My car started smoking tonight from the engine bay not alot but faint. Like as if something was getting burnt under there. I stopped and checked the smell, it wasnt oil, or any special fluid. I cant really identify the smell, but it was weird. Checked under the hood and it kinda died out. It was dark with a lit pole near me but there were still dark areas in the engine bay. Shut the hood and drove and checked all vital signs, battery fine, oil fine, temp fine. Got home and went under the garage and turned on all lights and still saw nothing. So, Im on a mission. Its kinda scarin' me because I really dont need this to happen to my car, whatever it is. Atleast not right now. Im going to check tomorrow while driving to work. I just hope whatever it was is caught soon and doesnt cause any fire.

 

Probably not the same, but a while back I noticed a little smoke coming from my engine bay before I left for work that morning. 'Oh great, what now' I thought. I got out and opened the hood and still saw smoke but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. After a couple of minutes, I saw that it looked like it was coming from the firewall. As I looked closer, it turned out that the wind was blowing directly towards the back of my car and blowing the exhaust under the car and up through the engine bay.

 

How does your vavle cover gaskets look? Mine started leaking a little while back, and was causing little puffs of smoke and the burning oil smell.

S

 

I think it is my accessory belt burning up possibly. When I turned the car on yesterday morning I heard some shreaking like a belt was loose and then it was fine after something kicked in. I think my power steering pump is going because I tried to turn while parked yesterday and I got to a certain point in the turn and the engine shreaked again and I couldnt turn the wheel like as if the power steering had stopped. Im thinking my ps pump stopped while I was driving which caused it to burn the belt alittle. I dunno, Im still trying to confirm.

 

possible...

 

Its burnt PS fluid. It burns on the backside exhaust manifold.

 

Yea that's what happened to me, but I was able to identify unburnt fluid on a small bracket above the exhaust pipe so I knew what it was for sure.

 

it it like a cross between smelling like burning fubber and burning ATF?

 

Does it smell like anti-freze?

I had the small little rubber hose that feeds
anti-freeze up to the TB to warm up the TB
for cold weather go bad.

It had a small pin hole in it and allowed anti-
freeze to run down into one of the spark plug
wells and then onto the hot exhaust manifold...

When it happened, I thought I blew a head
gasket for sure!

Scott

 

Its not antifreeze

 

check your power steering hoses. possible that it is cracked and leaking on the exhaust