It could have been...

Last Friday afternoon, my wife and I headed from Panama City Beach to Atlanta to watch the Atlanta and St. Louis weekend baseball series. We had a great tp down drive up in the Boxster (2000S with 95K miles), traveling around 75 to 80 mph most of the trip. It was fun to get out and drive as opposed to my usual short daily commute. The car ran great the whole trip. As we were running a bit late, our plan was to go directly to Turner Field for the game and check into our hotel later that night. When we got to Atlanta, we pulled off the freeway at the ballpark and were immediately in bumper to bumper traiffic looking for parking. As we sat in traffic, we both noticed a smell...kind of a hot petrolium smell...don't know how else to describe it. I looked in the passenger side mirror and saw some light colored smoke that appreared to be coming from the passenger side air intake. No a huge billowing cloud, but visable and not normal no the less. My first thought was the AOS has let go given that the smoke appeared only on the passenger side. All I could think of was that the AOS was really going to mess up our weekend if I had to hunt down a part or a garage to perform the work. I was also bummed that the bill could easily approach $1K, knowing that I could do the work back home for the price of the parts....ouch.

As we were helplessly stuck in a line of traffic, there was not an immediately available spot to pull over. Panic was starting to set in but as I looked around, I took inventory of the car, still idling smoothly...no warning lamps illumintated and the Coolant temp still pegged safely in the middle of the gauge. As I continued to look for a spot, the smell dissapated and the smoke seemed to dissapear. We continued on for about 10 minutes before we were able to park. I looked around the car and no sign of anything amiss. In the trunk, there was no sign that the coolant had dumped (but I do think that's what happened).

After the game, we drove on to the hotel without issue and left the car in the parking garage until Sunday. No strange smell or smoke and no pool of anything under the car. After Sunday's afternoon game, we drove back (5 hour drive), stopping a couple of times without issue. No strange smell and no smoke were noted at anytime. The car ran great, averaging almost 30 mpg for the trip home.

I checked my coolant level this morning and I am right at the MIN mark in the tank. Prior to leaving Friday, I had checked oil and coolant, adding just a bit of distilled water (maybe a pint) to the coolant tank to take me from the MIN to the Middle of the tank. I plan to pull engine cover and look around after work today and see if there is anything amiss (oil in intake area etc.).

For background: I completed my 90K service last summer, (except for gear oil change) along with changing spark plug tubes and o-rings. Coolant expansion tank was replace (crack in old tank) last August and my coolant cap updated to the .04 revision. Coolant flush was perfomed in Janyary 2010.

AOS has not been replaced to my knowledge. I've owned the car for almost 3 years and purchased it with 74k miles. Needless to say, I will be ordering an AOS and doing the job as a preventative measure.

Anything else I should be looking at? What am I missing?

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2011 11:40AM by dghii. (view changes)

... something that you ran over and stuck to your headers thereby smoking and alerting you with it's odor.
In order for you to see smoke come out of the passenger's side vent it means that the smoke was generated outside the engine, not inside.
It could have been a small coolant vent which happens to be right in front of the right rear wheel and could reach the headers where it would create steam with coolant smell.
In order for it to be the AOS it would have been the bellows tube at the bottom that released a bit of oil. The AOS is also located on the right side of the engine and could drip over the header if the bellows tube cracks.
It doesn't sound like anything to worry about other than checking to see the bellows tube and/or the bottom side of the headers to determine if something stuck to them.
Go Cards!
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

The smell could have also been coming from one of the cars around you. One of the down sides to a convertible is that other smells and sounds seem to be more pronounced, especially when the top is down. There are times I'm in bumper to bumper traffic and i hear a noise from behind, such as a noisey belt. I, too, get that uh oh, feeling, only to discover, it's another car. Plus, those much talked about issues on the board (AOS, for instance), and their related expensive fixes, do tend to get one paranoid. I often smell gas, but once I clear traffic or the offending car, it always goes away.

Sounds like a nice trip, which is what these cars were meant to do--get you out and enjoy life.

Sitting in heavy traffic, not sure how many lanes wide, it might have been possibly coming from a neighbouring car or even one behind you. Smoke could come drifting from another car and appear to be coming from the side of yours (since you said it appeared to be coming from your car. Maybe that's why it subsided when you started moving again.

