I was on the motorway yesterday and saw a puff of smoke in the rear mirror so stopped. the smoke was from the back of thbe engine and not the zorst. No warning lights on, engine temp ok. I let it cool down on the hard shoulder and cruised home. Had no probs after that and have all the gears and overdrive working. Was giving it some welly at the tome so was thinking maybe the auto box?? Going to warm it up and check the levels in a minute.

 

Anyone had anything similar??

How do you know it was not from the exhaust?

 

Can't see why an autobox would puff white smoke.

Sorry, i stopped and opened the bonnet. there was no smoke from the zorst and there was just smoke coming from the back of the engine.

 

Haven't notice a lack off power and the tubs are boosting to the right pressure

Did it smell of anything? Oily smell?

CAnt say i noticed a smell to be honest.

It was deffo white smoke and not steam?

Yes for sure, i was really worried as the smoke was getting worse as it sat there in the heat so i got in it and gently drove it down the M4 at 50 to cool it. It was fina after that. Even got cought in a traffic jam

Could be a leaky pipe and you've got small amounts of oil dripping into the manifolds/turbos. PCV hoses can sometimes split etc.

Also try checking the cam seals on the rear. They often go. It would be oily smoke if it was these but sometimes its hard to work out the colour. There's also the turbo coolant / engine coolant pipes around the rear and sides of the engine as Si mentioned.

I had that mate. was a split oil feed pipe dripping oil onto the turbo.

i had that it was a split in oneof the coolant pipes right at the back of the engine

Update, there's black oil on the rear bumper and the back of the rear wheel arches to the outside. All oil levels seem fine for the m oment. Must be a split pipe. WIll check it out,

If yours is a UK car there is also a diff oil cooler that only works via an electric pump that comes in at high speed/temp. Its towards the rear offside wheel arch. If any of the pipes are leaking (did on mine) the oil can drip onto the exhaust giving smoke and drops get onto the bumper which dust sticks to making it look like black oil. It can go unnoticed for years if it never gets driven hard! It needs the pump to run to leak!

 

It would not explain smoke in the engine bay which better supports the turbo oil feed or transmission oil being the culprit theories.

Thank you for the info. Just spoken to the garage i bought it from and explained i've only done 800 miles since i bought it and they are taking it back to fully sort it out, including a water leak, possibly from the heater matrix. However they are a BMW garage so i'll print these replies off for them and it might help them out a bit.