Nasty Smell

Post by **Benjy** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:15 pm

Last Friday I put my recon'd heater into the car, with all new hoses, including top & bottom rad hoses and a new thermostat.

The heater is perfoming brilliantly, but after a while the car starts to smell a bit. I thought it was a burning wire, possibly confirmed by the battery being low (not enough for starter) after a fair drive and the dynamo being pretty hot.

I spent ages looking over the car (gloveboxes out) for charred / warm / smelly wires, but have found nothing. I think perhaps the battery may have been a coincidence, I was driving with ligts, wipers and heater on and the battery isn't in great condition.

So I got to thinking, perhaps it's the new pipes. Turning the tap off in the engine bay certainly seems to reduce / eliminate the smell. Has anyone else experienced this, will the smell go away, or should I keep looking for a short?

All the hoses are the kevlar reinforced type from Bull Motif. The temperature guage is reading between 80 and 90 around town.

All ideas / suggestions gratefully received.

Ben

Post by **Peetee** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:53 pm

Have you replaced the hoses to the outlets at screen etc? Perhaps you have disturbed a lot of dust inside them or maybe they are decaying inside and the extra heat (?) is causing a reaction.
Is the bulkhead soundproofing clear of the system?

Post by **Matt** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:39 pm

its probably the new foam getting hot.......

Post by **Benjy** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:19 pm

I've not replaced any of the air hoses, but I don't think those hoses get that hot. The soundproofing is pretty well clear, except where the water pipes pass through the bulkhead.

Foam?

Post by **Matt** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 11:55 pm

sorry, the heaters i know from spridgets have a heater matrix surrounded by foam to force all the air through the heater rather than round it.............

Post by **edd** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 12:25 am

heater matrix surrounded by foam to force all the air through the heater rather than round it

the late minor ones are the same.

Post by **brixtonmorris** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 10:37 am

if the motor in the heater is new then i would suspect that it is where the smell comes from. the insulation from around the fan motor wires {shrelac i think its called} gives of a smell espically if its new, as the motor warms up the

Post by **Chief** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 2:25 pm

This is just a wild guess. Maybe it's like model railway engines, You're meant to leave them running on for a few hours. Maybe if you did that the heater would smell less as it got used to being used.

Post by **brixtonmorris** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:38 pm

are you in to model railways chief,

Post by **Willie** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:48 pm

I have just overhauled a late type heater, fitted new foam and
new pipes etc and it too smells when it is warmed up. I expect
this to pass pretty quickly with normal use.

Post by **brixtonmorris** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:53 pm

its going to catch fire Wille

Post by **Gareth** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 10:44 pm

Lots of new electrical equipment; water heaters &c gives off a smell for the first few uses. In fact, the handbook said that the grill on our microwave should have been switched on for half an hour before first use to rid it of any covering. It could be that the new components are bedding in, and that the smell will indeed pass in time. It may be a good idea to run the heater hot for a while (windows open...

) and see if it passes after a week or so.

Post by **Willie** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:36 pm

BRIXTON, I know I said I was pleased with the heat output
but it's not good enough to catch fire!!!

Post by **Chief** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 9:39 pm

are you in to model railways chief,

not much these days

Computers and cars now ;)

Post by **brixtonmorris** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 9:50 pm

i started with model railways, then moved on to morris, but now the railways are making a come back, as for computers iam still trying to work them out. i managed to get my first picture on the message yesterday. taken 6 months, did you see it, in general discussion. your morris looks nice and square in your picture

Post by **Benjy** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:30 am

I remember the smell of a recently oiled model train only too well. It's all boxed up at the moment, but when Luke gets a bit older and Liz comes round to the idea....

Thanks people, I thought it would pass, but figures someone else must have come across it if it was normal.

Matt. Sorry, yes I see what you mean, I was being a bit thick!

Ben

Post by **Chief** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 4:08 pm

actually I didnt take the photo. It's from the auction I got the car from. It shows looks can be decieving too

But as to it being nice and square you can get it like that in MS Paint, or (as I use) Irfan View which are nice simple and easy programs. But by computers I mainly meant playing games and wanting to throw the PC out of the window......... ;)