Burning smell thru the airvents

[nomadx]

My 1999 A4 Quattro has started smelling intermittadly of burning, it seems to come thru the heater vents when I use them, but not all the time. Drove it with the heater off for 10mins and it didn't smell at all.

Any ideas what this could be?

 

[Nilz]

Dont worry about it, i would presume its just the internals heating up....I have the same on mine and its been fine.....

 

[nomadx]

its new thou, have had the car 8months and not smelt it before?

 

[Siena]

I've always had that smell, just before the blower motor packed up.

It's usually the coil windings on the armature / rotor assembly. If the motor bearings get partially seized, the armature and brushes doo run hot, and smell.

 

[Mr K]

mine does that too. is it possible to lubricate the fan motor bearings?

 

[Siena]

mine does that too. is it possible to lubricate the fan motor bearings?

Not really. A lot of dust gets into the brush / bearing area. You lube it, and it becomes a coarse, abrasive paste.

 

[Road Razor]

Once I had a burning smell before which turned out to be anti-freeze vapour. Coolant was leaking from the water pipe giving off anti-freeze vapour while the engine was warm. It's unlikely to be the cause, but nomadx if your coolant level's normal and there's no grey splash residues on the engine cover you can rule out this as a likely cause.

 

[nomadx]

I think the smell is coming from underneath the car, after my drive to work this morning. I smelt around after I got out and it seems strongest underneath about halfway along. I laid down and had a look but couldn't see an obvious problem, but you can't really see alot of the underside like that. I will jack it up tomorrow and have a better look.

Anyone got anymore thoughts in the meantime? The smell is toxic!

 

[nomadx]

Now pretty certain it has a oil leak, and the smell is burning oil. If i pop the bonnet there is a really strong smell of burnt oil on the drivers side of the engine, near the dipstick. The oil level was low too and its checked fairly often.

 

[Broken Byzan]

What engine mate as there maybe a common gasket fault or something

 

[nomadx]

its the 2.8 v6