2001 BMW 530i white steam from exhaust

Tiny
BRIAN530I
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 BMW 530I
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 81,000 MILES
In May 2008 the car had a massive amount of white steam coming from my exhaust. As a consequence I had a new cylinder head gasket fitted. Since then their has been two occasions when white steam has come from the exhaust, each time it was for only 10 seconds or so after that the car is fine. I checked for water loss in the radiator and found none or verry very little indicating it might not be the gasket or the cylindr block
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 AT 7:07 AM

4 Replies

Tiny
DOCHAGERTY
  • MECHANIC
  • 9,603 POSTS
When the engine work was being done and you had the head off, did you have the head checked for cracks? Was it pressure tested?
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 AT 9:33 AM
Tiny
BRIAN530I
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
Yes the head was skimed 0.1mm and pressure tested ok
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 AT 9:43 AM
Tiny
DOCHAGERTY
  • MECHANIC
  • 9,603 POSTS
It is possible that what you are seeing is just a residual of the trauma of the cylinder head coming off. Keep an eye on it and see if it changes, for now, lets try just driving it for a few days and we can re-visit this conversation then. If the problem persists try an overnight pressure test of the cooling system, that should help to pinpoint the leak, if there is one.
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 AT 10:01 AM
Tiny
BRIAN530I
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
Thank you for your feed back I will take your advice and get back to tou in a few days
Was this
answer
helpful?
Yes
No
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 AT 10:54 AM

Please login or register to post a reply.

Related White Smoke Content