White Smoke from BMW 528i

goldenbehr
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:27:21 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

Hey. I’m from Los Angeles and our family recently purchased a used BMW 528i (40K miles). Perhaps this is nothing, but I just wanted to make sure anyway.

Today, at around 2AM (maybe 50 degrees C), within minutes of starting the car, we drove into a McDonald’s Drive Thru. While I was ordering and pressing on the brakes, I noticed continuous discharge of white smoke/vapor from the exhaust. For maybe a minute this continued. When I moved the car a little bit to get closer to the window, the smoke stopped. But when I stopped again to receive my order, I saw the white smoke/vapor again. My friends who were with me told me that it might just be water vapor, but the hypochondriac in me wants to make sure this isn’t a blown head gasket or anything else I’ve read about in the internet. BTW When I drove away from the Drive Thru and continued driving, I stopped seeing the white smoke/vapor.

I’m as clueless you can get with cars. Do I need to be worried?

7 posts - 6 participants