BMW 750Li 2008 Help solve a weird puzzle

[ika jei]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to the forum but very long time in the BMW family, I mostly had 3rd and 5th series this is my first 7th series.

Well, here is the story:

I recently purchased a BMW 750Li 2008 with 92K miles from Copart run and drive which had I main damage - vandalism. (mostly broken glasses and mirrors) I bought this car to do all rebuild work myself to save some money plus to do videos for my Youtube channel. The very first day when the car was delivered to my house I parked it in a garage and did very quick check because I was out from work. Everything seemed OK with an engine, no leaks or noises but I noticed a steam coming from the exhaust system although it was a pretty warm day, I thought it is a condensate. Later when I came back home I started the car again and the result was the same, steam from the exhaust and liquid was dripping from it. Later when the car cooled down I loosened up a cap of coolant reservoir and I have heard the sound of the hissing air. Next I opened an engine oil cap and noticed a little bit of milky substance. I started car again but this time with open coolant reservoir cap to check if coolant is circulates and if there is a bubbles in it, everything seemed good, no bubbles and circulation was OK, although I checked lover radiator hose and it was cold even when water temperature was at 94 degrees Celsius. After all I thought that it might be a thermostat or water pump problem but I found invoice in the glove from BMW dealer where says, the previous owner had a low coolant light on dash and smoke from under the hood and because of that the car was towed to the dealership where water pump, thermostat, and lots of hoses was changed and coolant system was bled. So, now I'm kind of confused, it doesn't seems that the car has a blown head gasket because there is no bubbles in the coolant and coolant doesn't smell like a exhaust, engine oil cap has a milky substance but very tiny bit. Almost everything was changed in the cooling system but radiator lower hose is cold even when water temperature is at 94 degrees. Steam is coming out from exhaust even when it's warm outside and liquid is dripping from pipe ( I would say about 2 oz in about 10 - 15 minutes )

If someone knows what is wrong with my car please let me know. If you need additional information, pictures, videos let me know. Thank you!!!

[bmwdirtracer]

Is the liquid coming out of the exhaust water, or coolant?
94 C may not be enough to open the thermostat on this engine.
Milky oil cap may be a sign of many short drives, or having been started and shut off a lot at the salvage place.
Compression in the coolant may not be obvious until the engine is properly warm. Even then, appearance of this symptom of head gasket failure can be intermittent.

[ika jei]

Thank you for your replay.

The liquid is transparent, it doesn't smell like a coolant. But the amount of it is a lot.

I read about thermostats for M62B48 today and it seems that some of them will open only at about 102 degrees

I'm going to change an engine oil soon and then check if a milky substance will appear again.

IDK I'm just worry, what if the car has an engine problem. It will not be easy and cheap fix then...

[bmwdirtracer]

No, if the engine is broken, it will not be an easy and cheap fix. That's why auction cars are so very dangerous. If you buy a car from auction, you have to expect that everything on it is bad, unless you can prove it's not.

There is nothing more expensive than a cheap BMW.

[ross1]

Yikes!
I am imagining a scenario where the last owner knowing the engine was needing major work decided to let his insurance company "buy" his problem car after it was conveniently vandalized.
I hope I'm wrong.
FWIW The exhaust systems in these cars can harbor huge amounts of moisture that takes a long time to boil out. If you aren't overheating and don't smell coolant I'd give it a good long highway drive and see if all that scary steam and milk on the oil cap don't disappear.
Good luck!

[ika jei]

That is exactly what I'm thinking about... I hope we both are wrong