93 300 CE 155K, a couple of times I have had short burst of smoke, lasting under 10 seconds. Smoke is light brown. Not white, not black, not blue. Seems to happen if I have been driving at 50 - 60 mph, and come to a sudden stop (like a traffic light). Depending on local wind, it has come out rear of car and today the entire length of the fender-hood space on the driver side. Coolant temp and oil PSI normal, and no change in either level. When this happened, I was not in a position to pull over and pop the hood, when I did a short distance later could not see anything abnormal.

So maybe oil leak pooled somewhere being dumped onto exhaust from strong braking? EGR / air injection? Brake fluid going somewhere it shouldn't? This is enough smoke it could be a BBQ grille with the top just cracked open.

No electrical smell or plastic smell?Could be something on exhaust manifold chech.I would not drive till I found out

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

My guess and it's just that would be a crack-like leak somewhere in the EGR system. But there are lots of possibilities.

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Good luck.






1998 E320 Wagon

No electrical, plastic, or burning caramel smell. Will keep the Mark 1 eyeball on it and be ready to jump out and toss up the hood. Does not make any smoke out the back or oil spots on the bumper, even when my right foot slips to the floor and needle shows 6000 rpm on the interstate ramp (after having an M103 in a 300TE, this is expected from time to time). Easily hit 80 by end of ramp. Then you are ready to attempt to merge on I-95.

I had a similar issue on my 124.
Remove the airfilter, there should be a black pipe that connects to the bottom of the airfilter and branches into the head. This pipe carries oil at low pressure and is not secured tightly. Mine slipped back a little and caused oil to slowly leak out. It pooled wherever it could until there was enough to start splashing around. Some of it managed to hit a very warm spot on the engine and caused smoke, thats how I found it. All of this will take place under the airfilter so you won't be able to see it without removing the airfilter. Take a look, maybe you're lucky and its something as small as this.

If thats not the problem than take a look at the brakes on the driver side where you saw the smoke come out. Maybe something is spilling on the brakes whenever you brake causing the smoke.

Hope this helps.