Help! White smoke and rough idle. Not sure what the problem is

[Vader97]

Car was doing fine all month, just went to get gas and run an errand and all of a sudden it almost felt/sounded like I was having misfires. Throttle felt sluggish, I happened to look up at the rear view mirror and saw white smoke while I was driving home. Didn't get any errors or drivetrain malfunctions (yet). Car has been on a BM3 Stage 2 93 Multimap tune for a while. However I was checking through Bimmerlink and found a 20A201 error a few days ago. That popped up twice, not sure if that has anything to do with the current issue. Opened the hood and everything seemed to be shaking a lot more than usual intermittently.

Attached are links to videos from 20 minutes ago when I was trying to get the car home:

Last video is a shot of the IC reservoir, couldn't clearly see the markings so please advise if coolant level looks low. In the video the coolant seems to be sitting barely at the base of the yellow indicator.

Thank you guys in advance

[Driver407]

Cant speak to the white smoke.
However your coolant should be covering the yellow puck up to the point of the crescent arc. The arc should be sticking out of the coolant.

[Vader97]

Originally Posted by irokdayellup

Cant speak to the white smoke.
However your coolant should be covering the yellow puck up to the point of the crescent arc. The arc should be sticking out of the coolant.

It looks like its a tad bit under that mark then. What brand coolant do you recommend?

[Driver407]

I use the oem blue BMW.
60% distilled and 40% blue mixed.

[TopJimmy]

To top off a res you should use distilled water. For the TMIC circuit you can use a little plain bottled water, just not mineral water.

[Gertsee]

Same thing happened to me and plenty others. Its your top mount intercooler leaking coolant internally into the intake manifold (engine) replace it with a aftermarket one and you'll be all set. You're getting white smoked because you're burning coolant

[Kilabyte]

Originally Posted by Gertsee

Same thing happened to me and plenty others. Its your top mount intercooler leaking coolant internally into the intake manifold (engine) replace it with a aftermarket one and you'll be all set. You're getting white smoked because you're burning coolant

Must be leaking pretty bad, when mine failed I could feel the ECU pull power before getting one drivetrain malfunction but no smoke.

OP: If it's your top mount you want to also replace the plugs and definitely change the oil after replacing the cooler.

[Gertsee]

Originally Posted by Kilabyte

Must be leaking pretty bad, when mine failed I could feel the ECU pull power before getting one drivetrain malfunction but no smoke.

OP: If it's your top mount you want to also replace the plugs and definitely change the oil after replacing the cooler.

My ECU would pull power and I'd only get a drivetrain malfunction if I gave it full throttle. I never experienced the white smoke myself but know a friend who did. It all depends on how big the leak is and how soon you catch it. I agree OP definitely replace plugs and oil after tmic upgrade

[spidy512]

Heya,

That "smoke" looks like steam. So burning coolant seems to make sense.

josh