Posted by Lars Cousineau on November 13, 2000 at 00:01:03:
In Reply to: Smoking on the downhill posted by Mike Maier on August 03, 1999 at 11:27:01:
If the smoke was truly white, rather than light blue, look for coolant problems. Otherwise:
I have 3 5-series, 1 6-series, 1 7-series. Odometer readings range from 135K to 340K. Four of them smoke. Most at start-up, the 7 intermittently during traffic, two of the fives on downhill runs. all of them use 1 quart of oil every 500 miles. I took the 7 (235K) on a 3700 mile trip recently, and had excellent performance and got 24 MPG (NO POOP-I know my math). Not one of these cars has ever left me stranded due to anything related to burning a little oil. The 7 actually smokes the worst of all of them.
One of the cars, my 1982 528e, NEVER smokes, but uses the same amount of oil as the others, w/no spots on the drive. I consider that car an anomoly and it scares me. My three previous BMW's had the same characteristics. It would cost me a fortune to get rid of these smoking problems, and I can assure you, the fix would be very temporary.
So, I repeat, unless you find a coolant leak, What's the Problem??