Any car experts? Burning smell

[ferrousfumarate]

2 days ago I smelt a burning smell (a bit like hair) in my car when I was driving. It was only brief and happened as I was speeding up (probably in 2nd gear). I smelt it again for a second time on the same journey when I was moving off from a roundabout. I was away between September 2022 and May this year so the car was not maintained and tbh I forgot to check the oil The dipstick was CLEAN when I checked it so I topped the oil up (there hadn't been any warning lights on the dash about the oil). I took it for a test drive and the smell went, and there were no smells yesterday. However, today it started again! Today it was when I was moving off from a junction on a slight incline and when I was on a roundabout. I've tried to replicate the smell by driving in low gears, revving the engine etc to see what's causing it, but it seems to just happen randomly. The only thing is that on both of the days when it's happened, it has been raining.
The only things I can come up with are -
Clutch going
Something up with the brakes (last MOT had one brake binding)
Damage to the engine from having no oil (I hope not!!)

The car is a Citroen C1 and is 15 years old. I'm worried as I really need my car!

I had this and then not long after the clutch became spongy and the gears started sticking. Turned out there was a fault in a cylinder going to the clutch which caused a leak in the clutch fluid. It had run dry and was causing the burning smell. It cost about £600 to repair as the replacement piece was hard to source.

Should add I'm not at all a car expert, but that was the cause for my car!

Obviously really tricky to know without seeing the vehicle.
I've a couple of guesses though, from my experience doing up my own car:

1. oil leak. If oil leaks from somewhere it shouldn't on to something that's hot, it'll get quite smelly! Does the smell increase with the air on high? You might see this as slight smoke around the edges of the bonnet. (I once dropped a oil on the exhaust manifold when i topped up, thought nothing of it. 10 minutes into my commute and it looked like a steam train!).
2. It might be something stuck in the car heater air ducts- an old leaf, moss etc that's breaking down over time. If you lift the bonet, do you have lots of leaves stuck under the windscreen? (Usually a damp, or woody smell).
3. Clutch isn't impossible! It's usually a fairly distinctive smell. Does it slip if you floor it in high gears?
4. Coolant leaks can smell! Generally a sweet chemically smell.

None of the above is as good as getting a mechanic to look it over!

Hope it's all okay though.

@littleburn oh no I hope it's not that expensive for mine! The car itself is only worth about £900 on a good day 😂

@Scrabblerabble89 I haven't seen any smoke and I have just had the fan on a low setting whenever I've smelt the burning. I turned the heater up to the max before just to see if that did anything but it didn't. No leaves or anything and under the bonnet looked quite clean. Clutch doesn't seem to be slipping. I did burn it a bit the other week as I had to reverse up a hill. The burning smell I'm getting is similar but not quite as strong or unpleasant as a burning clutch smell. I'm going to check the coolant later today as it was quite low. Topped it up but if it's all gone again then that might be a clue!

I'm sure you already know, but please don't top up the coolant whilst the engines hot! I've somewhat less skin on one finger than i used to have, and i'd hate for it to happen to anyone else!

Do let us know how you get on.

Clutches do stink but you need to take it to a mechanic. Tell them everything you included above. They'll have a much better chance to diagnose with it in front of them

oil leak. If oil leaks from somewhere it shouldn't on to something that's hot, it'll get quite smelly! Does the smell increase with the air on high? You might see this as slight smoke around the edges of the bonnet. (I once dropped a oil on the exhaust manifold when i topped up, thought nothing of it. 10 minutes into my commute and it looked like a steam train!).

My money’s on this. Something like a leaking rocker cover gasket. The car being low on oil is a good clue, either it’s leaking or being burnt in the engine. A small leak onto the hot exhaust would give similar symptoms to those you describe.

I went out and had a look under the bonnet again, coolant is where I filled it to the other day so hopefully that's not leaking and oil seems ok too, but I know it could be just a small leak so it won't be noticeable if it's going down slowly. Someone's going to have a look at it over the weekend, let's hope it will survive until then!

When that happened to me, it was the clutch. Ended up writing the car off because it was an old banger!

An update for anyone interested or who reads in the future - still not quite sure what is causing the smell, but the car has so much wrong with it!! Exhaust full of holes, one brake binding, the handbrake isn't tight enough apparently, both rear wheel bearings need replacing, corrosion, and suspension issues. It is all fixable and will be cheaper to repair than to get a new car, but bloody hell 😳it only had an MOT done in May, how it passed I do not know!

Hmm, a car doesn’t generally go from MOT pass to that many issues in such a short time. Get a second opinion before you proceed!

It's a family member who will be doing the repairs, so there's nothing dodgy going on. The car did have the front bearings and suspension bushes done last year, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before the rear ones needed doing. Plus the awful conditions of the roads where I live.