Yesterday I was in my 2008 Cooper S Clubman with 108k miles and after sitting in my driveway with the engine on for about 10 minutes waiting for someone, I noticed I was surrounded in white smoke. I panicked, shut off the car and ran out to see if it was coming from the engine bay and, but nada, I noticed it was coming out of the exhaust tips!

I'm a little upset currently, I just spent $900 replacing the Turbo Oil Line, Oil Filter Housing Gasket and Auxiliary Water Pump, which also included an Oil Change and Coolant Flush, and don't want to have to replace something else on this car. I did notice that the Coolant Reservoir is under the Min. line and was wondering if being low on coolant could be the problem because it was sweet smelling.

I tried starting the car again today to go to school and same thing, but the smoke was a little thicker and smelt a bit stronger, this is kind of worrying me. I also noticed what sounded like the death rattle, but it not lasted a minute and went away, it might have just been my nerves going haywire because my Chain Tensioner was replaced 10k miles ago, and it's been perfectly fine since I got the car at 100k miles.

Could this be anything to do with my driving style? The past week I kind of lost my mind after getting back my car from it being inoperable for 3 weeks and have been ******* it like crazy and keeping Sport mode on 24/7.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

Top off your coolant first. Check your oil level next. Coolant being burned out the exhaust will smell and look differently than oil smoke out of an engine. Oil tends to have a blue tint to the smoke, and coolant will smell sweeter than oil being burnt. Sounds like a coolant leak into the combustion area/block of the engine, but can't say without being there. let us know what you find.

 

sounds like a blown head gasket. Pull the plugs and look for a green or blue tint on them.

 

sweet is coolant

out the pipes is bad . . .

 

Do not drive or run your car. Don't bother topping off any fluids. Have the car towed to a qualified MINI mechanic. It could be that the shop boogered the oil filter housing installation and you're mixing coolant with oil and engine parts are getting hot. If you're lucky it's just a head gasket.

In any case, if you're burning coolant, the head will have to come off to inspect. Sorry, man.

 

Miniman1411, pull the dipstick and see if there is any foam/froth on the stick. It sounds like a head gasket is bad, with the car running, does the overflow bottle bubble, if so, your head gasket is going for sure, best to park and have towed. If you suck in enough water into the combustion chamber the engine can Hydrolock, resulting in bent rods, damaged pistons & bores ect........