I occasionally get a puff of smoke on startup, maybe 1-2 seconds at most. Car only has 3100 miles.

Ideas?

 

Let it cool down (idle for 1 min) after a hard run, is my old air cooled turbo advice, might apply.

 

I usually do. I will start paying more attention. I swear the last time it smoked, I idled like 3 minutes the night before.

 

My car was shooting out puffs of smoke when I started it. In my case it was a symptom of the car running too rich (unburned fuel). You could always check your fuel trims and see if they are too high (positive). What color is the smoke? White? Black? Bluish? The color could help you diagnose a potential issue.

 

That's normal. My car does it - it's not running rich or burning oil....

 

its oil for sure, not black smoke. I have had many turbo cars, so I am used to it, but its happening more often than I would like.

My concern is that I bought the car with only 1900 miles and its an 07. Our cars like to be driven. I am worried that some seals or something are brittle of have flat spots from the car being stationary for so long. It sounds and runs great. I am probably worried about nothing. My 996tt didnt do it as often as the 997.

 

I only have that if I started and shut off the car for a brief second. Then on the second fire up, I have a puff do burning oil. I too, wonder what that is

 

very true, my 08 owners manual says the same thing...still happens to me occ though...almost 26k miles

 

the same thing happens to me after eating 1 too many bean burritos

 

They smoke upon startup once in a while.

3100 miles on the car.

How's the oil?

Has the oil ever been changed? New engines really load the oil with unburned gas and water (and a lot of trash). The unburned gas and water make the oil more fluid and more likely to foam and create more oil vapor which can make it past the AOS and wet the intakes and a bit of smoke upon start up is possible.

Best thing you can do for a new engine is change the oil early. Gets rid of the unburned gas/water build up, along with vary nasty oil and a very dirty filter.

Anyhow, as long as the engine doesn't smoke every start, and smoking doesn't last a long time, and the engine in other ways doesn't act up I think you've probably nothing to worry about.

Probably.

I have to point out the engine (car) is still quite new based on miles and there can be a "new car" problem and this problem could get worse over time, read miles.

So do what you can to eliminate the obvious causes of this smoking: change the oil/filter as necessary; do not over fill the engine with oil; give the engine some idling time to cool down after a trip (my 03 Turbo manual calls for 2 minutes of idling); and pay attention. If the smoking gets worse, if there are any other symptoms, have it looked into pronto.

 

It's a characteristic of the boxer engine - Suburu's do the same thing. When I start my car to reposition in the garage, shut it down after about 30 seconds then start later almost guaranteed smoke on start.

 

Mine does it too from time to time went to the dealer and they told me it was all normal they all tend to do that!

 

Mine does this as well, I took it to the dealer and the service manager told me that its expected from a boxer and even more with the Mezger.

 

Hot weather tends to bring it out. The grey smoke is just from a bit of residual fuel. The smoke on start up problem manifests usually after the engine has cooled after shutdown. Sometimes it happens regularly other times it can be months before you see it again. Nothing to get overly concerned about. I also agree the idle down doesn't really do anything to reduce the frequency of occurrences. If it's going to happen it will happen anyway. Excessive idling is really not recommended and can be very detrimental particularly after cold start up and also on hot shutdown.

 

Man I gotta say...there is a lot of good info here but my 07 has never even let out a tiny bit of smoke...ever. Im sure there are some here who can say the same?