smoke

I have a 2002 996 coupe. It sometimes smokes when you first start the car...after sitting around a bit...any ideas??

It's a flat engine. Oil collects at the bottom (or side if you wish) of the cylinder when the car is sitting. They all do it from time to time.

Does it do it after sex or big dinners?

LOL! Good One!

I took my 2003 Coupe to the track for the first time last weekend. After each track session it would smoke when I started it at first. It doesn't do this at other times. I think I agree with the earlier post; they will do this sometimes, and mine appears to to do it after a lot of hard cornering. I talked to other 996 owners who have never seen their car do it, even after track runs.

This is a well-known behavior on 911's dating back to the earliest days! I've heard many reports of this in the cars from the early 70's.

Some burn oil and some do not.

I freaked out at the track last year after a hard session. It will only do so if you leave it alaone for a while. Luckely my buddy Ron who has a lot of knowledge and owns his own garage maintaining them informed me that it is quite common and OK. Pierre

I appreciate your comments guys...thanks. My BoxsterS did smoke from time to time as well. But it's a bit disconcerting that it should smoke at all owing to the fact that Porsche should know the appropriate "fix" for such a seemingly mundane defect. After all, it's a freaking Porsche...it's almost embarrassing. As far as, most if not all smoke from time to time, it's little comfort for a car with only 9600 miles that fetched $75K.

And another couple of things since I have your attention: 1-What is the relationship to seeing the smoke when starting up the car and the consumption of oil? 2-What grade of Mobil One synthetic do you guys recommend? thanks vm

If you rings are not sealing properly against the cylinder walls, then oil will seep past the rings and into the combustion chamber. This oil will be burned next time you start the car.

So, since the car is still under waranty, would you bring it in to have the dealer look it over...or would you just "live with it?"

It won't do any good. The dealer will just say that it is normal for a Porsche to burn a gallon of oil every day.

0W40 of course...like what the factory puts in...

It's really not a defect. In fact, all cars smoke from time to time upon cold start up. Some are cleaner than others. If you can't deal with occasional startup smoke, you better buy a Camry instead. My last car was an RX7 TT. That beast just smoke up the street with white cloud due to the rotary design which pumps oil into chamber and tend to run hot. I get used to driving through a white cloud when backing out.