Well today I noticed something for the third time? I was driving home today from dinner with the wifey and the last few blocks into our subdivision a Dodge Dakota got right on my bumper, whats odd is that there where three wide lanes to choose but he got right behind me. At anyrate I got annoyed with it and toggled the gear shifter down a gear and dipped into the powerband for a second to get him off. I looked into the mirror and just as the car hit the power curve it's like I had a smoke-screen behind me, it was night out and I could barely see his headlamps shining through (Hard to explain) but bare with me. Two other times I did a similar thing but on the freeway 68 mph or so and just laid into the throttle, car kicked down the I looked in the mirror and I see a plume of some sort of fog or carbon barreling out the tailpipes. Just wondered if anyone else noticed this? I've never noticed this in my other two cars or work truck and the only time I've seen it before was when I owned my '05 Dodge 2500 Cummins Diesel, at night if you flogged it you would see the same sort of thing, just not used to seeing it on a gas engine vehicle. I'm going to have my wife get on it this weekend while I follow in a chase car and see if it's smoke or something I need to be more concerned with. We have 8700 miles on the clock YTD and I still havent changed the oil as per the owners manual, but just may and see if the smoke or whatever it is stops.

-Ryan

 

Pretty normal on all the automatic transmission german cars I've owned, not just benz. My theory is that when you go WOT the ECU forgets all about emissions control and starts running rich. But that's just my theory.

Strangely enough, my manual cars never did this.

 

Didn't mention if it were cold outside, as the heat from the exhaust causes steam or smoke. I'm guessing this isn't what your trying to explain though.

 

my car hv same thing when EVERYTIME Hard Deep step pedal to accelerate, and then hv 2 plume of smoke/fog behind from tailpipes (only hv gas smell on first time "1700 miles") other time hv not a smell, hope this is a normal!!!

 

Never happened on any cars I've driven.

 

^ I was just going to ask that, my did it onece, but the temp outside was 37F

 

The cold start steam is different, I had been driving 10/ 15 minutes already the the engine was at normal operating temps.

-Ryan

 

Probably not looking hard enough, or you haven't had someone you knew following your own car.

I've never ever seen a Japanese car do the stomp n' smoke. But I've seen plenty of german and american cars do it.

 

Probably a secret "evasive" manoueveur in the Merc!!?? To "smoke" someone following ya??!!

 

What I wanted to know is why the OP was looking in the mirror while accelerating forward.

 

I've done plenty of following behind all of the cars we've had with my dad driving in the front. He loves hammering it and I've never seen any smoke at all. I had my friend follow me after I Seafoamed the ML and even after the Seafoam smoke had gone there was nothing coming out of the exhaust at WOT.

 

i wonder if they'll make a button for it so you can turn it on at will!

 

Got the brakes resurfaced & new pads on my work truck today, my wife followed me down to the dealer to pick it up. On the way back I followed her and called her on the cell phone and said "Get on it for me" while I was directly behind her. Anyway there was no smoke or anything until what looked like 2-3 seconds after she nailed it and got into the powerband. The car was obviously warmed up as it was about a 20 minute drive to Toyota dealer to pick my truck up. All I can say is that is did blow a very subtle amount of soot out of the pipes when she hit it, but it wasn't nearly as much as I thought judging from what I noticed at night looking in the rear view with headlights shining from behind. It was there, but I had to almost squint to see the soot. I would say thats a normal amount. I will also say that she blew my 236hp V6 Tacoma Pre-Runner away, I was trying to keep up and was some 3-4 maybe more car lengths behind. Friends think my Tacoma feels fast for a truck, but it was no match for the lowly 228 hp C300, whats odd is the truck feels more powerful than our C 300 but can't hold a candle in reality.

-Ryan