I was getting onto the freeway yesterday afternoon in second gear directly in front of an E39 M5 around 3,000 RPM. Excited about the car behind me, I decided to dump the pedal and accelerate down the ramp. When I did so, my car hesitated for a second (sport button was off), I heard a rattling/grinding sound, and saw white smoke through my rear view mirror before my car started to accelerate. Needless to say I pulled off the next off ramp to inspect my engine. I got back on, repeated the same pattern of driving to see if it would happen again, and nothing. Second gear, full acceleration, no problems.

After leaving the bar with my girlfriend, I was driving down the street and decided to see if the problem was persistent. So I did it again. No cars, no pedestrians, so I put my car in second and accelerated hard. Around 4k RPM, the car made a similar rattling/grinding noise, but there was no white smoke. The car has been driving fine ever since. I've tried to do it over and over again to see if it'll happen and the car drives as it everything is normal. No more grinding, no more rattling.

When it happened, I was already in gear and the clutch was engaged so my foot was only on the gas. The stick was definitely all the way into the gear (or else I'm sure it would have popped into neutral), and the car was performing beautifully beforehand. I don't know what would cause such a thing.

My first thought was that it could have been my oil. That said, I'm going to be getting an oil change tomorrow to see if that may help the situation. I already had my car looked at for the timing chain and that was fixed, but it doesn't seem like this would be a timing chain problem. There are no leaks, the car runs fine, and I still have a rattle but nothing over the top. I assume it's just the oil pump doing its job.

So what the heck could it be? The white smoke tells me it could have possibly been the turbo, but I'm only at 40k miles and the car is literally brand new. Two previous owners, both women, no serious repairs have been done on the car beforehand. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Ideas?

 

is typically from water/steam. Oil smoke (like engine issue, blown turbo, rings etc.) would be dark smoky, sometimes toward bluish (particularly if decelerating and it has worn piston rings). Was the car cold/just warming up? If it was the first time you punched it that day, you could have just blown a bunch of residual water out of the exhaust system.

Very hard to connect anything w/ the noise without being there to hear it.

 

The car had already been running all day before the problem occurred. I just had my oil changed, so I'm hoping everything should be fine. Ready for the new news?

My coolant pump is leaking. Okay, okay... It may not be the pump itself, it could be the hose or reservoir, but it's definitely coolant leaking. The pump is covered in green and my coolant levels are running low. Thus, I'm watching my coolant levels for the next week until I can go to the shop and leave my car for a few days until they fix it. This is not cool. My car is only 3 weeks old for me and already I've had the timing chain tensioner fixed, and now we're heading onto the coolant pump.

Fudge, I hate the fact that I love this car so much, because I'm definitely willing to deal with all this just to drive a Mini again. :(

 

It never surprises me when buying a used car to find an issue that the last owner did not fix. I figure they notice something, get a mechanics estimate, then decide to sell. Hopefully this is the issue and once you get it fixed, things are smooth sailing again.

You should look at air filter (cabin filter too) maybe the belt, plugs and check all the pads as a matter of routine at this point.

The cars are known to have a leaking thermostat housing (gasket). It is fairly common and not expensive to fix. With a bit of luck this is your issue. I am not liking the white smoke and the coolant disappearing, so having a visual leak is actually good news in my mind. Searching thermostat gasket will give you lots of threads to look through.

 

losing coolant + white smoke = possible blown head gasket. Id get that pup towed in ASAP.

In the interim, remove yr oil filler cap. if there's a white foamy substance underneath, blown head gasket.

 

I had a shop do my oil change for me. They took a look at it and didn't notice any white foamy substance underneath, so luckily for me I don't have a blown headgasket. I know the owner of the shop (they specialize in Euro cars - VW, Audi, Mini, etc.), and he certainly would have said something if he noticed anything out of the ordinary. Not to mention, I haven't seen the problem since it happened. I'm hoping I was just low on coolant, and that seems to be the case. I'm checking my coolant levels everyday until I hit the shop in a week, and if it's low I just fill it with some water to help it out. Let's see what happens in the meantime.

Fudging annoying. Not really pissed, used cars are WAY cheaper and save money in terms of money spent out of pocket, so I guess I'm bound to expect some cons with owning a car with two previous owners.

 

I think you're in denial.