Bad smell coming from engine this morning

Dubh Geannain

So I've only a 5-10 minute drive to work most mornings. Was on the road about 2 or 3 minutes today when I got a terrible smell coming in the vents.

From a previous experience of an older car some years ago it smelt very like the clutch burning.

When I got to work I had a quick look under the bonnet. Nothing was frozen from what I could see.

Left the car running anyway for the next 15 minutes to see if it was just a problem when driving and the smell slowly faded.

Any thoughts on this? Car's due a service anyway in the next two months but I was hoping to leave it till the weather picks up.

mullingar

Maybe a dead animal that wanted some heat off the engine and died?

bryaner

Possibly the heater motor was slightly frozen, burning smell could have been

the armature struggling in the motor, just a thought

bryaner

bryaner wrote: »

Possibly the heater motor was slightly frozen, burning smell could have been

the armature struggling in the motor, just a thought

Would smell similar to clutch burning

v300

Handbrake frozen on.

Lord Nikon

I got a wicked smell of fish yesterday in Naas, I'm hoping it was someone elses car.

bryaner

v300 wrote: »

Handbrake frozen on.

Possibly but the smell was coming from the vents

spadder

Cats climb into the engine compartment for heat after you park, they often piss in there too. Is it that kind of smell?

Dubh Geannain

spadder wrote: »

Cats climb into the engine compartment for heat after you park, they often piss in there too. Is it that kind of smell?

Luckily I'm mot familiar with the smell of heated cat piss.

But there'd be people parked next to me at night whose cars would be a lot warmer after much longer journeys so I'd probably rule that out. plus I was home by 5:15 yesterday.

I'll see how it goes later on when I'm heading home anyway.

Muckie

Maybe snow got incrusted in and around your exhaust and especially
the catalytic converter and once you started driving it melted causing
the smell.

Dubh Geannain

Well no trouble when I was going home

I hope that was the only and last time.

kazul

Muckie wrote: »

Maybe snow got incrusted in and around your exhaust and especially
the catalytic converter and once you started driving it melted causing
the smell.

How exactly would snow form a crust in and around some of the hottest parts of the when it's running?

And since when does melted snow, i.e. water, smell like burning clutch?

E39MSport

On this topic.

Brother got a horrible smell of rotten eggs from his car (think it was a passat - old one) years ago. Couldn't figure out what it was.

Turned out to be the battery. Not sure exactly what went wrong but it needed replacing.

the merchant

As v300 mentioned, handbrake frozen on, clutch slips as a result, phewwy smell.

Lord Nikon

E39MSport wrote: »

On this topic.

Brother got a horrible smell of rotten eggs from his car (think it was a passat - old one) years ago. Couldn't figure out what it was.

Turned out to be the battery. Not sure exactly what went wrong but it needed replacing.

Damn battery hens.