At a light yesterday, after some spirited acceleration, my car had smoke coming out from under the hood. It smelled to me like oil had somehow gotten to a very hot part of the engine and burnt up. Normally, my engine produces no smoke at all.

I have an idea of what this could be caused by. Last weekend I replaced my thermostat (what a pain in the ass), and the dipstick tube, of course, is blocking access to a critical screw on the housing. The tube got banged around and loosened, and it feels as if the seal at the bottom may have been dislodged.

COuld oil be coming out of the bottom of the tube and getting on something hot, or should i look elsewhere?

Thanks,
Troy
1995 E420

I would say it is a good place to start! I just finished replacing the gasket on my tranny pan and it was amazing how a little oil on a hot pipe can produce so much smoke!!

Smokie

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95 E420 BigBlue
500E Sway bars
2001 C Class 16 in. Rims
KYB Struts and shocks
Rear spoiler
American Stitches Wheel
Bigred 99 F250 Powerstroke
JVC EXAD Mp3 player
JVC EXAD GPS

Have you ever replace your timing chain case gasket. Oil usually leaks from the crank due to gasket failure. The oil leaks and travels to the exhaust pipe located in the middle of the vehicle causing the oil to burnoff on the exhaust pipe creating smoke. The timing chain case gasket is a common problem on the E420.

Thanks - I'll look into that the next time I'm under the car. Is there a particular side, driver's or passenger's that tends to leak more?

I replaced the valve cover gaskets after I replaced the camshaft oiler tubes, and there's zero oil there. Gotta be coming from somewhere.

Basically look directly under your crank shaft pulley. The oil leak is not visible if you attempt to look at the crank shaft pulley from the top of the engine bay. You actually need to look around the oil pan under the crank shaft and see if any oil is leaking down.

I say look at the breather hoses coming from your valve cover and going to the throttle body. They get old, get a tear, and it would seems some smoke could come from there.

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2008 S550
2010 GLK350
1997 E420 (retired)
2005 CLK500 (retired)

I've thought ahead on the breather hoses - when I replaced the camshaft oiler tubes (a preventative measure only), I bought all the breather hose pieces and replaced them. They were pretty well fossilized from the heat of the engine.

I really believe that smoke after accelerating and the movement of the dipstick tube during a repair are just too closely linked to be a coincidence. The car has other leaks - but none causing clouds of smoke after heavy acceleration like this!