Steam/Smoke from Kidney Grill
 

Hey guys,

So I was driving my 2004 e60 545i home today (I have a 30 minute commute on 45mph streets) and when I pulled into the garage I notice white steam/smoke coming out of my passenger side kidney grill. It rained and snowed today but still was around 30 degrees so not too cold. I opened the hood and nothing appeared to be wrong or out of place. I had my valve cover gaskets, vanos seals, and alternator bracket gasket repaired about 5,000-10,000 miles ago (almost a year maybe) and I haven't had any oil leaking after the repairs. However, it appears that some oil has dripped since I pulled it into the garage because the water underneath my car (from the snow melting) has some oil in it. Not sure if this is related to the kidney grill smoke but I wanted to know what you guys thought.

Thanks

When your car has totally cooled of to ambient temperature, check the coolant level in the expansion tank, to ensure you have not developed a coolant leak....

This is what I would look at too. I had steam coming out of my grills when the radiator was leaking, check for cracks in this case

The coolest levels were fine when I checked them but I will continue to monitor it. Thanks for the replies!

I experienced something similar a few weeks back driving during a snow storm and once in heavy rain. It was basically just steam. The kidney grills are just wide open. The radiator is right behind it. Any cool water, snow or slush will get in in front of the radiator and with the heat will steam. Only observed this twice. Once during a snow storm and once in heavy cool rain.

happened to me too after some rainfall, made the car look really cool at night with the angel eyes haha

I had steam as well. I drove for 30min in rain, went through a drive thru and was waiting for food, and I noticed a bunch of smoke/steam pour from the front end. Car runs fine, and coolant levels were fine.