Extreme engine smoke

Tiny
SMITTY600
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 MERCEDES BENZ CL55
  • V12
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 70,000 MILES
No visible sign of oil leak but engine smokes terribly when running. The car is a CL600 Mercedes 2001 with only 70k on it.
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 1:14 PM

20 Replies

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,938 POSTS
What colour is the smoke, black, blue or white? The colour will help indicate possible causes.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 1:22 PM
Tiny
MMPRINCE4000
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It smoke coming from engine when you open hood or from exhaust?
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 1:24 PM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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SMOKE COMES FROM EXHAUST AND VARIES IN COLOR AND IS QUITE HEAVY
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 1:51 PM
Tiny
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Try and determine the most prominent colour, this is important, black over fuel, blue oil burning, white/Grey coolant in the combustion chamber.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 2:01 PM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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I was having it repaired for hydrulic leak and when done noticed smoke. Smoke became quite heavy after a while and is blue and white in color. It was night when I went to pick it up. The guy at the shop thinks its an internal oil leak or spillage from recent filling.
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 2:34 PM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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Repair shop guy thinks its an overflow of oil at best or internal engine leak at worst. What can be done to repair this car?
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 9:52 PM
Tiny
MHPAUTOS
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First thing to do is make sure all levels are correct and get any leaks fixed, smoke out the exhaust is internal problems, if the engine oil is very much over filled this can smoke, check this first and correct the levels, start here.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Saturday, December 11th, 2010 AT 10:55 PM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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Repair guy says he'll run engine awhile to burn any spilled oil off and check level. If level decreases he says there is internal leak and engine will possibly need replacement(expensive). How about a rebuild or gasket repair?
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Sunday, December 12th, 2010 AT 12:08 AM
Tiny
MHPAUTOS
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Can't comment until the exact problem has been identified, sounds like this mechanic is not very sure about what he is doing, I think its time to find one that does.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Sunday, December 12th, 2010 AT 1:15 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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Mechanic says all levels are correct and he is now going to run car for awhile to burn off any extra oil that may have spilled over. Is this a good idea that will not cause any damage?
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Monday, December 13th, 2010 AT 10:47 PM
Tiny
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He should give it a good wash down first.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 AT 1:49 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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  • 11 POSTS
V12 engine repair vs replacement? WHAT I'm hearing from mechanic is it's too costly and very difficult and better to just purchase a rebuild. Do you agree?
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 9:57 AM
Tiny
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I would be getting a second opinion on this work now, as you said the engine has only 70K on it, there is no way it should be needing a re build, is this mechanic Benz trained? I would strongly suggest getting a second opinion as some of his opinions are a bit of a worry, regarding burning off excess oil and not washing down to check for leaks, all basic mechanical practice.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 10:05 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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Place is called STAR AUTO CENTER and is listed. As for washing down engine the leak is internal, oil is in exhaust system and smoking heavily out rear. Engine also makes noise after running a minute.
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 10:12 AM
Tiny
MHPAUTOS
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They should be able to give you a better diagnosis than what I have been reading, as for the re build, I would be getting the comps check do a leak down test and a vacuum test, checking oil pressures at specific engine speeds, this information will give them a better understanding of what is going on, as for just offering a full re build or a change over unit with out any real diagionstic work is not how I would be doing the job, either way it will cot a lot of money, if I w3as spending it I would want to know exactly what is going on, at least they can pull the heads and check for damage, but the tests mentioned will tell them a lot about what is going on inside the engine.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 10:21 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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  • 11 POSTS
Thanks you convinced me because this guy still hasn't told me what's wrong with the car but says engine needs replacement. He also says he has somebody to buy engine from, it sounded fishy. Plus he did nothing more than run engine, never took anything apart and says to repair this kind of engine is very difficult but yet he'll replace one! COME ON.
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 10:59 AM
Tiny
MHPAUTOS
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Get that second opinion, there are too many so called mechanics out there ready to empty your bank account, this bloke is sounding very suspicious indeed.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 AT 11:11 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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  • 11 POSTS
About to take car to PROCTORS AUTO CENTER they are ASE and BOSCH certified and gave a good estimate of problem over phone. Guy says he just repaired a car like mine recently and gave a quote and this is more info than current mechanic gave with car over 2 weeks. Again thanks guys!
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Thursday, December 16th, 2010 AT 2:45 AM
Tiny
SMITTY600
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OK fellas I'm back and have the car at a reputable service center. The guys first diagnosis is car was run with low oil and top end is gone( his words)I don't really know what that means. I do know however car has plenty of oil and not overheating plus was running well for days now knocks and smokes crazily. Guy says maybe coolant system failure and VERY EXPENSIVE to repair. Again engine replacement or what?
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Monday, December 20th, 2010 AT 11:02 PM
Tiny
MHPAUTOS
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What is is it with these blokes? Can't they give a sensible and accurate diagnosis? You tell them for me that they should be giving you a full description as to what has gone wrong, just saying the top end is gone is rather pathetic, and with this information they want you to spend thousands, what do they reckon it is Christmas or something. Try and get some details on what they believe is damaged.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 AT 7:05 AM

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