Loss of Coolant/Blue/White Smoke/yellow gunk

My BMW has been running a little weird, it has a little of that yellow gunk on the oil cap and inside the valve cover, also its been smoking a little white out the tailpipe but that may be due to humidity. When its first started it has blue smoke and is idling weird for about a minute then runs fine. It needs a camshaft position sensor and that is on the way. I am losing coolant somewhere but i cannot find a leak, after 2 days the coolant light comes on saying its low but its not in my oil. Could it be burning it? Headgasket is going? CCV valve need cleaning? What do yall think?

That doesn't sound very good. I'm betting on a bad head gasket. Have you overheated it recently?

HG. Check and see if your oil is milky. Water is going somewhere, and if you can't find it, odds are it's seeping through the HG and into the cyls.

If its white smoke its usually water burning if its blue is oil and black usually fuel, all though it could just be condensation. Try a compression test

My oil is never milky, I just ran it 3k miles and changed cuz I just bought it the oil looked just like it came out of the bottle. I can't find a leak but I lose about a liter of water a day. First time to smoke blue today, I put exactly 7 quarts of oil in. It sputters at start up but I think that's the cps needing replaced, after a few minutes it runs and idles great, only white smoke ever so often but yesterday was really humid so ill have to try a different day to check the smoke

I haven't overheated it since I bought it

Time for an Engine Compression Test + Cylinder Leak Down Test.

Ok my dad can do a compression test on it

does the white smoke smell sweet?

Not sure ill have to smell it once I get off work I drove my jeep instead of the bimmer

My guess is a head gasket or cracked head allowing antifreeze into a cylinder or the intake. This will blow the white sweet smoke out the tail pipe. The yellow gunk is an oil/antifreeze froth. Not good

You better hope it's a HG and not the head A HG can still be bad even if you don't have milky oil. Compression test will show all. keep us informed.

Originally Posted by Tampa02e46

You better hope it's a HG and not the head A HG can still be bad even if you don't have milky oil. Compression test will show all. keep us informed.

I will, if its a headgasket i'll just replace it. ever seen anyone do a port and polish and maybe bore it to increase displacement? while im in there i may do that if theres enough HP increase.

CCV system would explain the emulsified oil/water mayo on your oil cap. The CCV can't be cleaned but it will clean itself a bit if you drive the car like it was meant to be driven. Lots of short in-town trips will turn it into a mayo factory....

No oil in coolant and no coolant in oil? If the CCV system gets clogged, it can be a good source of excess oil being sucked from the sump and cycled back through the intake manifold and burned.

If you are losing coolant repeatedly after topping up, you'll be relatively lucky if that turns out to be an external leak. Have you looked hard at all the cooling/heating hoses and their connections to everything? The heater inlet pipes that connect to the engine block behind the water pump are almost impossible to see, let alone service, without removing the intake manifold, alternator, and OFH. More and more sixes are showing up on the forums with these hoses going bad and leaking. External leak should leave white specky traces (if you use BMW coolant).

Might be good idea to have the car read for any stored fault codes.

Originally Posted by pleiades

CCV system would explain the emulsified oil/water mayo on your oil cap. The CCV can't be cleaned but it will clean itself a bit if you drive the car like it was meant to be driven. Lots of short in-town trips will turn it into a mayo factory....

No oil in coolant and no coolant in oil? If the CCV system gets clogged, it can be a good source of excess oil being sucked from the sump and cycled back through the intake manifold and burned.

If you are losing coolant repeatedly after topping up, you'll be relatively lucky if that turns out to be an external leak. Have you looked hard at all the cooling/heating hoses and their connections to everything? The heater inlet pipes that connect to the engine block behind the water pump are almost impossible to see, let alone service, without removing the intake manifold, alternator, and OFH. More and more sixes are showing up on the forums with these hoses going bad and leaking. External leak should leave white specky traces (if you use BMW coolant).

Might be good idea to have the car read for any stored fault codes.

why cant the ccv be cleaned?
How is the car supposed to be driven?
i'll look some more for a leak, ever so often after i get home i hear a hissing sound but i cant find where its coming from, i thought that was where water was leaking but i cant pinpoint the location

Could be the CCV. Take off your spalsh shield and look around, if you are loosing coolant and there are no leaks its HG related. The CCV cant be cleaned because it gets clogged with gunk, you just need to replace it along with all the hoses.

OP...I agree that it could just be the time for a CCV...but that some long drives might clear up the issue. Water mixing with oil (from low gas tank, humidity in air) gets frothed up and can clog ccv...which means oil will be burned as it gets sucked into intake instead of separated and returned to oil pan.

The only symptom you have of HG seems to be the rough running that gets better soon. Monitor coolant level very accurately and reliably...in a.m. on level ground.

If you got this car within the last year or so, it's possible someone added some magic liquid to it to seal things up before you got it.

Don't panic quite yet! Go on a longish drive (2 hours or so) and see if that helps at all.

Alright ill go for a long drive and fill it full of gas. I just hope the rough running is my sensor needing replaced. After 30 min of driving in traffic I do smell burning coolant like its hot and leaked out but don't see it anywhere...

Originally Posted by metlic53

Alright ill go for a long drive and fill it full of gas. I just hope the rough running is my sensor needing replaced. After 30 min of driving in traffic I do smell burning coolant like its hot and leaked out but don't see it anywhere...

What part of TX are you in? I might be able to help.

I'm in conroe, by the woodlands, roughly 50 miles north of Houston