I seem to have intermittent white smoke coming from the exhaust that smells like raw gas? The engine oil light in the dash also sometimes flickers occassionally when I'm at idle not moving, anyone have any ideas what may be causing the smoke? It's a 1995 BMW 740iL i just bought to replace my former 91 3000GT
smoke or steam?
white smoke is usually a sign of water or condensation in the exhaust. Worse case is a blown headgasket, but you would be getting alot of white smoke comming out as your drive.
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Also, it isn't a head gasket problem because there is no overheating at all and everything appears to run just fine.
Probably just steam.
The combustion in the engine yields H20 (water/steam) + CO2. That is why sometimes you'll see water dripping from the exhaust.
OSV will give you lots of white smoke at startup. You can pull the engine oil dipstick and listen for a strong sucking sound. If you hear the sucking and it's very loud then your OSV is shot
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The "OSV" issue is a rubbr diaphragm at the back of the intake manifold which tears and allows oil to enter the manifold before the air enters the valve. If it was the OSV, you should notice other symptoms. How long did the car sit before you bought it? Have you let it run out of gas and put fresh gas in?
It smells like gas because you have fuel trim problems.
Do you live in Phoenix?
Fresh gas and fuel cleaner won't do anything ... except fill your tank.
You probably have a vacuum leak, and I wouldn't be surprised if you need new O2 sensors.
Depending on what has already been replaced on the car, I would ...
- take of the manifold
- replace all manifold gaskets
- replace OSV (rear cover plate)
- replace O2 sensors (if they haven't been replaced recently)
And there's a long list of other things that I would do while I'm in there, but those should fix the problem.
You will need new spark plugs after your done -- the added fuel in the mixture will have fouled the plugs.
Will driving the car as is right now damage it?
Ok, I have looked up pretty much every OSV DIY I can find thus far, I plan to go to the dealership to get the parts needed to fix the OSV problem, my only question left is do I need to get the entire new OSV, or do I just need that orange thingy inside of it?
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=905568
Read that thread.
And never go to the dealership for anything, especially parts.
In my opinion, you'll be much better off if you remove the entire manifold to get to the rear cover plate (osv), rather than trying to remove the rear cover plate with the manifold still in place.
Also, if the osv needs to be replaced, then it's most likely that every manifold gasket needs to be replaced, as well as the valley pan, etc., etc., etc. ....
Are their parts better than from the dealership? And I would want to do all the stuff that you mentioned, but unfortunately I don't really feel mechanically comfortable ripping parts off the engine, I have done work on a 318 and 325 before, but Im not familiar with the 740 engine at all. I just really want to get rid of this white smoke that keeps shooting out intermittently.
O yea, and when I called the dealership, I was quoted $55 on the OSV and the parts guy said they didn't have a gasket for the OSV and said I didn't need one?
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