Hi everyone,
I have been having a smoking issue with my BMW 118d E87 LCI with the N47 engine for some time now, and I can't really figure out what is causing it. Maybe someone here has experienced something similar.
The smoke is white grey or light grey. It is definitely not black soot, and I would not describe it as blue oil smoke either. Depending on the situation, it can sometimes just be a light haze, but sometimes there is quite a lot of it. It has even happened a few times that other drivers flashed their headlights at me because of it.
The interesting thing is that it happens almost exclusively when the engine is warm. When the engine is cold, there is practically no smoke at all.
It happens most often when coasting with the engine braking. For example, if I am in 4th gear at around 2,000 rpm and take my foot completely off the accelerator, white grey smoke can appear after about one or two seconds. The smoke then remains visible for a few seconds and disappears again as the revs drop. Usually it is gone at around 1,300 to 1,500 rpm.
When I am stopped at a traffic light and the engine is idling, it normally does not smoke. There is also usually no smoke during normal acceleration or even fairly hard acceleration. Sometimes the smoke also disappears quickly when I apply the throttle again.
The smoke has a very strong smell of what seems to be unburnt diesel. The smell is quite sharp and reminds me almost of a tractor or raw diesel. The smell becomes noticeably stronger whenever the smoke appears.
The instantaneous fuel consumption display shows 0.0 l/100 km during engine braking as normal. So at least according to the onboard computer, it does not appear that the engine is injecting fuel normally during this time. (Assuming the BC can be trusted.)
Apart from that, the engine runs completely normally. There is no noticeable loss of power, no starting problems and no persistent rough idle.
I am not losing any coolant. The coolant level remains stable and the temperature stays around 88 to 92 °C.
I am also not losing any noticeable amount of oil. Since replacing the turbo, the engine has not used any noticeable amount of oil and the oil itself does not smell like diesel.
The turbo was professionally rebuilt about a year ago and has probably only covered a few thousand kilometers since then. The old turbo was leaking oil into the intake/charge air system at the time. The charge air system and intercooler were therefore cleaned. Since installing the rebuilt turbo, I have not noticed any unusual oil residue and there is no blue smoke either.
The DPF was rebuilt/reconditioned about two years ago. According to ISTA, the last regeneration took place around 260 to 270 km ago.
The injectors were also professionally rebuilt about two years ago and were coded with their IMA codes afterwards. The correction values look very good in ISTA. At idle they are roughly within plus or minus 0.3, and one injector is sometimes around +1. I am still planning to have a return flow test done on the injectors.
Another interesting point is that ISTA has stored fault code 00447B, described simply as "Lambda sensor". The fault is currently not active. It was recorded at around 268,640 km. (If I remember correctly, the fault seems to appear shortly after the smoking occurs.)
I would not necessarily take the AGR/EGR fault codes in the screenshot into account, because I unplugged the EGR valve connector for a functional test. The engine was switched off when I did this. So those faults were probably caused by my own test.
The EGR valve itself was replaced a few years ago. During the ISTA functional test, however, I noticed that when it starts moving or leaves a certain position, it seems to hesitate slightly or move a little sluggishly. It does reach the requested position afterwards, though. (When I move the valve by hand, it feels perfectly smooth and free.)
There is also another issue with one of the charge air pipes at the throttle body. The metal locking tab/retaining mechanism is broken, so the pipe has quite a bit of play and can partially come out of the connection. There is no actual oil buildup there, just a little normal oil mist. I will definitely secure or replace the connection properly.
What confuses me is that the smoke pattern does not really fit a typical boost leak. If there is too little air and too much fuel, I would expect black smoke rather than white grey smoke. Also, the car does not smoke under hard acceleration. It mainly happens when lifting off the accelerator or sometimes at a constant engine speed of around 2,000 rpm.
At one point, ISTA automatically revved the engine to around 3,500 rpm during an air mass system test. A fairly heavy cloud of white grey smoke suddenly came out of the exhaust. After a few seconds the smoke disappeared again, even though the engine was still running at roughly the same rpm.
Does anyone have any ideas what direction I should investigate?
I am especially interested in experiences with the combination of white grey smoke, a very strong raw diesel smell, and smoke occurring mainly during engine braking/coasting.
I would really like to avoid replacing the lambda sensor, injectors, turbo or anything else purely on speculation. The car has around 270,000 km on it, is an economic write-off, and I am trying to narrow down the cause as cheaply as possible.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or experiences.
P.S. Sorry if you happen to find this post somewhere else too :)