Unpleasant surprise on the way to work

So I decided to drive my 911 to work this morning and a couple of miles from my exit noticed smoke behind my car. Realized it was me. The symptoms were: Tons of smoke above 4k rpm, some between 3k and 4k and none below 3k. Pulled into the garage, notice a ton of belt whine. Looks like it's getting towed toan indy shop down the street which did the IMS/RMS/clutch for the PO. I hope that it's just the AOS as that is about $1200. Any other ideas on what it might be? I put the car into standby to check oil level and it was down 1 small bar on the startup oil check. Also worried about the belt whine which goes away at above 1k but is very loud at idle.

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Possible pulley bearing gone south ? This could create a situation where the belt was being routed at a bad angle. Though why its louder at idle Im not sure. Have you opened the engine bay to check the condition of the belt ?

Too much oil from a recent oil change? Keep us posted, AOS sounds suspect.

Agree with the AOS diagnosis. Hard to imagine a belt slipping enough to smoke like that and not fail. They are not that thick. Best avoid driving the car/running the engine. Save that for the tech that will diagnose what is going on.

So AAA finally showed up to take it to Intersport (reputable local indy shop 1.5 miles from my office) and they had to have me drive it out of the garage. Whine was gone. I did inspect the belt and it looked new, it was replaced about 17k miles ago when the PO bought the car last year. Lots of blue smoke so hoping that it is just the AOS. Very annoyed that the AOS was not done with the IMS/RMS/clutch but it is what it is. Hoping that the shop has time to look at it today but Monday is more likely.

Learn to wrench and this is a $170 repair.

I can do simple things like pads and rotors but this is out of my level of ability. I looked up what needs to be done and am honestly not coordinated enough to deal with the reassembly process. Wish I was but I simply am not

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Knowing your limits is good. Pretty sure the mechanic gets to charge what he wants when the car shows up on a flatbed with a frunkload of parts.

Might not be the AOS, I had a similar thing the dealer quoted $850 to change the AOS including dropping the motor but found a leaking oil protection tube for spark plugs total $217.87 I haven't had any issues since.

Wow a dealer only wanted $850 for the AOS? I was quoted just under $1200 which seemed cheap for this area. I did just have the plugs and plug tubes, hopefully it is just one of the tubes because $250-$350 is a lot better than $1150-$1200. If it was the plug tubes would it have thrown a CEL?

Really Imre's right but it turns into many $$$$$$$$$$ while you have the engine out and find all kind of cool things to replace.

Mine didn't throw a code I just noticed occasional burning oil in the mirror when nailing before fully warm (I know its not clever but its a car and if I can't drive it I'll get a skoda lol) tight right and left turn joing the high way. I've been very pleased with Delta Imports here in Grand Rapids, actually there estimate on the AOS was $800 looking at the print out. My total for the all the oil protection plug seals along with the 4 year / 60k service was $1265.48 which is a lot for a service which if it hadn't been for the burning oil I would have done my self.

Just got the call from the Indy shop, they say AOS, also wanted another $155 for cleaning the throttlebody and intake hoses, that piece seems silly and like a ripoff. Any thoughts?

Since the AOS was the culprit, basically your whole intake system right now is a mess. Been there, seen that. Everything is coated with engine oil, hence the blue smoke. My advice is have them clean it all out. Although $155 for "cleaning" seems silly, they will have all those parts out anyway so best to have them clean it all up. Might even have them replace the spark plugs for fresh clean ones.

My question is really whether it's worth having a shop do this or if I should just do it myself since taking the intake off to get to the TB is fairly simple. How much harder is taking the actual TB off?

You are talking about the air filter box. What I am referring to is the mess inside of the AOS hoses leading to the intake manifold, TB and the intake manifold itself. Yes, removing the air filter box and removing the TB is simple. But it is what is inside of the intake system AFTER the TB that needs cleaning. Depending on whether the shop is doing this with the motor in or out, it is a lot better and easier to clean it all up while it's apart. Otherwise, it's going to smoke for quite awhile until everything is burned off inside of the intake manifolds, etc., and actually, that might be never.

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All that the shop was talking about is taking the air box and throttle body off and cleaning the throttle body a day the portion of the intake that they could reach from there. It seems like that is simple enough to do myself. They are not pulling the motor out of the car.

