Just drove home in the rain and about 45 degree weather...

when i parked i saw what i believe was some smoke (looked a bit too billowy and thick to be steam) coming out of my left kidney grille...so i immediately popped my hood, but the second i did that it went away...

i still have that burnt rubber/plastic smell coming from my engine

anyone got any ideas?

You haven't mentioned in your avatar text or signature what country you're in, so "45 degrees" is either exceptionally hot (45c = 113f) or quite cold (45f = 7c).

You have a 3.0 inline 6 judging by you signature, have you had a look at you rocker cover gasket and checked for leaks? Rocker cover gaskets are common for failing and needing replaced, its not a huge job i did two on the 740i used to have.

The burning rubber smell sounds like oil and not coolant, coolant has a sweet smell to it.

sorry sometimes i forget that even matters...i'm in USA so 45 degrees farenheit

It might just be rain water evaporating from touching hot engine compartments... The old R53 MINI Cooper S's were infamous for doing this... it was cool to see "dragon's breath" coming out of the Supercharger scoop LOL

i hope so..i'm gonna go down to the garage in a bit and check for oil leakage...

BTW -- haha how much input do you have to give to be labeled "M5 extraordinaire!" ... love that

Happens to me sometime in the winter. It's usually snow hitting the underside and steaming especially at a red light. Nothing to worry about if it doesn't happen during dry conditions.

Happens to me as well. Cool conditions, esp when there is slush/snow hitting the under carriage. I reacted the same way when I first saw it. A little unnerving but a dealer check (what I did) indicated no problems in oil/coolant etc ... cool weather no problem....warm weather steam....well....you know.....

Check for cats under hood when you first start car in am. By pm, they will start smoking/steaming.

:lol: :lol: