Cack pants moment on the M40 this evening ....

[Kinky]

Driving up to Warwick to meet someone. Plodding along, doing erm .... errr ..... 70ish

Quick glance in the rear view mirror and I could see a faint cloud of blue smoke.

FCEK. Pulled over to slow lane - no blue smoke. Drove about 5 miles - all OK. oil pressure ok, temperature guage does not work properly, no dash warning lights, engine sounds ok, not hesitant, etc.

So back into outside lane - 70ish .... checking behond me - nothing. About 5 mins later - another blue cloud of smoke.

DUBLE FCEK.

As above - slowed down - no problemns - no smoke - all ok.

Pulled into services (fortunately about 1 mile later). All seems ok - no oily or burning smells, all 4 tyres are ok.

Has not happened since. Came back down the M40 - took it easy to start with - no problems. Then kinda varied from erm .... low 70ish to high 70ish.

And all seems fine. The only observation I've been able to make is that my fuel consumptions seems to have gone up. I say seems - as ... I was varying speeds and kinda playing - absolutely flooring it in Standard mode - nothing would make the blue smoke come back.

Think I'll get it checked out next week.

But that was my cack pants moment of the day.

 

[Maff]

I had a simular thing happen last week - got in the car, started it and a cloud of blue smoke came and wafted round the car - not happened since.

I can only think it was the girlfriend who started it cold in the morning to move it and switched it off after about 50 seconds. Then when I started 2 hours later lodsa smoke.

Hope yours checks out OK.

 

[RichardM]

The couple of times this has happened to me (not in this car) and I've seen smoke in the rear view mirror and paniked there has been another car nearby which has been the cause - always a relief!

 

[Kinky]

yeah - both times it happened I honestly could not believe it was me - so i looked around for 'suspects'. Unfortunately there were none.

I did the old TVR trick of watching and checking all the marks on the windscreen very carefully just in case it started throwing up drops of water, coolant, oil, etc ..... but nothing.

I got home and opened the bonnet and all looked ok (with the engine still running). The fan was going (which was a reflief). No obvious signs of anything anywhere.

I suppose the possible real moment of truth will be tomorrow - when I roll the car back to check for leaks.

Also - the reason I checked the tyres (fyi) was due to an incident in my Beemer. Coming up the M3 - all of a sudden tons of smoke behind me and then the engine started going all funny. Pulled over and only then realised I'd had a blowout ! Funny stuff this self-levelling suspension !

 

[Kinky]

Interesting discussion over on MBOA relating to a 124 gearbox starting in 1st (like mine).

Anyhow - 3 pages later it's mentioned that there's a vacuum diaphragm - which, if it blows, will produce clouds of smoke.

I wonder if this is what the problem is with mine?

Anyhow - will get someone to check it over (I also need them to look at my cooling system (for other reasons)).

And as usual - should I have anything to report ......

 

[Tan]

My car went in for a service yesterday and i had a similar blueish smoke so i asked what they thought it may be. When i picked the car up their opinion was that all was well and they tried to bill me best side of £100. ( £40 labour and £40 parts (coolant)) for the opinion!

 

[Steve Riley]

Sorry about this but my "Sticky underwear" moment was in a Triumph Spitfire many moons ago. Imagine if you will, driving up the M6 at 3 in the morning. No other traffic at all, None. Pitch black because there are no overhead lights etc and the only lights are my own, shining brightly in my path. Doing a slightly illegal 98 MPH (Hey, I was younger back in the early '70's)
Next thing, there was one hell of a bang and the rear view mirror lit up with a red glow and bright sparks. No probs with the revs, steering etc as I slowed and pulled into the hard shoulder. No flames or damage that I could see after legging it a few yards up the banking in case it blew up. The car just sat there as I gingerly eased my undies from the bum cleavage. Being fairly sure that the car wasn't going to explode on me I moved in for a closer look, still no traffic about, and found the problem.
Can you guess?
One of the screws holding the rear number plate had fallen out or broken off and one corner of the plate was dragging on the road.
Probably one of the cheapest repair jobs ever too, I just tied it back up with a bit of string, lol

 

[Kinky]

Same thing again ... and yet again on the M40 ....

Drove up to Yorkshire last night - and again checking the rear view mirror every few seconds, and sure enough - same thing happened again - another cloud of smoke from behind.

It only happened the once (that I noticed) and again no obvious problems (oil, engine, revs all ok).

I do 50 miles a day on the M3 and never noticed anything before, and did the M40 earlier this week - and no problems.

So thinking a bit more - The only thing that this trip and the previous occurrence have in common (which no other journey has had) is the fact that I had a heavy weight in the boot. It's probably a red herring but it's the only thing that's different.

The 1st time I had a guitar and (very heavy) amp. Last night it was full of suitcases, and other assorted paranphanalia.

I've checked the rear tyres and they're not rubbing on anything (and again I would expect it to be a consistent problem - not just the once for a second or 2).

