sobefun

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of clearing traffic with the MI6 smoke screen from my failing Air Oil Separator. After towing the car home and installing a new AOS, I am back in business.... sort of.. Here are the details.. Pre-Smoke screen... 2001 986 (recently acquired) Recently experienced standard codes indicating MAF problems. Before replacing the MAF, the motor was not running smoothly. Once the MAF was replaced, the motor ran smooth, BUT did have a bit of an erratic idle. No CEL codes though. A few days later, I noticed a bit of smoke coming out of the tailpipe on startup. Knowing this is not uncommon with the Boxster, I decided to wait until the weekend in order to investigate the idle issue. As luck would have it, during the weekend, the AOS failed, creating the typical smoke screen. This is the same smoke that I have seen in a previously owned 986. Once the smoke started pouring out, I shut the car off within 20 seconds. In the 10 minutes of driving before the incident, there were no indications of engine problems (power was ok, acceleration ok, etc). After replacing the AOS and starting the car, loads of smoke came out and within 10 minutes, the amount of smoke coming out was dramatically reduced. I did notice that the idle problem is gone (Yay). If I take off the oil filler cap, I can hear suction and then the idle changes. This erratic idle immediately goes away when the cap is reinstalled. Here's the question... Now that the AOS has been replaced and the idle looks good, how long should I expect the smoke to come out of the exhaust. Is there a chance that another problem exists and I should not run the car? I've read that it may take around 100 miles of driving for the smoke to go away. I'm hesitant to drive the car in rush hour traffic until the issues have been cleared. Any comment will be greatly appreciated. Kevin 01 986 Azure Blue Miami, Florida

Update: AOS failure.. After $401, car is back on the road and running fine. Smoke screen option was disabled. I want to give a shout out to a few stand up guys.... Pedro of Pedro's Garage, and Luis Gil of European Auto Center in Miami. Kevin

As always, thanks for the the valuable advice. My choice of mechanic was based on the recommendation of a board member of the PCA (Gold Coast Region). In South Florida, that's about as good as it gets.

It's at the shop now. So far, Q has been able to get the car started, but it seems that the smoke screen button is stuck. I am awaiting results from further investigation. The scary part is that I switched to two wheels for the interim and was almost hit (THREE TIMES) by henchmen (aka Miami drivers) on the way to the shop. On the way home, another one (slick American car) attempted to merge me into a curb. Luckily I narrowly escaped. Spectre must really be out to get me. At least the car starts now. I'll file another report soon.. Now where did I hide that bottle of 1990 Bollinger?

My 2002 986 2.7 5sp, 68k miles developed a serious problem recently. Here's the details: Two days ago, I noticed a bit of white smoke coming from the tailpipe as I was on the freeway. The temp was at 180, no performance issue, oil OK, coolant OK. Could not find anything wrong. After I stopped to check it out, the car did not smoke again (on that trip). Yesterday morning, while checking the car for problems, I started the car, let it warm up, and took it up to 4k rpm... all with no trace of smoke. Oil was still ok, as was the coolant level. In the afternoon, I drove the car about 4 miles... still no sign of smoke. Again, temp ok, no performance issues. etc.. On the way home though... it was another story. Upon the return trip, I noticed a bit of smoke coming out of the tailpipe. It seemed to occur after I let off the gas. If I accelerated, the volume of smoke did not increase. This lasted for about 1 mile in 30-40mph traffic. On the 2nd mile, the car did a full smoke screen (Fit for any proper spy movie) and then shut off. Luckily I was able to pull over and have the car towed home. At this point, the oil gauge was 2 bars lower than before. The OBD II scanner reported no codes and the car will not turn over. :-( I'm in the process of reading every reference to white smoke on various websites, but would appreciate hearing from this crowd. Any thoughts on what could have happened? Kevin 2002 986 2.7 5sp, 68k miles.

Well, good news.. It turns out that the problem is intermittent. It cleared up for a while then reoccurred, but this time the check engine light came on. I was able to test it with an OBD reader and came up with P0115. So, it seems that my Coolant temperature sensor is either going bad or it's just the connection acting up. The troubleshooting will continue.

Hello, earlier today, I noticed that the coolant temperature gauge in my 02 Boxster was pegged at 0 and the light (on the right side of the gauge) is blinking. From what I can tell, the frequency of the blinking light is not the "quick blinking". The "check engine" light is NOT illuminated and the car seems to be running fine. I checked the coolant level (no problem there) and the oil (correct level and no sign of coolant mixing in). All other gauges are working properly. Does anyone know what could be causing this? The only oddity is that it is uncommonly cold in Miami today. If this issue is simply a bad sensor or wiring, is it safe to drive the car for short distances until I can get this resolved? Please advise, Kevin

Does anyone know at what temperature the fans should activate for the low speed setting? My Bentley manual says the following: Low speed operation with coolant temperature above 96.75 Celsius (206.2F) or A/C switched ON. Now here's the ignorant question.. Is the gauge in the US market cars in Celsius or Fahrenheit? btw, I did check the fuses and all is good.

Hello, It seems that neither of my radiator fans will operate at low speed, even when the temperature climbs up to 180. They DO activate though at HIGH speed when I am using the AC (they cycle on and off at this point) or when the engine temp gets above 180. I've swapped the relays between the high and low positions, with no effect. Does anyone have any idea as to what could be causing this issue? My Boxster is a US 2002 with 45k. Thanks, Kevin