I know that on occasion, that's happened to me, where I smell or hear something that doesn't sound normal, then disappears when traffic moves and surrounding cars change.

Hopefully, that was it in your case.

My wife bought box seat tickets (25 rows up behind home plate) for all games as a birhday present. Back in 2007, she bought tickets and airfare to St. Louis to see a weekend series at their new ballpark for our first anniversary...stayed in Union Station downtown! I moved to Panama City Beach back in '82 from St. Louise and still follow the Cards.

I do pull for Atlanta on all other occasions!

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles

Almost certain the smoke was from my car as I got a good look at it through the mirror. I'll see what I can figure out today and post anything interesting.

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles

You yourself said that you mostly do short trips and this was your first extended "hot" trip.

Over many trips, accumulated water and fuel is added to the oil, does nto burn/boil off, and replaces the slowly used oil. So when you go out and get the oil > 212 deg for a long period, it suddenly vanishes. What actually vanishes is sometimes the contaminants.

Grant

Quote
grant
You yourself said that you mostly do short trips and this was your first extended "hot" trip.

Over many trips, accumulated water and fuel is added to the oil, does nto burn/boil off, and replaces the slowly used oil. So when you go out and get the oil > 212 deg for a long period, it suddenly vanishes. What actually vanishes is sometimes the contaminants.

Grant

I believe he lost about a cup of coolant. I didn't see loss of oil mentioned.

Seems the coolant was down to the minimum before leaving. He topped it up with about a half cup of distilled water. Then it was back to minimum after the return home.

Maybe the pressure release valve allowed a bit to escape? That might explain a loss of a cup of coolant.

Guenter
2014 Boxster S
GT Silver, 6 Speed Manual, Bi-Xenons, Sports Suspension (lowers car 20mm), Porsche Sports Exhaust, Porsche Torque Vectoring, Auto Climate control, heated and vented seats, 20" Carrera S Wheels, Pedro's TechNoWind, Sport Design steering wheel, Roll bars in GT Silver
[www.cyberdesignconcepts.com]

I was unable to further investigate this evening as one of our other cars needed some attention (cam synchronizer in a for Explorer was screaming at me). No issues at all today with the car but I still plan to pull the engine cover and perhaps pull the rear wheel and take a look around the plugs.

I don't think I lost any oil as the oil level is still full when I checked it in Atlanta and on the way home during a fuel stop. My last oil change was mid-January of this year.

I do think I lost coolant but am still not exactly sure how. I agree with the ideas in earlier posts, its just that when I stopped at the ball park and opened the trunk, there was no sign of moisture or condensation around the cap.

What is the 'correct' torque for the coolant cap? BTW, the coolant cap has been on the car since I flushed the coolant in Jan 2010.

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles

Quote
dghii
...
I do think I lost coolant but am still not exactly sure how.

...

If the coolant escapes slowly enough (as in "not Mount Vesuvius") you will not see any sign of moisture or condensation as it will drain through the small drain hole that is under the thin black plastic cosmetic cover and it will drain out through the small overflow hose and drip onto the ground to the inside of the passenger side rear wheel.

Regards, Maurice.

The cause of smoke and smell I experienced last summer was from CV joint grease getting flung out of three torn CV boots.

I discovered the problems a few months ago while doing a gear oil change. There was grease everywhere, including on the exhaust.

I have since replace the boots and cleaned things up and am back in business.

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles

turbo was leaking and it proved to be a CV boot allowing grease to get on the exhaust or turbo and smoke and look like the fluid was coming from the turbo.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

of use with low hand strength to get properly tightened. Takes some effort on my part any more. Some owners resort to using a 'cheater' in the form of a properly sized pair of channel lock pliers.

It is the pressure the system develops when the coolant gets real hot that prevents the coolant from boiling. Thus if the cap was not secure, screwed down tight enough to form a good seal, in that traffic under those hot conditions the pressure could have been low and the boiling hot coolant could have flashed to steam and caused some of the coolant to blow out past the cap and that was the cloud you saw and the smell you smelled.

That the coolant level is down now a bit suggests to me this is what happened.

Sincerely,

MarcW.