Smoking from Nearside of Plenum
Discussion
Having jump-started the V8S on Sunday morning (battery flat after two weeks without use) I'd left it idling while removing jump cables, closing garage etc.
Got in the car to a pungent burning smell which reminded me of bakelite plastic, decided it might be best to switch off just as small plume of smoke emanated from the bonnet!
On opening the bonnet I could see the smoke was coming from the nearside of the plenum, didn't have a chance to further investigate however. A quick check to see if it would start resulted in some clicking from the starter and that was it
Am away from home this week, so don't have the bible to check again, don't suppose anyone has suffered the same in the past or has any clues?
Got in the car to a pungent burning smell which reminded me of bakelite plastic, decided it might be best to switch off just as small plume of smoke emanated from the bonnet!
On opening the bonnet I could see the smoke was coming from the nearside of the plenum, didn't have a chance to further investigate however. A quick check to see if it would start resulted in some clicking from the starter and that was it
Am away from home this week, so don't have the bible to check again, don't suppose anyone has suffered the same in the past or has any clues?
Try the starter again once it's cold, you might get lucky and find it was just an unfortunate combination of partially flat battery and hot starter. It doesn't take much to produce smoke so this may just be a bit of oil burning off the exhaust or something non-critical touching the exhaust.
There are a couple of wires down there which if damaged could prevent the car from running, but none I can think of that would stop it from being cranked over. That suggests either an alarm/imob fault, or a problem with the starter motor, battery, earth, ignition switch or wiring between them.
If it doesn't start OK from cold, have a grovel around the area the smoke was coming from and see if you can find any wires etc dangling over the exhaust.
There are a couple of wires down there which if damaged could prevent the car from running, but none I can think of that would stop it from being cranked over. That suggests either an alarm/imob fault, or a problem with the starter motor, battery, earth, ignition switch or wiring between them.
If it doesn't start OK from cold, have a grovel around the area the smoke was coming from and see if you can find any wires etc dangling over the exhaust.
GreenV8S said:
Try the starter again once it's cold, you might get lucky and find it was just an unfortunate combination of partially flat battery and hot starter. It doesn't take much to produce smoke so this may just be a bit of oil burning off the exhaust or something non-critical touching the exhaust.
There are a couple of wires down there which if damaged could prevent the car from running, but none I can think of that would stop it from being cranked over. That suggests either an alarm/imob fault, or a problem with the starter motor, battery, earth, ignition switch or wiring between them.
If it doesn't start OK from cold, have a grovel around the area the smoke was coming from and see if you can find any wires etc dangling over the exhaust.
Thanks Peter, you've reassured me that it might not be as bad as I thought it could be... Was in a rush to get out when it happened so just made sure it had stopped burning and left it in the garage. There are a couple of wires down there which if damaged could prevent the car from running, but none I can think of that would stop it from being cranked over. That suggests either an alarm/imob fault, or a problem with the starter motor, battery, earth, ignition switch or wiring between them.
If it doesn't start OK from cold, have a grovel around the area the smoke was coming from and see if you can find any wires etc dangling over the exhaust.
Got it booked into Austec this Saturday and the RAC taking me in on a flatbed, but if I get a chance when I get home later in the week will try and start it again, then at least I can enjoy a drive out
I'm wondering if whatever caused the battery to drain so quickly (it has no alarm, so only the immobiliser to drain it) is also what went up in smoke...
Tripps said:
I'm wondering if whatever caused the battery to drain so quickly (it has no alarm, so only the immobiliser to drain it) is also what went up in smoke...
That's possible. The main powercable is on the other side on yours, but I know somebody with a Range Rover which would flatten the battery at random and then be fine for days after it was recharged. Then one day it wasn't fine, tried to jump start it, jump leads started glowing, we found that the main power cable to the starter had been rubbing against the side of the engine and worn through the insulation. We were lucky it didn't catch fire.
GreenV8S said:
That's possible. The main powercable is on the other side on yours, but I know somebody with a Range Rover which would flatten the battery at random and then be fine for days after it was recharged. Then one day it wasn't fine, tried to jump start it, jump leads started glowing, we found that the main power cable to the starter had been rubbing against the side of the engine and worn through the insulation. We were lucky it didn't catch fire.
Doh, now I'm all sad again, as this was the sort of thing I was thinking it might be... All a bit clever for me, so I think I'll probably delegate to Austec after the RAC man comes and has a look at it (they won't send me a flatbed without seeing it first), given the state of some elements in the car I think it could do with a looking over anyway.
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