mmmmwhat do you guys think?

[Neil Stone]

Evening all.
I was towing a near empty trailer today and on the journey there is a 5 mile steady climb on a single track road.
After passing a tourist in a passing place I planted the foot in 4th and accelerated away up the hill.
Near the top I started to smell 'burning', checked the gauges, and all is normal.
I immediately pulled up and checked 'hubs and brakes (had calliper issues before) before popping the bonnet.
As you'd imagine, it was hot under there and I reckon the source of the 'burning smell' (maybe roasting would be more accurate).
Any thoughts as to what it might be.
Radiator levels were fine. Oil levels fine.
The turbo would have been working hard......

Any ideas and should and what should I be checking for?

Thank you

Neil

 

[adrianr]

Any slip on your clutch you might not be noticing?

 

[frank rabbets]

Could be loose belts....unrelated to the climb.
Or if the car has been standing in a dusty area just hot exhaust. I had clouds of smoke like this once as my exhaust had never been very hot before. It was propshaft grease on the exhaust.

Frank

 

[Chas]

My wifes car started producing this awful hot plasticy smell once and I couldn't trace it so took it to our local garage thinking the worst, turned out to be a supermarket bag stuck to the exhaust pipe

 

[Gary Stockton]

No EGT readout I assume? Quite possibly hot / roasting gearbox / transfer case oil? Especially noticeable if you've extended the breathers up into the engine bay at all?

Rubbing handbrake shoes?

Clutch?

Cheers

 

[Neil Stone]

I think it was just some oil burning off........I had the trailer on yesterday with a half load of timber and it seemed fine (including some foot down hill climbs on a really hot day).

Just paranoia

 

[frank rabbets]

With mine the centre box, which is original, does not get very hot until I have a heavy load on for a long time or try going flat out for several miles which I did on the Mway in France. I thought I had wrecked the engine as there was a cloud of smoke behind and I slowed down to see if it would clear which it did after about 3 miles. Then I got off at the next exit to investigate and it was grease burning off the centre box together with associated stuck dust etc. My centre box is double skinned and the outer is cool most of the time.

Frank