C280 White Smoke

[ladybear]

Help!!

Everytime I start my car a big cloud of white smoke comes out the tailpipe. Also when I accelerate hard, the car acts like it doesn't want to speed up, then when the speed kicks in, a little rattle sound in the engine and another big cloud of white smoke. I've had the heads replaced, and a valve job. It's been in and out of the shop for over a month now and no one seems to know what is causing this problem. Engine and everything acts fine. Mechanic says it is a clogged filter on the intake valve for the exhaust system, they clean it and it acts fine for about a day, then back to the smoke again. First they said it was coolant coming out of the tailpipe, now they say it is oil. It is using too much oil. I am so frustrated that no-one can tell me what is going on. It is an automatic, with approx. 140,000 miles. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[MIW615]

Help!!

Everytime I start my car a big cloud of white smoke comes out the tailpipe. Also when I accelerate hard, the car acts like it doesn't want to speed up, then when the speed kicks in, a little rattle sound in the engine and another big cloud of white smoke. I've had the heads replaced, and a valve job. It's been in and out of the shop for over a month now and no one seems to know what is causing this problem. Engine and everything acts fine. Mechanic says it is a clogged filter on the intake valve for the exhaust system, they clean it and it acts fine for about a day, then back to the smoke again. First they said it was coolant coming out of the tailpipe, now they say it is oil. It is using too much oil. I am so frustrated that no-one can tell me what is going on. It is an automatic, with approx. 140,000 miles. Does anyone have any ideas?

White smoke normally means coolant passing into the exhaust system, if it were oil I would expect blue smoke. Having said that at 140,000 miles there has to be some wear in the engine and as you are using oil it could well be piston / bore wear causing the smoke, I would take the car back to the repairer and ask them to carry out a cylinder leakage test as well as a compression check, with the results of this it should make things clearer where the problem is.

Is the car overheating / loosing coolant?

 

[Silver Arrow]

Did the mechanic say what was blocking the filter?

The white smoke could be the result of muck/water in the fuel, possibly algae in there multiplying at the water/fuel boundary. A clean out and a good dose of fuel treatment may work.

That's what caused the white smoke once with my Chevvy suburban 6.2 diesel.

George.

 

[anyweb]

could be the catalytic converter up the spout, have you had that checked ?

 

[FIBAMAN]

I would check firstly the inside of your oil filler cap, If it has white gunge then you probably will have water getting into your lube oil, causing the white smoke.
Next thing I would run the engine and take off the filler cap whilst it is running. Be prepared for a little oil to spit out, but take notice of the pressure of any airflow coming out of the filler neck, if this back pressure has a firly strong velocity, then you could have worn bores.
Next step drive the car down a hill fairly briskly and lift your foot off the throttle and look for any heavy white smoke, this would also indicate worn bores or valve guides.

 

[ladybear]

C280 - White Smoke

Thank you to all that responded. I talked to the mechanic today (yes it is "still" in the shop). They removed the intake manifold and it had a large amount of oil in it. He said that somehow oil is being pumped into the manifold and being sucked back into the engine. I don't know anything about cars so I'm not sure if that makes any sense but they said the next step was to tear the engine back down. He also said something about there is something pressurizing the oil which is pushing it into the manifold.(?)

The smoke looks white to me (not sure what blue smoke looks like), the car is using too much oil, and my coolant levels seem to be ok but from what I understand it doesn't take much of a coolant leak to create large amounts of smoke. It is a LOT of smoke, it looks like a cloud being shot out of the tailpipe, thick white (blue??) smoke.

When I first took it to the shop they did a pressure test on the car and determined it was a blown headgasket. Now they don't think that was the case at all since it is still doing the same thing as before.

They checked the fuel and there is nothing in foreign in in. Catalytic converter is fine.

I don't know what a bore is but I will sure tell them to check it. When they fixed the heads they did a valve job at the same time so wouldn't the valve guides been checked then?

