Burning smell

I've moved this to the disco section
It's not oily smell and there's been no funny noises

Hi guys, I have a disco 1 300 tdi on a 98, it's a manual, when I picked it up, on the way home about 15/20 minutes into the journey there was a burning smell coming from somewhere, I was doing 65/75mph, then the speado was going to 0 then back up to 70 then again and again then it just went to 0 and didn't move, I got it home and showed the mrs the new truck, we left it over night and went out in the morning in it, the speado was working fine, anyway been using it to and from work with no motorway driving and then yesterday we went on the motorway after 15/20 minutes again it started the burning smell again, we got off the motorway and went to where we where going, and on the way home same again, speado didn't drop to 0 but we where only on the motorway for 15/20 mins max, what's going on??? Can anyone shed any light on this? Thanks

You say in your other thread it was an acrid smell, to me this would mean wire insulation is melting. Have you done a visual check of all the wires that you can see?

Cheers

I don't know whether or if it's of any use, but I have heard of the high current earth strap breaking or becoming disconnected which can mean that the engine/gearbox is only earthed through the handbrake cable and that starts the outer plastic cover on it to melt and burn.

neilly said:

You say in your other thread it was an acrid smell, to me this would mean wire insulation is melting. Have you done a visual check of all the wires that you can see?

Cheers

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brian47 said:

I don't know whether or if it's of any use, but I have heard of the high current earth strap breaking or becoming disconnected which can mean that the engine/gearbox is only earthed through the handbrake cable and that starts the outer plastic cover on it to melt and burn.

Click to expand...

I have had a look at the wiring and there's nothing that stands out.

Where is this earth strap you are on about? I can take a look and see if there's a issue. Thanks

As I said, "I have heard ..."
IMO you can't have enough earth straps between the engine block and the body and chassis of the vehicle. If you wish to make sure then you can always add your own. Obtain a length of woven copper such as shown here and fix one end under a bolt on the engine and the other end to a convenient bolt on the bodywork. Don't make it tight, all you need is a loose loop so that it's not affected by vibration.
If it works then great, if it doesn't then it's nothing lost, the strap can stay in place.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/universal-vehicle-classic-engine-earth-strap-kit-car-fiat-126-500-420mm-long-/272386160220?hash=item3f6b7af65c:gTIAAOSwCGVX47SB

Good point with the earth strap, when it's about good earths nothing is too much... the first to check would be the one to the starter to have good contact then the other to the gearbox