458 Smoke on Cold Start

I test drove a 2011 Italia with 15k miles yesterday. Upon cold start-up (it had not been started for almost one month, perhaps so, because the battery was dead) a LOT of white smoke was emitted. It did not have the scent of antifreeze nor oil, and after a short drive at highways speeds smoke was gone. Turned the engine off and back on ... no smoke. An explanation given was that perhaps the position of the ignition cycle when the engine was last turned off a month ago, as related to direct port fuel injection?

 

Afaik as long as the smoke goes away when she heats up, smoke emission
is normal after a period of standstill in colder temps.

Entropy or Maxvonauto can for sure explain the phenomenon

 

Normal according to the dealer I asked. Especially if the car sits for long periods or you start the car idle very briefly, switch off and then start the car again say two weeks later.

 

+1
I had this problem when I'd start my car, move it then shut it down and start it later...now when I start it I let it warm up before I shut it down...doesn't smoke anymore..

 

About a year ago I had this problem.
My wife called me frantically thinking there was a fire in the house. I didn't realize how much smoke I left in the garage after closing the door!
I checked with my ubertech at FOA the next day.
Apparently for either lubrication (or some sort of other need I am blanking on right now) the car has a drop of oil injected into the combustion chamber on start-up. Occasionally the "drop" is more than that and what you get is a lot of oil burning. This leads to the smoke and why it is considered "OK" by the dealer - as mentioned above.
The time between my drives appears to have been irrelevant in my case. I frequently go more than 2 weeks and it was a one off occurrence. This leads to what my tech said about the cause: just a glitch in the oil infusion.
Best

 

Fwiw mine just smokes when she is left stationary a long time and when the temps get
colder at night.

 

I didn't think it ever got cold at night in CA!
Obviously Ferrari has to add some sort of drama after the buying experience just to keep us on our toes.
Best

 

Don't worry it's nothing

 

As others have said --water vapor. Nothing to worry about.

And if you see clear water leaking from the tailpipes at start up-- its the same thing.

 

Precisely! As a matter of fact, there are droplets of H20 hanging from the exhaust
tips after the smoke clears.

 

LOL, the temps do get colder at night in this time of year though so I do occasionally see
some smoke, no smoke ever from March to November

 

Agree 100%. Not to worry as long as it all goes away once the car is warmed up.

 

It seems there are two parameters that affect the smoking episodes - low ambient temperature and driving frequency. We have no control over the former; however, the latter is definitely within our influence.

Some respondents state they do not drive their 458 but every couple of weeks. To the other end of the spectrum, ostensibly driving once or twice per week should suffice, no? (As a data point I drive my 360 more than casually at 6k miles per year, and this pattern will continue with the 458.) The tacit inference is that driving frequently will alleviate the smoking events.

Getting more to the technical aspect of why the ECU controls oil injection (post # 6), there must be an ECU internal timer which knows how long it has been since the engine was last operating at full temperature. Based on that and the ambient temperature at the next startup, the ECU determines how much oil to inject.

Many of you stated the smoke occurred when it was cold. When the car was started for my test drive, it was inside a climate-controlled showroom at 70-ish degrees.

 

Fwiw mine only emits smoke if:
- she has not been driven for a while
- the ambient temps get colder at night

For example no smoke after I returned to her in August:
she had been sitting in the garage for 3 months but the
ambient temps remained mild.

 

Its normal, happened to me 3 weeks ago. I turned the car on after 1 month and it smoked like crazy. Thought the engine caught on fire but everything is ok. Now I turn it on once a week at least.

 

Did you try pushing the choke in?

I wish everyone as well a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

LOL...

 

it's water vapor.

IF it was "smoke", it would not dissipate quickly and you'd have a clear odor (whether it was oil, coolant, etc).

If you live anywhere where there is a bit of humidity, after every drive the exhaust cools and condensation (i.e. water) forms and collects in the exhaust. Unless the car is in a temp/humidity controlled environment, even when sitting the car (and, exhaust) go through a bit of mild heat cycling (warm during the day, cools at night).

So, when you start it, some of that moisture is literally blown out of the exhaust, some is atomized and looks like steam, and as the exhaust heats up, it actually blows some steam until the exhaust stream is hot enough or most of the moisture is blown out. Moisture will accumulate in the pipes, cat and muffler. If you have black, greasy runoff out of your 458's exhaust, that's moisture.

You CAN have some mild oil smoke at startup (anyone own an older air cooled Porsche?) that can be harmless, and a function of some oil pooling. However, if that is persistent beyond initial startup, might be worth looking into.

We live in the northeast US, garage is unheated, even during summer if we move from a hot/humid cycle to a more mild cycle, if I do a startup after a humid day the vapor is more apparent. The ambient temp will also make it SEEM more or less....

 

From a thermodynamic (pun intended to the above author) that is a plausible explanation; however, it does not address other Ferrari engines.

There is a thread in the 360 section about white smoke (steam) upon cold start-up. This morning (mid-fifties in Houston with humidity) my 360 white-smoked just a little backing out of the garage.

So, we have documented cases of Modena and Italia engines white-smoking when it is “cold” outside. That is the commonality, because there is also a dissimilarity. It seems the Italia engines emit a significant amount of more steam than the Modena engines.

Why? Larger engine displacement? Exhaust system differences?

 

Thanks for the info Entropy!
xoxo

 

Water vapor (steam) will seem more (or less) apparent as it's very existence (and visibility) is directly tied to the ambient temperature (you can see your breath when it's cold out, less so on a 100 degree day).

Smoke on the other hand is essentially suspended particulate (the products of combustion) and are pretty much equally visible independent of ambient temperatures.

Unfortunately I don't have the basis for explaining a 458 vs. 360 "start up smoke" comparison. There is no doubt the more modern cars have a bit more of an aggressive emissions compliance setup - with a specific goal of minimizing start up (cold start) emissions, which are typically the highest for CO, CO2, etc.

 

Maybe the 458 smokes more simply because it is a larger engine..

Anyhow this explains why mine just occasionally emits cold startup smoke only
from November to March as the temps get colder and the humidity levels in the air
rise considerably in my neck of the woods in SoCal at that time.

PS Got a third set of Sabelts by any chance?