Discovery 3 burning smell?

[TVR nut]

AS mentioned in title, my wife has had this problem several times , she is reporting a plastic kind of burning smell, really strong, and blue smoke from under bonnet. I've taken her car for lots of runs over the weekend and gave it some stick but it will not do it when i'm in it so cant find where the problem is. everything looks fine to look at. any ideas what it could be?. was in the garage last month, it had only done it once at this point, but they found nothing.

[S26VE P]

Does it only do it on very cold mornings? below 3 degrees? if so thats normal. Its the FBH.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/wiki/Fuel_Burning_Heater

[cptsideways]

Though they should not smoke or smell of burning plastic!!


Check the exhaust of it is not melting something, it should make a concorde type noise when running

[paintman]

Got one of the fuel burning heaters on my Sprinter van (standard fitment). Manually switched rather than automatic.
Its exhaust vent is in the n/s/f wheel arch & you get a small amount of smoke & quite a strong smell, which is at its worst just after starting it up but soon goes after it heats up. Don't touch the exhaust it gets very hot!

ETA yes, it does sound like a jet engine spooling up

Edited by paintman on Monday 25th February 09:53

[cptsideways]

Don't park it in your garage if you have a carpeted garage floor as I found out

[Mon Ami Mate]

This might sound daft but if it smells as if plastic is burning, the product of this will be burnt plastic. Have you had a good crawl around to see if you can find any? Maybe something wedged under the exhaust?

[superlightr]

S26VE P said:

Does it only do it on very cold mornings? below 3 degrees? if so thats normal. Its the FBH.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/wiki/Fuel_Burning_Heater

we had this as well - called the LR assist and they confirmed all normal.

vents from unter the engine somewhere, does smell a bit burny.

[TVR nut]

I knew of the cold start thing but this is happening when it's warm. Can't see anything burnt anywhere. Just thought I'd ask incase it was common problem. It's going to LR on Thursday for a check to try and find out. I'll post up the results after that. The smell is really strong, got to the stage that she stopped and got out for a while yesterday. Guess we will find out on Thursday!

[keesiev]

Any news on what was the cause?
I smell the same when I get out of my car and am wondering if it is something normal or if there is an issue.

cheers...

[camel_landy]

At the time of year this post was originally created, it may well have been the fuel burning heater.

M

[Bill]

keesiev said:

Any news on what was the cause?
I smell the same when I get out of my car and am wondering if it is something normal or if there is an issue.

cheers...

Have you tried a different aftershave?

[Biggles111]

We had a similar smell, turned out to be an early warning of the alternator failing...