No power, violent shaking, smoke

DiscoStu · #1 01-16-2009, 06:35 PM

I'm posting this on behalf of my girlfriend's X5. She just called me and said something was wrong with her car. I told her I'd poke around the internet and see if I can dig anything up. No luck searching so I figured I'd ask here. Here is the scenario. She was waiting to make a right hand and the car suddenly starts to idle very rough, she used the words bucking to describe it to me. When she proceeds to make the turn, smoke began to pour out of the exhaust, to the point where she could barely see out of the back. She also said there was barely any power when she gave it gas. She pulled over, shut the car off and waited a little bit before turning it back on. When she turned it back on and tried to drive it again it still idled rough and had no power, no smoke though. No SES light or any other lights for that matter. Any ideas? I'm thinking it has to be something with the fuel system? It's a 2002 3.0L FWIW. Thanks!

mrbmwx5 · #2 01-16-2009, 06:54 PM

smoking that is no good.. blown head gasket, oil seperator,

lo_jack · #3 01-16-2009, 06:54 PM

This is a gas engine? What color was the smoke? We are going to need more info. Good luck, no matter what though. It ran afterwards? Interesting. Did you check the dipstick yet?

DiscoStu · #4 01-16-2009, 07:16 PM

It is a gas engine and it is still running. It doesn't stall, just runs very rough. I have not had a chance to look at it myself yet. This happened on her way to work and I'm basing this off what she has told me over the phone. When she gets home this evening I'm going to get a closer look. I'm just trying to get ideas at where to start.