E30 Zone

Hi guys after a bit of help please. I have quite a strong smell of burning rubber coming from the front of the engine bay. At first i thought it was the exhaust manifold gaskets touching the HT leads but they are all fine. It seems to be coming from the front of the engine, viscous fan coupling maybe?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
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is there any smoke?

No not at all, it definatly a rubber smell and not oil which is odd

checked under the car to make sure some thing hasn't got stuck on the exhaust?

water pump on the way out causing the fan belt to slip and get hot?
when my water pump siezed, there was a smell of rubber and a LOT of smoke! made moving the car off the road 'interesting' (lane 3 on a big motorway roundabout too....)

I would be taking a good look at the cam belt too, maybe the tensioner has had it ?

e30topless wrote:I would be taking a good look at the cam belt too, maybe the tensioner has had it ?

You don't say what engine, but there was a service advisory on M20 tensioners.
A version of them works loose where the shaft supporting the tensioner bearing joins its supporting bracket, allowing the tensioner pulley to tilt over, and throw the belt against the front cover.

Brianmoooore wrote:

e30topless wrote:I would be taking a good look at the cam belt too, maybe the tensioner has had it ?

You don't say what engine, but there was a service advisory on M20 tensioners.
A version of them works loose where the shaft supporting the tensioner bearing joins its supporting bracket, allowing the tensioner pulley to tilt over, and throw the belt against the front cover.

Sorry my bad, it is an M20. I had the cambelt changed about 1500 miles ago so I hope it wouldn't be that.

gareth wrote:water pump on the way out causing the fan belt to slip and get hot?
when my water pump siezed, there was a smell of rubber and a LOT of smoke! made moving the car off the road 'interesting' (lane 3 on a big motorway roundabout too....)

I thought it may be a fan belt but there are no signs of damage at all, but also there is no smoke either.

There's a rubber cover part way down the LH side of the engine, behind the cam belt. Pull it off and check for rubber dust inside.

i agree with that, should have mentioned it but it's been a while since i had a BMW engine with a cambelt

there's a good chance a new tensioner wasn't fitted, or a poor quality one that's since failed, or incorrectly adjusted etc etc.

if it has failed, you should be able to take it back to the garage that did it and give them a slap

gareth wrote:i agree with that, should have mentioned it but it's been a while since i had a BMW engine with a cambelt

there's a good chance a new tensioner wasn't fitted, or a poor quality one that's since failed, or incorrectly adjusted etc etc.

if it has failed, you should be able to take it back to the garage that did it and give them a slap

Ha ha, I would of thought the same as well but my uncle fitted it, he's a mechanic and owns an E30 M3, I bought the parts and they were genuine BMW

in that case, even more cause to give him a slap
may put you off the family christmas card list though