Hey guys, I had this weird problem a little over a week ago with my 2007 S550 that happened once and never again.

As I was leaving work, I noticed that the car felt a bit different than before. The best way I can describe it as it felt more "powerful" when I pressed on the gas, more like how a manual transmission will cause the car to lurch forward on the initial gas pedal press. Thought to myself hmm, that feels a little different, but didn't think much of it.

As I was driving home, going about 80 MPH (normal for SoCal freeway traffic), I noticed a little vibration/hum that I hadn't noticed before. I turned off the AC and radio to listen, but didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. So, AC back on and radio back on, I enjoyed the ride... Then I noticed that my car was leaving a whole cloud of white smoke behind me. It smelled faintly of burning rubber.

Oh #^%#, right?! Something bad!!

I slowed down and started to pull over. Other cars were slowing pointing to my car trying to tell me that something was wrong.

As I slowed down, I noticed the smoking had stopped. So I drove a bit farther to an exit and exited the freeway. After finding a safe place to pull over (a nearby parking lot) I parked, opened the hood, jumped out, and expected to find something drastically wrong.

But, there was no more smoke, nothing under the hood looked wrong (no steam, no smells). I couldn't smell anything outside, either... There was some dripping under the car, but I believe it was just AC condensation. (It was a hot day here in SoCal.)

There were NO engine lights or warnings or anything else.

Since then, I have not had the problem again. I've driven the car every day, probably putting on a couple hundred miles.

ANY ideas what that could have been? Strangest damned thing. All I could think of was either the parking brake wasn't fully released (resulting in that "powerful" feeling) or that one of the rear are shocks lowered the car to result in fender rub at speed. But the car hasn't been lowered, and the tires appear to be stock AMG sizes.

And like I said, only happened the one time. I'm starting to forget about it, but figure it's best to get some ideas now in case it happens again.

Thanks!!

P.S. I really don't think it was coming from the exhaust pipe, based on the way people were pointing at the car, but it's possible. There was definitely NO smoke coming from the pipes after I stopped.

 

White smoke typically indicates coolant mixing with fuel and being burnt in the combustion chamber, aka cracked engine block, etc.

Try removing your engine oil fill cap and look under the cap and around the opening to see if there is any white/yellowish residue. It should be nice and clean. Also, check you coolant level to see if it might be low.

I hope you don't have any issues but it might be worth the time to have a trusted mechanic check this out for you to prevent future and very expensive problems.

 

Hmmmm. Strange white smoke and the poster lives in CA and has the screen name "Token". Is it possible the smoke was emanating from inside the cabin? Sorry man, couldn't resist. It sounds like something funky got into the fuel and ran through the engine.

 

On second thought, possibly some plastic bags or other debris stuck to the hot parts underneath, burnt off and no issues now. Please check under the car to see if there is anything down there.

 

Hahaha! It's Token, not Tokin'!

 

Thanks for the advice. I hope it's something like that. The smell really did smell like burning plastic or rubber and not oil or anything fuel related.

Who knows, though. If it ever happens again, I'll keep you posted. So many $$$$ were running through my head at the time! lol

 

Really does sound like you got something stuck on the hotter portion of the car underneath and it got melted/burned up. As if this was an engine problem of a large scope - seems it would not be intermittent.

 

That's what it's sounding like to me. At least I'm optimistic that I haven't received a lot of, "OMG! The same exact thing happened to me! I had to get a new engine and new suspension!" LOL!!!

 

LOL!