burning smell in cabin
 

G'day all...

I wonder if you could help with a mystery?
I drove my 2002, 75 diesel about4 mls this morning...parked up in homebase and halfords car park and had been there on the phone for 15 mins perhaps when i first noticed the smell of what to me was 'electrical burning'..

.i switched off the engine and popped the bonnet.The burning smell was strong and either burning rubber or electrical.....accompanied by whiffs of smoke but not coming from anything i could see was burning...

There is a pulley wheel which i am told is the power steering pump and that was red hot to the touch...
I allowed the car to cool and walked to a nearby garage that i had used before.
After about 2 hours i gently drove the car about quarter of a mile to the garage and left it for them to look at.

Later today i recieved a call explaining that they could not find a fault....they ran the engine for 20 mins or so and the alternator under load and tested and that was working fine...they could not find anything wrong...
so i have collected the car and the journey home was thankfully uneventful.
But the mystery remains...any thoughts please?
I have to wonder why would the power steering pump pulley be so hot?...garage felt it unlikely that anything would be wrong with it...?
cheers all

If memory serves me correct I believe that they is an issue with the wiring to the lights on the drivers side , it rubs on a lip and I think one members car went up in flames.
I would whip the bumper off and check it , better to be safe than sorry.

Stan

Why did the garge put the alternator 'under load' when you specifically noted the hot pulley on the steering pump? They 'felt it unlikely to be the steering pump' doesn't sound very inspiring. Maybe the pulley had become hot enough to overheat the belt, hence the smell? Driving the car puts more stress on the pump than the engine at tickover. Did they check the fluid level, etc?



TC

pulley hot enough to overheat belt was also my concern but when i mentioned it to garage they dismissed the idea for the moment...suggesting i use the car til it happens again..if ndeed it does....but it made sense to me that something inside the pulley was getting hot ...dont know that they checked the fluid level...and tho they felt it likely to be the alternator they simply didnt want to replace without knowing for sure...

Was the steering at or near full lock while you were parked up, engine running? Full Lock puts a heavy load on the steering pump and the belt might well slip and heat up the pulley and burn the belt. Probably no lasting damage.You can often hear the belt slipping when turning the car at low speeds.

The power steering pulley should not get hot, I think the pump may be starting to seize, I’ve had a couple of these fail over the years where the key holding the shaft breaks away allowing the pulley wheel to move outwards tearing and throwing the belt off.

I had the issue with the wiring to the lights being chewed through by the rib on the top of the chassis leg but this was on the near side not the offside. Though by the sound of things your problem lies elsewhere.

I was driving one dark rainy winters night from the wilds of the Peak District other drivers were flashing. I saw the headlamp fail and kept seeing flickering. It got me back home it was only the following day on investigation that I found the true horror!

I rewired and reinforced the loom. Its something I always check now.

failing alternator - you get an electrical burning smell in the cab.

Buy a fire extinguisher.

thanks for the tip but no...steering not on lock...dont know why but its always been a habit of mine to park with wheels reasonably straight