Hey there,

I have experienced a weird thing with my 71 type 3 fastback. While driving in a straight line, or a slight left bend for long periods, ( like 400m + ) I get a strong burning smell, and then on friday I got a puff of smoke coming up through the windscreen vents and also from the front wheels. I was only doing 100kmh at the time and had only been driving for 45 minutes.

Any ideas,suggestions, similar stories would be of great help.

James

What sort of smoke was it?

Burnt rubber?

Electrical short-circuit?

Hot oil?

Burnt wood?

Burnt grass?

etc

More info would be helpful

Blue smoke, and kinda hot brake smell

:jesus

Yeah i was thinking that but wasn't really sure as it only happens when I'm driving and its hard to look under the car while I'm driving, and when I stop there isn't any smell or smoke left either, which makes it harder to figure out.

I would just check that nothing is rubbing on moving parts anywhere...

Touch the hubcaps with the back of your hand once stopped. If one wheel is hot, then you will know where to strt looking closer. If one is only warm, then maybe take off that hubcap and veeeeery carfully feel the centre of the drum.

Could be that the front brakes are not coming off completely. If so, it could be a blockage in the compensating ports in the master cylinder. 71 type 3's have disc front ends with dual circuit master cylinders. Jack up the front of the car and try turning the front wheels by hand, they should move fairly freely. Like Helbus said, carefully touch each front wheel after a run to check the temp. Get under the front of the car and have a good look around to any potential rub spots.

Is the car standard height, wheels etc?

hehe flash backs to a cabin full of smoke cause oil was leaking into my heater boxes :P

not helpful i know

if something is rubbing and causing smoke then there will be scoring somewhere . take off your hubcaps and have a look around check anything that moves when u turn in the way that makes the smell etc.

hey guys ta for the help, I think i have got to the bottom of my smoking habit. It seems that there is a little breather hose on the engine and it gets quite hot and then as it heats up the insulation and silver foil stuff on the engine bay cover rubs on this little hose and it seems to be burning through.

I am going to try and fix it in a two stage process, first I'm going to put a piece of aluminium on the engine bay cover to stop the insulation from falling down anymore and also stop it from burning/smouldering/looking burnt. Second I'm going to replace the hose with one of those shiny metal covered ones.

When I get the engine bay cover back on, I'll pop some pics up.

/Users/jamesobrien/Desktop/Pipe.jpg

The offending pipe

argh pics don't want to load

the old cover

ok this sucks, but anyway there is now shiny aluminium there and it looks cool