They keep telling me they are puzzled by this and not sure what is causing the problem. If it was a bad ring or something like that I would think that they would have checked them out when they tore the engine down the first time since that seems to be a typical problem when cars smoke a lot.

I'm getting better advise and responses from this forum than I am from my mechanic - Any more suggestions you all have would be greatly appreciated

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Blue smoke is exactly that - blue. Most often seen out the back of Ford Escorts.

You don't say which manifold - the intake manifold (for air coming into the engine), or the exhaust manifold (for fumes leaving the engine).

Have they done a compression test?

 

[ladybear]

It is the intake manifold. Yes, the did a compression test when I first took it to them and determined it was a blown headgasket, however, after they replaced the headgasket it is still is blowing the smoke.

 

[BlackC55]

Its a V6 isnt it.

I think i know what the problem is.

At the back of the engine where the rear main oil seal is is a plate held by a few torx bolts.

Behind this plate there is a oil gallery which blocks up causing the fault you have.

I have seen 2 to date with this problem.

Remove the gearbox, flywheel and the plate and all will be revealed.

If this solves it let me know

 

[mjtray]

Concur with BlackC55....had an E240 which billowed out white smoke...so much that it looked as if the Red Arrows had flown at low level down the road....horrendous. Turned out to be exactly that and also needed new cats as they were contaminated.

 

[mike65]

You're not ejecting a Pope, no?
















I'll get my coat.

Mike

 

[kth286]

Are C class 280 cars V6's ?????????

Probably the 104 straight six engine ?????????

ladybear - What year is your car ?????????

 

[BlackC55]

She said in the post that she has has the "heads" done.

Its a V6

 

[ladybear]

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!! BlackC55 you were correct. They found that there was a hard crystalized material in there. Something causing the oil to cook and harden. Mechanic is going to drive the car a few more days to be sure it is fixed. He said that with everyone he talked to about this(mercedes people, other mechanics, and other forums) no-one ever heard of the problem before. I'm giving him the address for this web-site for his future use. I can't thank you enough!! Thanks to everyone that offered advise.

 

[lipoma1]

Did you establish a fix for this. I have a c280 automatic which is pumping out blue smoke and white smoke and burning oil like theres no tomorrow

I thought it might be valve spring seals and/or piston rings and damaged bore

Was blackc55 correct??

 

[Alex Crow]

last week i had a customer who had recently bought a c280 with the same problem. if it was not you lipoma1 (i am also in suffolk, as is my customer), i suggest you clean out the cylinder head breathers, especially the O/S one. my customer did this himself and cured a severe oil consumption and white smoke problem - it was like a bond movie!!!

 

[lipoma1]

Alex I thought it was fixed

Alex

Yes its me. I thought I had fixed it, Went to Heathrow to pick up son. ON the was home oil light came on . I put in a litre but it coughed and spluttered onto the hard shoulder minutes later.

AA took us home

Mark

 

[Alex Crow]

sorry to hear that mark, hard to know what to suggest next but this is a great place to ask the question...

 

[lipoma1]

C280

Alex


Yes it's annoying

In the spring it looks as if I will have to drop the gearbox and start there. I have the car SORN at present.

I will check this out then if necessary go on to valve seals. In any case if it is the auto box fix the heads will be covered in muck along with valve seals etc. Anyone else would scrap it. Its odd because when I cleaned out the breathers it looked ok and didn't smoke. I drove about 150 miles and oil light came on and I put a litre of oil in and then about 2o miles later it seemed to backfire and loads of white blue smoke came out the back and we headed for the hard shoulder.

2 hours later and almost dead with cold we were collected by the AA. The AA driver said he had a clue about cause and mentioned a diaphragm between the auto box and engine which blocks up causing oil in engine pressurise
Maybe he was talking about the same thing. It seems likely to me as its an intermittent fault.

 

[Alex Crow]

not sure what the AA was talking about - sometimes they are bang on, sometimes miles off.

black55 is a top rate specilaist in the south, it may well be that he has seen this before and worth a phone call.