Holy smoke!

[johninoz2]

Hi hope someone can help me with this one.

Have a 2003 4.4 X5, took the X5 for the normal weekend shopping run. Everything ran and felt great as normal then made one more stop in the afternoon. After a couple hours, started up the car and when pulling out of the parking lot to the main road noticed a huge cloud of smoke coming out of the rear exhaust of the car. Stopped the car - no warning lights, temperature gauge normal. Opened bonnet - no sign of anything wrong, checked oil on dipstick - looked normal and correct level. As I had the babies in the vehicle I thought I would, start up again and drive slowly to a safer spot. Again, started up with smoke coming out but as I drove slowly the smoking reduced until it seemed to have stopped. As I was close to home, I thought I would continue and risk it home. It's now parked in the garage and am hoping anyone could let me know what may have caused this, I intend to get it to the serviced first thing next week but would like to be able to do some checks before giving it out so that I have an idea what I am possibly in for. The smoke did seem white at the time but was so scared/pissed at the time, I can't be certain if there may have been a blue or gray tint to it.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[Big "J"]

I would check your plugs, see if any of them have fouled with oil. Possibly your CVV or "oil separator" went out and can cause a lot of smoke. If your not overheating and radiator fluid is good you might be okay but, check under your oil fill cap for any milky white substance. This will tell you if you have any water in your oil and possibly a serious issue.

First check your sparks plugs.

[johninoz2]

Thanks for reply. Checked oil filler cap and dip stick - no milky residue, coolant in expansion tank was a bit low added about a liter but as there was no warning light, can't say if it had been at that level before problem started. gave it a quick start, it started with a bit of white smoke and then a few seconds later went away, certainly nothing like that experienced yesterday but still not smokeless as the day before that. Don't have the correct tools to extract the spark plugs so off to the shop it goes - will see what they say...

[Gravy]

If smoke is white it usually indicates a very rich fuel mixture. I believe you need to evaluate the odour of the smoke this should establish whether you are burning oil or excessive fuel.

Whatever it sounds like $$$$.

[amacman]

sounds exactly like the crank vent system diaphragm is leaking ,
if you remove air intake hose to throttle body and you may need to remove throttle body, you might see oil in plenum chamber , there is a small pipe connecting vent to throttle so when diaphragm leaks then oil is sucked through intake .
oil mist is drawn through system so when you park car for a time then oil accumulates in plenum chamber and runs to lowest point of gravity, usually at rearmost cylinders so when you start engine those cylinders are burning a lot of oil .
i hope this works out as easy fix for you .