540 Curious exhaust vapour

[choccibicci]

The weathers been quite crap in the uk at the moment, and i've noticed a curious exhaust vapour/smoke from my 540.
It seems like its water vapour, definately not oil, and only happens at idle, never when in motion. When the engine has had a good warm up, it seems to go away.

I've not taken much notice of it until this morning when the coolant level warning beeped up on the display. Seems i'm loosing coolant from somewhere, could it be related to the exhaust vapour?
The engine never overheats, or runs rough, and it only took about a mugful of water to top up the reservoir to cure the warning.

Anything else to check?!

[zhandax]

Mine is still blowing steam half an hour after I start it if I stay in town. It seems these exhaust systems hold a lot of water. For the coolant leak, look under the top driver's hose on your radiator. If you see signs of coolant dripping down that side, you need to replace the radiator. The condensation stored in the exhaust system is just a feature of these cars.

[saluki540i]

Speaking as a 540 owner who recently replaced the exhaust aft of the cats, there is alot of mass to the factory exhaust - 80 pounds or so if I had to guess. It's no wonder it takes a while to cook off the water inside. Probably explains why mine was getting soft at the seams too. As for coolant leaks - mine had a few. Mainly, clamps in the area of the reservoir and "spiderweb" of hoses near the heater cores. The chief leaker was actually an o-ring inside the flow control of the box which all those hoses run to, and would be visible upon close inspection. Since then I've not had to touch the coolant.