Would you drive this 10 miles to the shop ? (white smoke!)

Yesterday on my ride home from a quick errand, my 2002 996 C2 started blowing up white smoke in the rear view mirror all the way home ~3 miles or so from a dinner takeout. It didn't do this when I started the car ~30 min ago on the drive there or at either starts - just suddenly out of nowhere while driving. It would be worse when I gave the car gas, and would ease off when I took my foot off the pedal. But when it gave smoke, it was so much to the point where I couldn't see anything out the rear view mirror / I heard people on the sidewalks hollering at me and pointing to the rear of my car as I drove by. No other signs of damage or malfunction: No CEL, oil temp hovering just below 180 (which is typical for my car), and oil pressure all good. Later I come home to find that there are these sputtered oil deposits near the rear bumper cover / right above the exhaust as well. Seems like in the forums, most common/likely would be the AOS failure. I'm the third owner of the car (currently at 97K miles, never tracked) and I remember the local indie shop that took care of the car prior to my ownership (and who still takes care of the car today) did the AOS replacement not too many years ago either, along with other documented common fixes like the RMS and IMS. Car runs really great otherwise. Wondering what could be it? Would any of these factors matter? Fister exhaust mod recently: A few weeks ago got the Fister exhaust done by Darin Fister himself at his shop and did mention there might be some smoke from the paint (?) - But this didn't happen for the first few weeks. In fact, it smelled really "good" (sweet almost haha and it sounds friggin awesome) Low oil level: Right as I got back in the car after the dinner takeout, I ran an oil level check and noticed the oil level on dash was very low, on its last bar (later when I also did the dipstick post incident, there was barely any oil left and below the bottom dot) Hard right turn: Right before this happened, I did a hard right turn out the restaurant and immediately accelerated and went through the gears. I hear similar things from other posters who had AOS issues. That there was a hard turn they took and remembering it happening on the shift from third to fourth (funny I found two other posts where people took a hard right turn too). Maybe something to do with how the oil sump sloshes the oil around on these "harder" turns? It has been a while since the last oil change: It's not a garage queen. I drive it almost daily, but short spirited drives mostly sitting at @ 4000-6000 RPM (18 miles roundtrip to the office two to three times a month, groceries/spirited coffee drives weekly). Bought the car at 93K miles w/ clean and full engine oil in Jun 2022 and put on 4K miles since My indie shop is 10 miles away. Some of the posts I've seen, people say it was OK to drive it to their indie shops not far away as long as they maintained RPMs at or below 2000. Should I do it too? Or is it just not worth the risk and instead get it towed there?

If it was my car I would have it towed in. My tolerance for taking a chance at destroying the engine with these symptoms is very low.

IF it does not misfire, I would drive it 10 miles. If it has a CEL,I would tow it,

100% do not start the engine if you don't know why it is misbehaving. You lost oil and got smoke. Something functional is wrong. I would check the coolant for oil and call my tech and tell them what happened. I would not take a further risk.

OP - Don’t chance it. Tow it and sleep well. Too many unknowns for you.

I'm not an expert, just been around the forums... People usually talk about a lot of smoke when their AOS diaphragm fails So, the intake might be sucking oil straight from the crankcase into the intake. Too much oil can hydrolock your engine. ​​​​​​People on here have posted about a failed AOS hydrolocking and killing their engine. I wouldn't start or drive it, as you don't know how much oil is sitting in the cylinders right now.

DO NOT DRIVE THAT CAR!!! TOW IT!!! (you'll thank me later)

Why would not want to tow it how much could it be to go 10miles ?. why create more damage

Tow it to your indie, and also have them check the cylinders for coolant. Had a similar experience when my engine cracked a cylinder. Between "white smoke" and "sweet smell" that points to burning coolant.

Park it and have it towed to your indy. With what you describe it sounds like your aos may have failed. Perfect time to group a few additional replacement parts and procedures together "while you are in there" if things still need to be done. If it's AOS failure, replace it with the UAOS track version even if you don't track the car. It's the Swiss army knife of M96 solutions which solves for many issues associated with oem AOS frailties.

All 996 owners must either have a trailer or AAA insurance. Playing around with classic cars sometimes this happens. AAA will give you 3 plus tows for free up to 100 miles per tow. I have both an enclosed trailer and AAA. I take no chances.

I agree on the "have it towed" suggestions. But ignore what you saw on the dipstick and dash gauge. Oil level in these cars takes a looonnnnggggg time to settle; checking the level within minutes of shutting off the engine will give you a false low reading.

