Hi guys. As I was driving, all of a sudden A LOT of white smoke started coming out from my car. The smoke had a burning smell. The yellow engine light went on in the dash. So when this happened, I immediately stopped the car and had it towed.

What do you guys think this is?

I have consistently changed the oil on this car, usually every 5-10,000 miles. The most recent oil change was 2,000 miles ago. According to the dash, I have adequate oil. So is this an oil problem?

What I have noticed is that for over 1 1/2 years, there was a burning smell, probably from the rear vents, after I drove and then parked the car, but everything worked perfectly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

What year is your car?

 

IMS failure? I sure hope not. Could be a head gasket, since water normally puts out white (rather than black) smoke.

 

If the engine didn't seize, quit or make any metalic noises, I'm gonna guess a bad oil seperater. What year is your car and how many miles are on it?

Let us know what the diagnosis is.

 

Hard to advise without knowing more and preferably being able to look at the engine. What was the coolant temp doing? The oil temp? What were the other instruments having to say about all this? Was there an immediate loss of engine power or did the engine keep pulling until you reacted? Like that...

Honestly, it sounds like sudden coolant loss or the air/oil separator as NG suggests. Hard to say about that burning smell too. I commented on the lovely smell from the engine bay of a 1974 912 that won our last concours and the owner remarked my gearhead taste: "Lots of people ask what's wrong when they smell a Porsche's engine. I tell them to buy a Lexus." We tend to say that too much around here, but it's true that a sports car engine works harder for its living than most other cars and they smell like it. I suspect anything bad causing that smell for eighteen months would have failed long ago.

Gary

 

something like this?

http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t...r=asc&start=48

 

AOS... probably but it could also be coolant on the oil being burned

 

Lets figure it to be the most likely problem, a bad AOS. Lets not get hasty and go to worst case scenario . . . LOL.

Hope for the best and let us know!

 

Thanks for the responses guys. My car is a 2006 with 72,000 miles as my daily driver.

mikegr: The smoke is something like in that video link, but A LOT more.

simsgw: I checked the slot where you poor in the coolant, and I can still see the coolant level, so it seems full, so I'm not sure if it's a coolant problem. I believe the oil temp was at the middle, where it should be. And I have this problem even when I immediately turn on the car when it's been off overnight, so I'm not sure if it's an oil temperature problem. I don't think there was a loss of engine power, although I'm not sure, because I stopped the car immediately and had it towed when I saw the smoke.

Any other guesses or suggestions? Thanks again.

 

I had an electrical fire in a Jeep many years ago. Engine kept running but a lot of white smoke poured out from under the dash area. It turns out it was the burning or fusing of the insulation, no real flame just the heat from the electrical resistance. When I shut off the Jeep, most of the smoke stopped. Not saying this is your problem, but is was a very white smoke.

 

Seems to be the oil separator.

 

I tried to remove and replace my air oil separator, but I couldn't do it. So I haven't turned on the engine since. So I had the car towed to the mechanic, but now I notice an oil leak, which I never noticed before. Even when there was first white smoke, I checked the oil level, and it was full. Can removing the AOS, without replacing it somehow cause oil to leak?

 

I think the oil leak was because of the bad air oil separator allowed too much oil to get into the cylinder/piston. So I replaced the air oil separator. But after I replaced the AOS, I tried to start the engine, but it wouldn't start. It just made a "click" sound. At first I thought it was a battery problem, but then I charged and then jumped started the car, but it still wouldn't start.

My thinking was that perhaps too much oil went into the cylinder/piston. The engine won't start because now the piston was trying to compress oil, which is an incompressible liquid. I think this is what they call "hydraulic lock." So I tried to take out all 6 spark plugs to allow the oil to drain out. Sure enough, after I removed the 5th spark plug, oil drained out. After removing all 6 spark plugs, I cranked the key for several seconds so that the pistons would pump out any additional oil in the cylinder. Then, I replaced all 6 spark plugs.

After doing this, my engine was able to start again, but there was still the initial white burning smoke, but a lot less of it. So then I figured there was still some oil residue in the engine, so I stepped on the gas, and had the car at 3,000 rpm for a few minutes to try to get rid of the oil residue. After doing all this, the burning white smoke has stopped, and I believe my problem is fixed. However, now I'm getting the error message "take to the engine shop." I think that the problem is solved, but now, because of oil being in the engine, perhaps some sensors have been damaged, and therefore I'm getting this error message, even though I think that everything is ok now.

Why do you think I'm getting this error message? Do you think I did anything wrong? Can you guys make any suggestions or give any advice?

 

I dont think that message is gona go away unless the dealer resets it or someone that has the program to errase the message. I still have service now message on my car for a oil change even though i did the oil change myself i couldnt errase the message "service"

 

Would the burning oil damage the O2 sensor?