My 2009 Carrera S is a soot factory...it is really unbelieveable how much soot is on the inside and outside exhaust tips and rear bumper of the car after a week of driving. I have not said much on the forums until now.

When I start the car up it covers my garage floor and back wall is covered with soot that blows out of the exhaust! My car sooted up even with the stock exhaust but shows more soot now that I removed the 2 side mufflers and only use the rear muffler since the exhaust path is not as restricted. The inside of the stock mufflers is full of soot that I could dump out.

I took my car to my dealer and they kept it for a week and did a full diaognostic check out. They pulled the headers to look into the exhaust valves, did a compression check. Everythng was way in spec but they can not find out why so much soot. I also was burning around a quart of oil every 700-1000 miles. The oil burning has since tampered down to 1/4 of a quart in 700 miles.

I followed my wife in the car and had her floor it getting onto the freeway and a black puff comes out of the exhaust. I say the car is running extremely rich.

So much for the new 2009 Carrera S being a greener car...the exhaust it puts out if filthy. Porsche needs to address this issue with what I would suspect with a leaner cleaner burning ECU fuel map. However I get the feeling that Porsche could careless about this issue.

 

Hmm, I guess Porsche would care if there are more people with this problem. Anyone else has this problem that you have heard of? Maybe Softronic or EVOMsIT DME can correct this . Do you think it has to do with the Bypass pipes changing the mixture? I would assumed that it would lean it more out than enrichen it.

 

mdrums. Been following your oil/soot saga. I am really sorry to hear this. I would think the dealership would be very upset with this and do everything in its power to rectify the problem. Is it only your car or has the dealer been seeing this problem? Sounds like it is burning coal instead of gas.

 

Someone posted on another site about this same problem. I personally do not know any other 2009 Carrera or Carrera S owners to ask them about the issue so that is why I posted my story here.

I had the sooting issue before I did the side muffler by pass pipes. You would think it would lean out the car some but I understand the new ECU is very adjustable.

When I took my car into the dealer to have it looked at the first thing the chief tech and service adviser asked me is if I tampered with the ECU. I have not and they checked the ECU as well. they said the exhaust mod since it is after the cats is fine and would not cause the car to run rich or lean because the new ECU is very adaptible. The service manager told me that the dealer has always been mod friendly and use to sell GIAC and then REVO ecu mods but now Porsche has become extremely less tolerant of ECU mods and that any ECU mod to my car would automatically void the warranty of the cars engine, transmission, parts of the suspension, all electrical parts of the car and engine manaagment system. They also said that any mod to the headers and cats will void the engine warranty on 2009 cars.

 

Mike, I too have a pretty bad soot problem. I am assuming it has to do with the car running really rich, because for the life of me, my mpg average is 18.5 mpg at BEST. That is me driving like a grandma with mostly highway driving. My car seems to guzzle gas like a champ

 

Wow . I don't even know what to say. Porsche doesn't usually launch a car in the US until it was tested several months in Europe so it begs the question -did they know ?

I agree with you that it needs to be addressed and I also empathize with your frustration .

 

My 09 C2S with PDK seems to have more "soot" than did my 07 C2S six-speed. However, it is not nearly as much as is shown in a couple of photos over on rennlist or as bad as mdrums describes his. I can say that comparing the fuel economy of the 07 with the 09 in basically similar circumstances I have gotten 22.1 mpg overall with the 09 C2S PDK versus 18.5 with the 07 C2S with six-speed. Obviously, ymmv, but I don't think the "soot" with the 09 corresponds with higher or lower gas mileage at least in my case.

Also, please keep in mind I only have about 1300 miles on the car and have been babying it until I reach the recommended 2000 miles for break-in. I am making a trip from Houston to Austin this weekend and will be sure to see how the tailpipes look after a 165 mile plus one way trip and again after the trip back.

 

My average with a lot of highway is also around 18-19mpg. The only time my 2009 gets this great fuel mileage Porsche claims is on the highway in 7th gear (PDK has a 7th overdrive) and at 75mph I average on the flat Florida highway 26mpg. If I go with the flow of traffic at 80mph I am down to 24-25mpg...no better than a 2005-06 Carrera S witha 6speed. Although I did not buy a Porsche for fuel mileage but these DFI great fuel mileage that Porsche is claiming is just not true.

You need to still see my car and I want to see your stock painted wheels. I am stuck at my house all day tomorrow getting a bad tile job re-done. You are more than welcome to come over and we will take a cruise.

 

Guys, remember I am seeing more soot than you all because I took of my 2 side mufflers and am only using the center muffler. the exhaust is less restrictive and the side mufflers trap a lot of the soot.

When I took off my side mufflers at 3200 miles I soot came out of the mufflers...lots of trapped soot in the restrictive side mufflers.

So your soot issue is there it is just being traped in the side mufflers.

 

Hmmm... hey mike, I still think that because of the drastic change in back pressure etc... the SDI3 is running a different and richer ignition map? Remember these cars were 'meant' to run 93 so running 91 and with mods... Running a richer map would be natural. I know mine (even before we re-tuned it) was always running just fine and not getting anymore soot than normal. The only way to test is to put the stockers on there for a bit and drive around and see what you get for a few hundred miles like that.... If you still get the same level of soot then yes something else is going on with your particular car? Just a thought?

 

Mike, sorry to hear about your problem, perhaps it is a problemsith your fuel, all of you guys with the soot problem could be getting your gas from the same refinery. I get a bit of black coming from my car, but it is the normal stuff on the exhaust tips. I only use 94 octaine from Chevron.

 

Looks like we are on the same idea, I didn't think of the 91 octaine, that may be the problem.

 

Mike I can feel your frustartion, with my 05' I had to take it to the dealer three times before I asked for the shop manager, he took care of me after I expressed my concern, and I don't know if you read a thread I wrote on saying the cylinders ended up not being completely round but off the mark by a few mm, and porsche ended up replacing the entire engine out. I would go back and have them do the compression check again, you should not be eating that much oil, after they changed out my engine, I put another 16k miles on it and didn't need a drop of oil. my current 07 has been to the track twice and no oil needed thus far, it's my daily driver, and I have yet to see more than 18.5 mpg.....

 

Yup just read what you wrote Makes sense to me too... Plus factor in that crappy 91;(

 

Isn't all of Florida 93 octane ? That's what's at the pumps in Miami/Lauderdale/Boca/ Naples /Ft Mysers .