I'm more of a send it type of guy...and also waiting for my engine to nuke for a k swap...I'd drive it :-D

Yeah, I watched plenty of AOSs fail on the track, myself included with 2 OEM AOSs back to back in the mid 2000s. Smoking and failure on the street is typically less dramatic with just a little bit of smoke from either over filling it, parking on a hill, canyon carving, bad diaphram, etc. It can be measured with a manometer to see if the diaphram failed. My motorsports AOS failed in my garage as identified my the manometer and an interesting sound. Hence going to the UAOS track version for many street and track reasons. If it was light smoke I would say drive it 10 miles. But the OP described so much smoke that he couldn't see behind him after exiting the parking lot, which means he is sucking in plenty of oil. Why run the extreme risk of hydralock or the risk of destroying your cats from the oil and incurring the $2500 cost of new cats if you don't have too. No need to loose any sleep over it. It's easily fixed and future episodes can be prevented with the right parts.

Is it really white? Or blue? White smokeis typically signaling water or coolant is getting in the combustion chamber(s). Burning oil is typically blue, black smoke typically indicative of fuel (improper burn) problem. When my AOS blew, it was blue. A LOT of blue. I'd venture to guess blue tinged smoke and the AOS, which is drivable, but I wouldn't risk it and get it towed.

Tow it and thank us later. Upgrade to the UAOS if the AOS is toast.

Are you willing to bet $25K+? Tow it!

Can't you tow it to the shop with the help of a friend and his car? Or is that illegal in your state? Truth be told, you need to know what your doing and anticipate that the brake booster will no longer boost after a couple of times of applying the brakes and turning the steering wheel without power assist is no mean feat at slow speeds either but still it is an option. Do check that your insurance would pay for damage occurred by rear-ending the tow vehicle to both vehicles, prior to giving it a go..

Actually not a bad idea, we do have a tow hitch on one of our other cars, but this pic was hilarious. Was this real?

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I grabbed it off the Internet but Yeah, you'd use the tow hook on both vehicles so you dont necessarily need a vehicle with a tow hook to tow the other.

Thank you all for the resounding advice against driving this lest it break something seriously! Needed to hear it even though in my heart of hearts I probably knew it was not worth taking the risk. Allstate to the rescue it is! Will keep you all posted on what I find out post-inspection/service.

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great advice. Always wondered who'd pay for AAA. Now I have a reason. Nice pic btw

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I've been hearing about this UAOS solution. Need to research more but sounds like it's the right overall direction. Thanks for the rec!

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ohhh haven't even thought of that, but that does make sense. Now that I remember, I think Darin might have mentioned something about filling up the coolant as well while under the car...

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Definitely do your research! You will find that it's a GREAT solution, IMHO

I know for a fact, without any doubt in my mind, that your AOS went. That said if it smells sweet you have bigger issues. if you keep driving the car you risk oil in cylinders and risk bending a rod ever so slightly or a lot. my guess is there is already a lot of oil in there but don�t worry you�re fine if you don�t keep driving it, like others have said. tow it or do AOS yourself. DM me if DIY guy - AOS can be changed in under 2 hours.

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I have seen a wide range of colors. When my AOS started to go, I got white puffs of smoke that went away pretty quickly. But when the diaphram went big time on the track, the smoke went from white to grey (some may call it blue) to black with flames coming out the tail pipes and the corner workers jumping up and down waving a black flag and pointing to my exhaust flames and smoke plume with the other. Lucky I was at a slower section of the track I could get off the gas with no one around and get to the side of the track without any engine damage and still running strong today 17 years later. Would probably had been a different story on a faster part of the track if my foot was on the gas just a little longer. It was at that point, after 2 oem AOS failures within less than a year, that I realized the oem Aos was a brittle piece of plastic not worth the time or effort of putting it on my car. As a side note, both times the oem aos failed, there was no oil or coolant leak with no cleanup of the track needed. Just a good old fashioned diaphram failure. As a side note, the UAOS diaphram is twice as thick as the OEM AOS amd twice as thick as the Motorsports AOS.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like it could've been really bad. Just had it towed lest I do any additional damage to the car. When I was first purchasing the car, I was only worried about the "dreaded" IMS, little did I know that the AOS is also a frequently problematic part!

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Yep. Upgrade the IMSB and AOS, as well as replace the oem water pump every 5-7 years and you have pretty much mitigated sudden catastrophic engine failure points. Keep the fuel injectors, MAF, coils and plugs fresh, run good fuel and oil, change your oil 2x a year, and use good start-up procedures and you can help to mitigate the risk of bore scoring. But most importantly, drive the hell out if it. It's a great car.