Having replaced my AOS recently while the engine was still in the car, let me just state that even with all my experience this was a project of epic proportions. Not to oversimplify, but there is a lot of stuff that needs to come out, including the intake manifold distributor, and that is far after the airbox, TB, plenums, and just about everything on the left top side of the engine. It makes no sense to not clean all that out when it is apart. Besides the AOS replacement, they should replace the manifold gaskets, TB gasket and the O-rings on the AOS connector hoses. Now whether cleaning all that out is worth $155 is up to you. I replaced mine at my own pace, it took a week, and probably a good 2 days of that was cleaning parts. Since I had to remove the rear bumper to lower the engine, my wife and I spent one whole afternoon cleaning the bumper, heat shields and everything else back there. But I'm particular about that aspect because I want the job done right with no do overs.

AOS is a PITA to do yourself. Good indy will do it for $600/800. Pelican has a good how to if you want to tackle it Paul

These guys are charging $1200 and $155 to clean the throttle body, airbox and resonator between the box and the TB. My thought was that if they were taking the motor out and taking everything apart this would be okay but that cleaning everything from the throttle body back is easy enough and not worth paying $155 for since this is likely about 1.5 hours of book work which should take me 2-3 hours to do on my own. Any thoughts?

Hopefully someone else will weigh in at this point and give you some sage advice. But for my last piece of advice, pay it and move on.

My advice is to talk to your dealer I know it seems silly but they quoted $800 for the AOS because I asked but it turned out not to be, I'd be concerned that a indy will do the AOS and not fix the issue.

The dealer quote was $2400

I also vote for "pay it". The reason is very simple. I know you want to DIY and save some $$ but you risk introducing air leak when putting those parts together plus you risk interfering with their AOS work as well. If you let them fix everything and something not right afterwards you can bring the car in for them to repair under work warranty and no excuses for them. If you mess with it and something goes wrong afterwards, not so clear who is responsible. Also, if you don't let them clean those parts thoroughly and there's still smoke after AOS replacement, they have more excuses...I guess you get my point.

All good advice, I think I'm leaning towards swallowing it and having them do it.

Got it back last night, running well with no smoke.

That was fast.

They got it Friday afternoon and started working on it yesterday morning. Total ended up being $1400 and I think there's a better shop that's closer to my house but further from work that I may try next time I need something. One nice thing is that they are just around the corner from work so I was able to go and look at the car while it was up on the lift. No leaks of any kind so I'm glad to have it back.

Glad you got it fixed

How many hours did they charge and now much were the parts?

8.5 hours, forgot the total for parts vs. supplies but I believe the AOS was around $170. Definitely a ripoff but not a horrible one.

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Where are you located that the prices are so high?

DC area

OP, if your going to keep your 996, consider getting the service manuals and a good tool set. You could have bought everything for much less than $2400. The 996 is not the car to own if you have to run to a dealer for everything. You will soon have far too much $$$ invested in an old non-collector car.

I'm only looking to keep it for 3 or 4 years and as a 2nd car that gets 5000-6500 miles a year. There are other independent shops in the area that are a lot cheaper than the people I ended up taking it to out of convenience, I probably could have gotten this done for about $1200 elsewhere. The car has had everything done including IMS, RMS and a clutch about 15k miles ago, the AOS was the last thing left which had not been addressed. My hope is for no more fun surprises until past 125k miles. I'm also comfortable doing small things like brakes, fluid changes, etc. but did not want to take on something that was this much of a PIA without having worked on the car before.

Congrats on getting the problem identified and addressed. Smoke coming off of one's 911 makes one's sphincter twitch in a most unnatural way.

I was pretty sure it was the AOS since it mirrored the symptoms exactly but was just pissed off knowing this was going to cost $1000 to $1500 a month after buying the car.

One more thing to address is the water pump - if it has not been addressed already (sorry if you said it was done earlier and I missed it)

That was done about 15k to 20k miles ago.

$1400 is about what I'd expect from my Indy. Rare that I get out of there under $1000 for usual replacement items like an alternator, etc. 2002 Turbo - Basalt Black Metallic / 2003 Carrera 4S - Speed Yellow / 1955 356 Continental 1500 - Rust Red