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hot engine smell 58 1.4 acenta?

4K views 26 replies 9 participants last post by  dandgb 
#1 ·
Hi all, i have owned the note for just over a week now and have noticed that after a motorway run the car gives off a strong smell from the engine as if it is overheating. The note doesnt seem to have a temperature dial which is rather annoying so i cannot judge if this is the issue. I havent seen or heard the fan cutting in so this may be the issue but is there any way to check its operation? Also the car was serviced before i collected it and the oil looks over full to me so chould this be the smell issue? Any help welcome! Cheers, Ian
 
#4 ·
It could also be any stuff the seller used to clean around the engine bay so it looked pretty when for sale. A lot of garages use a spray to make it all look clean and shiny under the bonnet and the first few heat cycles give off a smell.
 
#5 ·
Ye that did cross my mind but i have covered 350 miles since getting the car and its still there so my guess would be that this isnt the case. The car doesnt seem to be showing any signs of overheating though such as nutty smelling burnt oil etc but i cannot identify the issue as yet. It does smell like overheating though and the coolant temp light works and is not coming on.......frustrating!!
 
#6 ·
350 miles is nothing to get rid of the spray but you may need to get underneath to see if any oil is weeping out onto to hot parts, though it would smell really bad with just a drop or two and give a blue haze when lifting the bonnet.
 
#7 ·
Take the car for a good run, to get it hot. When you get back home, leave it running and lift the bonnet, and check to see if the fan is running, after a good few minutes of idling, also any smoke from the cleaners that 'mdv' has suggested.


Firstly, take out some oil from the engine............overfill is bad news.
 
#8 ·
It is possible there was oil spilled during the service as there are signs of oil being wiped up so i will have a good root around to see what i can see. Guess that could explain the smell without any obvious symptoms. I will let you know if i find anything, cheers.

Any other ideas welcome.

Does anyone know how i can test the fan operation and if it comes on regularly or at all during normal driving on this model?
 
#9 ·
Do as I suggested, after a run. It would hardly come on during normal travelling, as the radiator is facing forward. Unlike a transverse mounted rad, as in a an old Mini, which has to have a constant (non electric)fan operation.
 
#15 ·
evil.soup said:
It is possible there was oil spilled during the service as there are signs of oil being wiped up so i will have a good root around to see what i can see. Guess that could explain the smell without any obvious symptoms. I will let you know if i find anything, cheers.

Any other ideas welcome.

Does anyone know how i can test the fan operation and if it comes on regularly or at all during normal driving on this model?
if someone has spilt oil and it's dribbled down the cylinder head etc your going to need to remove all the plastics bits on top of the engine and clean up as much as you can or the smell will be there for a very long time
 
#16 ·
Ok, dropped some oil out, topped the coolant up and run the engine for some time until the fan eventually came on. I did clean up some of the spilt oil too and I have been out on a run. The smell was there when I got home last night but not as bad as it has been so it may well have been oil spill. I have also ordered an ECU bluetooth plugin so I can monitor the actual temperature the engine is running ar just to be sure that it isn't an overheating issue. If it is running hot my next guess would be a faulty coolant pump possibly?? Its hard to tell without a temp gauge, poor design that!!
Thanks for all the advice so far, very useful!
 
#18 ·
Its not something you miss or pay much attention tountil you need it if you know what I mean. I have owned 2 cars that had over heating issues that I spotted before any sumptoms appeared because the temp gauge gave me the heads up. Do you know at what temp the warning light comes on?
Even my Lada had a temp gauge!!Edited by: evil.soup
 
#21 ·
<DIV =msg>At low speed the fan comes on at 96°c and goes off at 93°c
at high speed 99 96



dash warning light comes on at 114°c and goes off at 111°c




No wonder my engine smells hot when I go up our local Welsh hill (1 in 3) after a good run. What tortuous route through the designers' minds resulted in the absence of an engine temp. gauge? I'm told that most modern cars have none. I remember in the 1980s .... (I shall not bore you again.)

Fellas, is it possible to fit a l.e.d. and dropper resistor across the fan without upsetting some chit of a computer?
 
#22 ·
I don't see why not.


The last couple of new cars I've drived didn't have temp gauges. One gave a blue light and I had to read the manual to work out that was OK.



A lot of other cars with gauges are actually lying to you, they are not linear, they don't have numbers on etc. They are just there because it is something the driver expects.



Had a Mini Cooper S, that gauge only really had 3 positions, cold, normal, and boiling over. You could watch the coolant spew out the bonnet just as the gauge went from normal to boiling over.



You can read the temperature out the OBD port of you want, that might be an easier way around it.
 
#23 ·
Old Frank said:
<DIV =msg>At low speed the fan comes on at 96°c and goes off at 93°c
at high speed 9996

 

dash warning light comes on at 114°c and goes off at 111°c




No wonder my engine smells hot when I go up our local Welsh hill (1 in 3) after a good run. What tortuous route through the designers' minds resulted in the absence of an engine temp. gauge? I'm told that most modern cars have none. I remember in the 1980s .... (I shall not bore you again.)

Fellas, is it possible to fit a l.e.d. and dropper resistor across the fan without upsetting some chit of a computer?
As said you would be better off downloading a free app to a smart phone and buying an £8 ECU bluetooth plugin. You can chose any number of dials to display on your phone and its real time info from the ECU rather than a gauge. I just had mine turn up today and plugged it in to check the readings and it works really well. I am glad someone else is suprised not to see a temp gauge!!
 
#24 ·
Just spotted this. Is a smartphone a clever ear and is it smart enough to tell me what's wrong? My telephone is on a lead attached to the house so that it doesn't get lost.
Seriously, perhaps I should come into the 21st C with 'phones, but I'm busy with a Raspberry Pi and the associated problems. Perhaps, when I've got those sorted out, the R-Pi could monitor my Note.
 
#25 ·
You don't need a smart phone a tablet or laptop will do. Yes it can even tell you what's wrong with the car by reading the fault codes. in theory it should be possible to connect the R Pi to the cars ecu you just need to write the programme and get a connector to link the two together. Edited by: Coolbusby
 
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