Hi All, Over the past week I have been noticing a faint burnt rubber smell intermittently. It happened three separate times on a fairly long trip this past weekend which really put the fear of the Ferrari gods in me. Paranoia and visions of shredded timing belts have filled my head. There was no tensinor or other funny engine noise, the engine temp, oil pressure and other functions are fine. No CEL's and the engine ran as it is supposed too. 2.5 years until the next major so I should be O.K. in that respect. No road rubber on the exhaust and no rub marks in the wheel wells. On the drive home I did not notice this smell at all. The day had warmed up and I had the AC on, more on that later. I got under the car last night and took a good look around. I was concerned the recently changed alternator belt could be the culprit, nope everything was fine including the tensinor. Glanced at the AC belt, looks O.K. I then took a look into the timing belt covers with a borascope, nada...all looks great. I got back under the car after scratching my head and having a beer. I decided to check the AC and alt belts one more time. Bingo! When I pushed and pulled on the AC belt the compressor moved! I could not believe it. Now when I say moved I don't mean the tensinor for the belt was loose, I mean the bolts holding it on had come lose and this allowed the compressor to slide slightly and even bend do to play in the rear bracket mounting hole. Apparently the bolts had been a little wet with oil over the years and the nylocks had come loose. The belt looks fine and I can just barely tell where the belt zinged the pulley fence ever so slightly. I didn't think that was possible, but I am going to replace them as soon as I can. I realigned the bolts and the holes and readjusted the tensinor. All looks well now, I am praying it is. I have a very long day coming up for the Supercar Road Trips show at Foxwoods next week. While I was under there I gave the rest of the car a good looking over. I just thought I would throw this experience out there in case anyone else has had this happen. --Mike
Thanks for sharing. It's good to see symptom and solution in one post. Very helpful to all of us who are still learning how to interpret the signs our cars give us.
I'm actually glad to hear that. I thought that maybe something was wrong with my car in particular. I am so happy we have this forum. --Mike
Hey, Mike. Glad to hear that you found and fixed it (and relieved to know that it isn't the result of runnig an aftermarket exhaust without the heat shields on, or something like that...(Tony!...)). BTW, did you ever get any sound bites of your new exhaust? Just checkin'...
No. I would still like to do that I just can't find the time. Maybe at the Foxwood's rally this coming weekend. I love the exhaust, makes the car sound and feel very.....Ferrari --Mike
Sounds like Foxwood's will be a blast. And I couldn't resist giving Tony a bit of a hard time for running off with my heat shields the other day..
