Excessive smoke on startup, failing AOS?

I recently bought a 987.1 Cayman that has just ticked over 100k miles. I have noticed that on cold startups in the morning there is an excessive amount of white smoke that bellows out for a minute or two and then goes away. So long as I take it out for a good run and get it up to temperature it starts with no smoke for the rest of the day. It drives absolutely fine, no noticeable difference. Judging from other posts in this forum that sounds like it could be a failing AOS , especially seeing as it has 100k and I can't see any replacement in the service history. I took a video of it one morning to show as an example and was wondering if anyone else thinks it could be the AOS or something else? Very much appreciate any help!

100K ? I'd wager the AOS 100%, certainly replacement is not a waste of investment either way

That just looks like moisture from the exhaust on a cold day, not oil.

condensation in the exhaust , typical and normal as the exhaust heats up. If it s blue in color or much thicker than thats the AOS FYI I am install a catch can when I swap out to a new AOS

These gents may be correct as well, I forgot it's cold elsewhere

Yea it has been ~4C here as of late, maybe I'm reading too much into it! Appreciate all of the advice, I'll still probably change the AOS as a preventative measure some point soon but I'll stop being super concerned about it

Worth the peace of mind if you aren't completely sure how many miles is on the one in there. I'm kinda in the same boat. I don't know if I have the original waterpump, belt tensioner, or AOS . But the car has less than 50k miles. However, it's 17 years old so mileage isn't the only wear parameter. Everything runs and performs so perfectly that I WANT to assume the previous owner (10 years) was fairly meticulous? But the FIRST sign of ANYTHING out of the ordinary will be my trigger to address all commonly known maintenance items like discussed.

Cactusjack- Before your next car wash, look for oil droplets on your license plate and especially inside your exhaust pipes. Take a rag and clean the inside before your next startup. Then after you park the car with that light colored rag again examine the inside of the tail pipes looking for oil. If none, then move on to the motor and listen for any piston clicking noises. If none, I would change the oil ASAP and oil filter and save that oil filter to cut apart. Find a good brand that is recommended for your area in Briton. I use Mutol, which should be available there. Maybe something like 0W-40. If you live in a warmer year around then 5W-40 weight oil. What about your oil level each morning just before start up. Is it possible you are getting engine coolant in your oil. Check the coolant to see if its full, and your oil levels at startup are about the same each day. Make sure your car is parked on level ground or the exact same ground each day for the oil level assessment gauge to give accurate oil usage/levels. Go to Jake Raby's flat6innovations web site and view his series on bore scoring. For wait ever reason there is more bore scoring in your area than even Canada. So, use Jake's startup method to make sure you are not adding to this statistic. I have a 987.1S in Seattle, Wa, which has close to the same weather as Briton without issue, but I follow faithfully Jake's methods. I even cut apart my oil filter to see if there are any plastic or metal particles that could be an early sign of trouble ahead. Maybe its just moisture as gjubi suggested.

From what I've heard, AOS failure leads to a LOT of smoke. A few videos of what that looks like: (at the 8-10 second mark) What you show doesn't look like that to me... just looks like condensation or startup in cold weather...

when the AOS went on my 2008 Cayman S it looked like a large smoke bomb went off behind my car, in the few seconds it took to back the car out of the garage there was an enormous amount of smoke that took some time to dissipate

That’s normal… bottom line here, ask the questions: 1) using excessive oil or coolant? 2) puddles under the car? If nothing applies to the above chances are its moisture. What happens after it’s warmed up and you drive it? I bet it doesn’t smoke after it’s warm right? bore scoring: with a motor that old bore scoring is really rare because over time there is a natural tolerance that happens. Like Apex pointed out, when you have bore scoring you use oil and the back of your car will reflect that.. sooty pipes, the back bumper will be all sooty and discolored as well.. so the obvious, fluids on the level?

APEX 1.......Bore scoring on a 987.1 Base??? As long as I've been on this site and several others, I have never seen a bore scoring report on the 2.7L Base engine. It is my understanding it doesn't happen.

You are correct, Smaller bore size but same piston skirt length and a big difference.

Yep, although you won't get much love from the Red Caliper crowd, the little brother of the flat6 family seems to be the Timex as long as you can address the IMS . Of course the 987.2 takes even that off the risk table. Great little motors.

Unless you strap a turbo kit on it…all that cash for 5-6psi? 🤦‍♂️

I'm not anti-turbo. In fact I have 2 of them on my truck. 😁 But that is very different than the typical aftermarket approach. I like my fun cars light and normally aspirated. Even analog is a good thing. Becoming rare too.

I have a ton of turbo experience and my advice, don’t put a turbo on a high compression N/A motor. It’ll just blow. Your better off finding a 911 turbo motor. That’s all I meant. I enjoy N/A motors more too.

Most likely condensation like others said, happens to my 987.1S. If the AOS was damaged the smoke would also occur during startup with a warm engine (I have been there also), which you indicated does not happen.

Looks like moisture to me. No blue smoke.

First off, kudos for having the balls to buy this car with nearly 100K. I have the exact car and just hit 90k. I've owned it 6 years and the only things I've done are brakes, tires , oil changes (all very easy) and coils (not quite as easy but not too bad). It does look like condensation. I will occasionally get a 5 second puff of oil smoke depending on how hard the car was driven before it was parked so if you see that don't worry...it is very intermittent. The main reason I wrote is to advise you not to read anything by jack raby. I had a strange noise just after purchase. (I had the paranoia due to all the things I read on the internet) He wanted me to ship him the car and estimated 10-20K for repair. 45K miles later I still hear the noise (no one has yet to diagnose) but the car runs great. DONT let him RUIN YOUR enjoyment of the car with fear. He probably cost me a year of enjoying mine.

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Remove the oil filler cap . If it is sucking vacuum, then you have a bad AOS . It can be so high vacuum you can't remove the cap with the engine running. The bad news on AOS failures is it often sucks in the rear main seal. This requires dropping the transmission, removing clutch and flywheel to replace the seal.

My 987.1S has done this since 90k. Usually after I take it out to move it or drive a short distance. White smoke, sometimes billowing, goes away after driving a quarter mile of so. Car now has 116000 miles. It also burns a quart of oil every 700 miles or so, which is within normal specs apparently. I don’t worry about it anymore.

The test for a failed AOS is to try removing the oil filler cap while the engine is running. A failed AOS will have vacuum preventing the removal of the filler cap .

yup, moisture from the cold. Leave your worries behind and drive.