Not sure what to do really!

 

[Motard]

Hi Kinky,

Funny you should mention a guitar and amp in the back of your 124 estate! I bought mine solely for that purpose, gets it all in! We carry a PA system with stands, keyboard and three or four guitars. Maybe you should come down here for a GTG and a jam, I can't come there I am allergic to your weather.

Bob

 

[andy_k]

lol - we use our 124 estate for hauling gear as well, it's almost permanently loaded with a PA system, guitar, stands etc - they are great workhorses

Andy

 

[Kinky]

Motard,

You know I just might take you up on that offer ....

Mrs. Kinky would be over in a shot and I'd not be far behind.

To be honest - I'm more a jack of all trades - used to be a professional roadie (which is now I ended up in the UK). But I can hold my own on guitar, bass and drums.

 

[Motard]

Hey you guys, we should get our three 124 estates together and have a big jam session. Where are you from Kinky?

Bob

 

[Kinky]

Sounds like a plan to me ....

I'm Irish (Dublin) but have been in Berkshire for the past 15 odd years, and immediate plans to move.

Having said that - seeing the price of houses up here in Yorkshire and the cost of petrol (72.9p) it's quite tempting to sell up and move up!

I'm taking a weeks holiday later in the year sometime - no formal plans to do anything yet (kinda talked about going to see the folks in Dublin). But France would be even better!

I'll have words with Mrs. Kinky ....

 

[Motard]

Keep in touch Kinky, maybe we could have a GTG and a good jam session.

Bob

 

[Steve Riley]

I don't suppose for one minute that the puff of blue smoke is anything to do with a short, sharp meeting between the tyre and the bodywork if the heavily laden rear end goes over a bump.
One that you wouldn't notice yourself because of the suspension?
Or am I just a new owner thicko?

 

[Kinky]

Steve,

Yeah, I did consider that a possibility - and have checked the tyres and bodywork for any obvious markings/rubbing - but there's nothing to suggest that at all (unfortunately).

I'm off back home tomorrow - so I'll keep close tabs on the rear view.

As for you being a new owner thicko ... definately not. I'd say you're the new owner and I'm the thicko!

Regards,

Kinky
Resident Thicko

 

[Kinky]

Well .....

Came home today from North Yorkshire - Down the A1M, M1, A42, M42, M40, A404 and then some backroads .....

All going well down the A1M and M1. Hit the A42 and going along I noticed a much bigger cloud of smoke than I've seen before. Got seriously worried so over to the slow lane - all was running fine - no more smoke.

Got confidence back up again, and coming down the M40 - it happened yet again!

Just a cloud of smoke for a second at most - no engine/oil problems of any sort (not obvious anyway). I was not going over bumps or braking - so nothing [obvious] there

Now - go home ok. All in one piece. Checked the car over again - all looks fine.

But - I have noticed that the car is slightly lop-sided - in that the front offside is ever so slighly lower than the near side.

The gap from the top of the wheel to the wheel arch is less (about 5 - 6 cm's possibly) on the offside.

I must confess I had noticed this on the drive home today - but put it down to the camber on the road.

At this stage I was quite tired and to be honest could not be ****d to check it out any further (I've not even checked the rear arches). Plus the car is parked on an incline so it's difficult to judge correctly.

I'll give it a good going over at work tomorrow (level parking) and measure up the various heights, etc. And see if I can see anything obvious with the suspension, etc ...

Most immediate thing that springs to mind is that the self-levelling suspension is not self-levelling.

A trip to Micheldevers might be in order (I do like going there).

Watch this space ....

 

[andy_k]

is it possible you are blowing oil out of one of the rear shocks/unions etc and it's hitting the exhaust? Check the pipes (fixed and flexis) uions, spheres and shocks for signs of leakage and check the level in the reservoir

if it's the shocks then they are expensive to replace but a relatively easy afternoons work if you don't mind getting your hands dirty.

Andy.

 

[Kinky]

Andy,

If that was the case I would expect it to be more consistent or regular.

In each case that it's happened (that I've noticed) I've been driving for over an hour at the very least.

Having said that - a lot of the time it's impossible to check as there's usually a car right behind me - so it could be happening much more - but I just can't see it.

But from experience - on a 3-4 hour drive it happens twice (3 times now).

But yes - what you say sounds perfectly reasonable and will be checked out.

 

[andy_k]

not totally unreasonable that it only happens on a run, the shocks will get hotter the more work they do and the fluid will become more viscous thus finding any little gaps in the system (which if they are seals may well expand irregularly).

If you are creating smoke some fluid must be getting burned somewhere it's just a case of checking which of the levels are falling - once you have discovered that then you are half way to solving the problem

The level in the reservoir for the self levelling shocks does vary though dependent on weight in the boot. I think it only kicks in when the load in the rear exceeds 120Kg (although I could be wrong here) as that is the weight you need to have in the back when you bleed and refill the system.

Best of luck finding the cause

Andy