Does your car smoke?

[justinp95]

Im just wondering whats normal for these old cars? Mine is constantly smoking even when it is warm, but it is 42* here right now and i dont remember looking when it was a warm day. But my truck warms up and doesnt smoke in the cold....

[E34N]

what color is it? does it smell?

[4500 RPM]

Jesus dude, you're still working out problems on it?

[justinp95]

Jesus dude, you're still working out problems on it?

They dont just go away in a few days. lol

[justinp95]

what color is it? does it smell?

Its white and its smells just like exhaust smoke should.

[4500 RPM]

They dont just go away in a few days. lol

haha

Are you sure it's smoke and not just steam?

Compression/leak down test done?

[SC David]

Sounds like steam. E34's seem to let out a particularly large amount when it's cold out and they're just warming up.

[justinp95]

I guess it could be steam, but i thought it would go away when it was at operating temp.

[atl530i]

Mine does the same but goes away after about 15 minutes of driving.

Did you figure out what was wrong with your car before?

[tfritz]

mine does this too... and it has recently been going through anti-freeze...

[atl530i]

Check your coolant for oil and oil for coolant.....

[2DYE4]

tha purps of course

[///MeisterBrau]

Check your coolant for oil and oil for coolant.....

Got the same problem as most. White exhaust that smells rich. I also use about a half gallon of coolant every month. Weird thing is that I don't have any oil in coolant or vice versa. I am suspecting head gasket though since I don't have any visible leaks.

[HE53]

Got the same problem as most. White exhaust that smells rich. I also use about a half gallon of coolant every month. Weird thing is that I don't have any oil in coolant or vice versa. I am suspecting head gasket though since I don't have any visible leaks.

its probobly runnig down the inside of the block under the intake and burning before it hits the ground. Mine was doing that before I swapped the head gasket on it a couple years ago. Just a guess from my experiences.

[justinp95]

I have a leak from the radiator so I added some water once and i cant look at the oil because it hasnt been changed in 1.5 years, but has been sitting that long. After i get the leak and an oil change i could be on the lookout, but by that time it would be warm outside to tell if its smoking then.

[4500 RPM]

I have a leak from the radiator so I added some water once and i cant look at the oil because it hasnt been changed in 1.5 years, but has been sitting that long. After i get the leak and an oil change i could be on the lookout, but by that time it would be warm outside to tell if its smoking then.

Um, yeah, you should have changed the oil when you first got it.

[justinp95]

Oh well. It will happen when i get some spare money. How many quarts do these things take anyway?

[Bradams540]

I am actually having the same problem. But with mine it is not smoke at all, or it doesn't smell like smoke. It looks and acts like steam. The problem is, it doesn't go away at all on mine. It doesn't matter how long it runs, at idle, it always has the steam. Anyone got any idea what could cause that. I know I don't have a coolant leak. I just flushed the system about a week ago and everything looked normal. No oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil (had it changed about 4 months ago). While I am here, I am also having a problem starting the car when it is cold (35 or below) and the engine is at the abmient air temperature. Any help with either of these will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Brad

[GuinnessDraught]

My 535 puts out a pretty big cloud of steam-looking smoke, especially during these colder months. It doesn't smell or look like oil or coolant smoke. It just smells like a fairly rich exhaust smell. It definitely lessens once the car has been running at operating temperature for a while, especially after cruising on the freeway. But oh man on a cold day before warming up it's pretty thick.

I'm not losing any noticeable amount of coolant, and both my coolant and oil are clean.

[clevertd]

Oh well. It will happen when i get some spare money. How many quarts do these things take anyway?

6.1

[tfritz]

yeah, I just changed my oil a couple days ago expecting to find the worst... but it looked not only good but great it was a little darker than honey, probably the cleanest oil I have changed.
it still 'steams' and doesn't go away upon warming up and I'm deffinately loosing coolant but I havent left even the slightest drip in the snow :dunno

[94530i]

-Edit-

[glwillia]

Damn, my E34 does that too (coolant seems a little bit low in the reservoir, it lets out a decent-size cloud when first turned on in cold weather, but becomes fairly small when warmed up). The headgasket is 5,000 miles old and the thing posted good leakdown-test results (<10% in all cylinders). I think it's just endemic to E34s.

[justinp95]

Yea, Its 25* here today and it goes down enough to where you cant see it when driving, but some at idle.

[zfender14]

It could be a loose exhaust manifold, or busted exhaust gasket.

[justinp95]

Is that a good enough reason to get headers eventually? lol

[tfritz]

I would think if it was a leak around the headers it wouldn't have anything to do with the exhaust comming out of the rear end.

[blazeb212]

idk mine also has a pretty good amount of white exhaust vapors, which i know is water, seems to go away but i still wanna do a compression/leak test on it to make sure that it isnt a head gasket gone bad, dont want the problem to get even bigger

[moroza]

It belched steam like a tea kettle in the Ohio freeze (I'm talking -25 with wind), but I'ven't noticed a single wisp down here in Florida. Every so often, particularly in a garage, I've noticed it smelling a bit funny, but it's usually unnoticable.

[GuinnessDraught]

Seems like all us 535 and 540 guys belch big clouds of vapor in the cold. I think it's just because our engines pull so much air through them and spit it out the other end all warmed up. On a cold day, that means lots of steam. :)

Also, it's reassuring to see how many peoples' E34s of all kinds run so rich before warming up.

[justinp95]

Yea, it was kinda warm today (45*-56*) and it didnt smoke so that makes me feel better.

[blazeb212]

me too lol, really dont wanna have to fix a head gasket

[justinp95]

Yea, I already have enough to fix!

[ToppedOut525i]

yea my car smokes too.. i told him to kick the habit but no luck... :D

[terra]

my car smokes abit when its cold, smells really rich aswell, but that smell goes when it warms up

[blazeb212]

well glad that it seems pretty normal. means i probably dont have work to do =D