Hi all, thanks in advance for any suggestions! My 2008 Cayenne 3.6 V6 has 57k miles and things are good so far. Recently, winter time in California, I always notice some white smoke from the two tailpipes from the mirrors at stop lights, no smell. One tailpipe seem to have more than the other. The coolant consumption is about 50mL over 1500 miles. Do you have any idea on what this is, anything easy I can do to check the cause? Thanks!

 

Monitor your fluids but as winter creeps around, the years of hot/cold starts to show on gaskets.

Mileage does not mean much when aging happens to rubber/composite gaskets. That could be just condensation being burned off.

Keep the tank full to keep off condensation in fuel etc over time.

Just watch out for catastrophic failures and mitigate the loss of coolant/oil/spark plugs. When my 6er gave up the gasket it was a 1-2 day fix in the shop and ready to go another 8 years. It was running rough and oil was showing up in the plugs.

I sold off the 225k mile 6er and got a CTT. Never looked back though I would think a worn out 6er, gutted and made into a safari would be awesome. just coil-overs and a nasty junkyard beater engine would be fun.

 

With most vehicle white out the tail pipe if it' completely wsrned up usually means it' burning coolant. Could be start of a head gasket leak.

 

I just made an account to post a reply here, about a year ago I bought an immaculate 08 v6 cayenne with 75,000mi and an impressive options list including a manual transmission, pdcc, extended leather, etc.

Anyway, I thought I was having the exact same issue shortly after purchasing it which really bummed me out. For the past year I've been monitoring my coolant, oil along with the exhaust and I've determined there are no leaks and this thing just blows a ton of steam! When it's warm and dry out the steam completely disappears but when it's cold and humid (I'm in Seattle so this is common) it seems to blow more steam than any other car on the road.

The amount of steam still makes me paranoid but I'm pretty sure that's what's going on.

I'd love to hear from some more v6 cayenne owners.

 

If it only dies it under certain conditions it' likely humidity