket
, a crack in the head, or a crack in the engine block. Cracks and bad gaskets allow the fluid to travel to places it shouldn’t be. If it travels, then the problems begin.
What Should I Do If I See White Smoke Coming From My Exhaust?
Most importantly, you should not continue to run the car. If your engine has a gasket failure or a crack, it could lead to further contamination or overheating, which essentially means, “Goodbye, engine.”
If it's any consolation, I probably would have done the same thing per the AOS first. This being said, don't potentially further contaminate things by driving the car any further. Heck, I'd probably have it towed ASAP. Sorry if this isn't good news, but thankfully things like gaskets are replaceable and let's hope it's not a crack in the engine block.
Cheering you on here,
@LyonLance
- Please let us know how you get on with this!
Thanks for your replies. The smoke is oil, not steam/water. Searching posts for "white smoke" I found this reply to a post from Bobp from 2021:
"Did you hear a whistling sound, or maybe squeaking like a belt slipping especially when decelerating?
It is very common for the high vacuum in the crankcase to suck in the rear main seal.
This requires seal replacement $$$$. Part is cheap, labor is expensive."
I noticed, but didn't say this earlier, that just before this happened that there was a new sound that I thought was a vacuum leak. I'm worried that he may be describing what I've got. Does anyone else have experience with this?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's something else!
White smoke is water/coolant… did you check the coolant level? Oil is blue and stinks like exhaust… water smells sweet
Either way, if you're not entirely confident with what's going on -- I'd pay to have it towed at this point, and have a stellar indie wrench check it out. The least thing you'd want to do is damage your engine if you're not quite sure.
Hopefully it's something simple, but otherwise -- you'd risk grenading the engine. Just my two cents.
You need to take it to a proper wrenchilist
You certainly risk warping the heads which would complicate repairs and add huge expense.
Some of you have asked that I keep you in the loop through the final resolution, so here is the final story.
I met today with my old friend Henry at Schneider Autohause in Santa Barbara. He said it is just the residual oil in the intake planum and manifolds. If there is a slight negative pressure in the crankcase when running rather than a lot (hold your palm over the oil fill spout with the cap off) then the new AOS is properly installed. "You cant believe how much oil collects in there after AOS failure and it needs to get drawn into the engine and burned off. "Do it after dark so people don't see you, but it has to be done"
The bottom line is that I checked the slight negative pressure and it was correct, then I ran the car around at relatively high RPM's (4,000 to 5,000 RPM's) to create a big draft in the intake plenum/manifolds for 7 or 8 minutes and the problem is solved!
Glad I consulted the expert!
Good!! Hard to diagnose sitting on my couch… when I hear the words white smoke, in my experience it tells me water… glad it worked out
