Thanks in advance for your responses guy's.
As the title says, I have a 2007 E550 4Matic Sport that I love! I bought it with 42,500 on it about 1 year ago. I now have about 56k on it. When you floor it, you leave a smoke cloud behind you. Not blown head gasket amount of smoke, but enough that you can really see in the mirror at any speed. It has always done this since I bought it. It has burnt less that a 1/2 qt of oil since I have owned it. I run 0-40 Mobil 1. I have run numerous bottles of Cheveron with Techron, and use Mobil 93 at every fill up.
The car runs like a top with the exception of the smoke. I have K&N filters in it, not that I think that matters.
I am just wondering if this is a common issue with the 5.5 engine? I had always thought it was just carbon burning off, but I am wondering if it could be more than that? The car is a CPO, so I still have a full warranty. The last time I changed the oil, I noticed that the drivers side head has a Very slight valve cover gasket leak.
Thank you again for the imput. Did I mention I Love the power the 550 puts out

 

You forgot to mention what the stealer told you when you demonstrated this to them. That is after STFF'ing MBWorld for similar issues.

 

The service adviser told me that he has never heard of that. I really don't like my local Benz dealer to be honest...
Please enlighten me, what does this mean?

"That is after STFF'ing MBWorld for similar issues"

 

Search The Forum First. STFF

 

I posted this when I had my '07 E550. Never figured it out...traded in the b__ch..

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ite-smoke.html

 

I've experienced this with my 550 but it dissipates very very quickly which would lead me to believe it is water vapor.

Out of curiousity, anyone know if it's good to wind out your motor (if you aren't frequently doing it) every so often so it burns off carbon or residue in the engine or exaust? Sorry - may be a total amature question but I'm not very mechanically inclined.

 

I had that condition in my 2004 E500. It was never diagnosed/solved. If I drove for an hour, stopped at a rest stop for 20 minutes & left the rest stop & reentered the insterstate at just the right brisk acceleration & engine speed, I would dump such vast amounts of white smoke behind me that no car ever emerged from it. It would literally stop traffic until I was so far down the road I was out of site.

I never found any cross contamination between any fluids or lubricants... there was never any fluid loss.

I have it on my 07 550 to a very minimal extent. It can be controlled by you with your rate of acceleration. There is a "sweet spot" on acceleration when the cloud's appearance can be maximized, if you try you'll find it. Stay out of that area & you'll be OK.

The car looks lousy when you cause it to happen, but it appears to be water vapor from somewhere out of the engine proper to me. Maybe condensation that resides in the exhaust system. The cloud has no smell and looks to be a cloud of steam. A leaking head gasket would allow fluids to mix and discolor. Also fluid levels would increase or decrease depending on where the leak is. Look at your fluids. I'll bet that this is not the case.

 

Thank you guy's for the imput. I am positive that it is not water vapor of any kind. I only wish Mercedes would at least admit that there could possibly be a problem...... Kind of what my car does at full throttle.

 

Why could not this be the beginning signs of a blown head gasket? As a 3rd gen. Supra Turbo owner, I know a little about BHG's and if u see white smoke, AND u're loosing coolant in your fluid reservoir, a BHG could very well be the issue.

Interesting that u're not the only 550 owner experiencing this. Best thing is to take the car to the dealer while u're under warranty, I recommend this to ALL 550 owners. Seeing smoke coming out of a Benz (or any car), just isn't right. Hopefully its not a BHG. Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

Not sure if this is what you are experiencing, but my 07 E550 would always leave some visible smoke the 1st time I ran it through the gears after driving it moderately, i.e. in stop/go traffic for a few days. After running it through the gears once or twice it would be clear. I bought that car new, and sold it with 9K on the clock to get my E63, so the condition existed from day 1. I never worried about it much as the car ran perfectly and did not use oil.

I had attributed it to a slightly rich running calibration, which may or may not have been the cause.

 

NCE500
That sounds like the best thought so far. Now that you say it, if you do it a couple times in a row, I don't think it is nearly as bad. Thank you

 

I've seen a friend's E500 go to the shop for making all kinds of a noise racket - turned out to be carbon build up on the valves! Turns out the repair shop actually suggested to wring it out once in a while to prevent the build up. So, it sounds like a rich condition will cause the build up, and therefore the cloud. (I've never had that issue with mine! )

I was also thinking of leaking fuel injectors, sometimes they will leak a bit after shutdown, and if you start it before the rich condition can evaporate - it will run rich and blow clouds.