HUGE white cloud of smoke

[paulrobvhr]

Hi,

I have a UK spec 2003 996 C2.

Last weekend I topped up the oil with approx 2 litres of Mobile 1 (0W-40). The engine seemed to run better and it sounded smoother after the new oil.

Today I took the car out for its first decent run after the oil top up and on a quiet road I picked up the speed. At approx 90mph I changed from 3rd to 4th and a HUGE cloud of white smoke exploded out from the exhausts.

I immediately slowed to a stop expecting the very worst. I sight checked the engine and nothing seemed to be obviously amiss and there seemed to be no leakages. I drove the car the rest of the 3-4 miles to home slowly and nothing seemed to be wrong but the oil pressure at idle went from approx 4 down to 1 bar.

I have just started the car up again after leaving it for about 1 hour and a small cloud of white smoke came out the exhausts on ignition but normal exhaust thereafter.

Can anyone advise what might be the problem?

Many thanks

[Richard Hamilton]

Sounds like the Air/Oil Separator to me. The first thing to do is look inside the throttle body for oil residue - that's a sure sign.

Just do a search here for "white smoke" and you will find several pages of info.

[CosmosC4S]

Welcome to the Porsche White Smoke Syndrome! ;)

Like Richard Hamilton said, do a search...lots of info from previous discussions.

[Chuck Jones]

Anytime I hear of folks getting a huge cloud of smoke after an oil fill, I think of overfill....just too coincidental of an occurrence. The oil burns off and the smoke goes away after a bit of driving or running the engine.

[RFM]

Check the oil level first, cold engine and car on a flat floor, 2 liter is a lot (0.5 liter under lowest level) and therefore difficult to check. Remove the potential overfill ASAP.