I'm hoping to solicit some thoughts on why my E55 might be smoking from the exhaust tail pipes whenever I start my engine (and no, it's not because it's sickly fast).

Shortly after my recent mods (Kleemann K2, not that I think there's any correlation, rather just an observation) my car would let out small puff of white/light smoke occasionaly (not every time) upon starting. This would happen either in the morning or after it sat for a couple of hours even. Sometimes it wouldn't do it at all.

I spoke to Cory at Kleemann and he said it's not uncommon for AMG's to do this when their valve-stem seals wore out. This car is only 18 months old and only has 24k miles on it so I'm not sure that is the case. Regardless, I took the car in to Park Place Mercedes in Dallas and told them the situation. They replaced all the valve stem seals and I picked up the car this Wednesday (after they had it for 8 days for a job that is spec'd out for only 13 labor hours according to my service advisor and the shop foreman). The next morning (yesterday) my check engine light came on, then yesterday evening I got a really weird message on this dash display telling me to take my car to the workshop and have them look at the oil.

Now my car releases a huge puff of smoke when I start it (every time) and I'm really concerned that Mercedes Benz dealers in Dallas don't know what the hell they are doing.

Has anyone had any smoking problems coming from the exhaust? Also, does anyone know of any good aftermarket german auto shops in Dallas (or TX for that matter) who know the AMG line of cars and are very sharp people?

Thank you,

Darren

 

Sorry I can't help, but I'm wondering if your dealer said anything about the Kleemann mods? A lot of dealers would automatically jump and blame the mods. Good luck.

 

Sounds like they didnt seat properly. Take it back. I'm surprised the valve stem seals wore out so fast.

 

They brought up the mods and then wanted to know more about them. I referred them to Brandon and Cory and supposedly the shop foreman checked out their web site.

They didn't press me too hard actually and replaced everything with no charge to me.

 

I get the occasional puffs of smoke from the exhausts in the mornings, and when the car's been sitting in the garage for an extended period of time. I find it, cool, though. :p

 

Can the seals do that? Can they not properly seat? That wouldn't sound too far off considering the service advisor and shop foreman both told me "uh, we've never done this on an AMG before so we're sort of learning as we go...". That really instilled tons of confidence in me!

 

Have not seen that with my car and we have the same mods. I will be going to dinner tonight and the car has been in the garage for the last 4 days since I was out of town on business. Will check when I start it up and let you know.

 

What is the oil pressure? Do you have black sooty build up on the exhaust pipes? Is it running rich or lean? These are questions that come to mind.

My Vette smokes in the AM when you crank it but it runs really rich. Doesn't burn a drop of oil. I would wonder whether you mixture is off due to mods and changes in ECU.

I have had problems with EGR obstruction which forced oil through the seals. Somehow it increased the oil pressure which caused it to seep into the cylinders. The plastic vacuum pipe was collapsing when negative pressure applied which is greatest before the engine is warmed up.

Another cause for "smoke" when you first crank is a leaking head gasket or heaven forbid cracked head causing coolant to get into the cylinder. As the motor gets hot you don't notice the smoke (steam) as much.

I've seen these things on other cars but have no experience with my E55. So far it's run flawlessly and that one reason I have fought the urge to mod. Whenever I get the urge I go for a ride in my Vette. It's a fast blast but there is always something wrong under the hood. Usually related to my tinkering to get a few more HP out of it. Definitely not very reliable, but then again it's a toy not a daily driver.

 

Well it looks like this is gonna be our first test of major engine repair under warranty with mods.

Sure hoping for the best for ya guy.....this is my worst nightmare.

Let us know how you make out Darren. Yikes!!

 

CA E55, I believe the answer to your question about why the dealer changed the valve seals was answered by Darren when he said that he thought the dealer didn't know what they were doing.

Darren, I agree with Vetluver that the source of the smoke is probably coolant or water. I had a car in the early 1980's that had the same symptoms, only a bit more pronounced. There was a factory recall to replace the head gasket, which was leaking and caused the smoke on start up. I suppose condensation in the exhaust system could cause the same problem, but I would tend to think that our weather in north Texas right now is too hot to cause that. I would check with the other dealer to see if they seem to be more competent.

 

Darren

Which dealer are you using? When I lived in Dallas I used Park Place in Oak Lawn, now they are over on Lemmon. They seemed to be pretty good.

 

When I took the car in last week they determined there was oil in the cylinders, so it's not related to coolant or vapor or anything else at this point until we fix the oil in the cylinder issue.

I spoke with Brandon (at Kleemann) today who was very helpful and said there's basically two primary ways oil can get into the cylinder like this:

1. Bad valve stems or valve stem seals. This has been ruled out as they replaced all of them and now I'm smoking like mad when I start the car.

2. Oil coming in through the intake manifold via the crankcase ventilation system. I'll "suggest" they look at this when I take it in Monday morning at 6:45 am.

If there's oil in every cylinder than #2 is most likely. If it's just in one or two cylinders then it's #1, but that's already been ruled out.

If there's a third option I don't know what it is. I'm only repeating what others have suggested and I am by no means qualifed to give great details on any of this.

Also, I should really be more clear about when I noticed the smoke. It started on the third day after I got my car back from service "D". My service "D" became due when I was about 3 hours from Dallas on my way back from Kleemann USA in Colorado Springs. No smoke during the return trip, only after I got the car back from service "D".

Also, the dealer honored the warranty so far when replacing the valve stem seals. The dealer is Park Place Mercedes in Dallas (mrankovic) and they are terrible.

I appreciate everyone's input and support.

Cheers,

Darren

 

Darren,

Sorry about your misfortune. Best of luck. Personally I would delete the Dealer's name. So far they are honoring your waranty with mods. If they see you flaming them they may change their mind. I know this sounds paranoid...but better safe than sorry.

Mez

 

Brandon left off other possibilities like cracked rings or pistons. If the car ran lean or detonated for any reason, that's a real possibility.

Who modded the car? No issues pre-mods? What exactly are the mods? Pulley/ECU?

Have you pulled the plugs to see if it's isolated to certain cylinders?

 

No smoke after starting up the beast after it had been in the garage for 4 days.

Just the ususal NASCAR sound at start up and then after 10-15 secs it gets less of a rumble.