2002 R50 with 130K miles just started smelling like something was burning under the hood. The smell is strongest between the engine and transmission near the battery. It smells to me like an ashtray filled with cigarette butts.
Engine temp was fine, engine oil level fine, anitfreeze tank is fine. The brakes weren't overheated.

A couple months ago the steering pump was changed under warranty.

It was wet outside and freezing rain.

I can't think of anything else.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

Battery is closed cell type?

 

No, just a standard lead acid. We took the top off the battery box and the smell wasn't coming from there.

We could smell it in the warm air rising from below.

 

The battery was my first thought as when the liquid level is low the interior of the battery starts to smell pretty good.

Did you check the axle boots? Did you drive over anything?

Don't take this wrong, but you do know what hot brake smell like, correct? Were the brakes warm? On the caliper there are steel glides that the pads move in. If these get rusty they can make the pad hang up so the rotor stays in contact. I had a s2000 that did this.

 

Yes, I know the smell of hot brakes and this isn't it. The brakes were cool. thanks

ive had a few Hondas that had problems with sticky brakes. Usually Its been the guide pins or pistons that seize up. So I'm all to familiar with that smell.

 

Bad harmonic balancer/crankshaft pulley? Not sure if the R50 have same design as R53 but on the R53 the rubber holding the pulley together will start to seperate and will smell under load

 

Check the power steering pump.

 

Isn't this on the passenger side of the engine? There is no smell coming from that side of engine. Thanks

 

I wonder about that. As I said in my first post we just had the PSP changed by the dealer under recall. I wonder if its faulty? Any idea how to check? See if its hot after some driving? Thanks

 

I had this happen eventually it started to smoke. I don't trust the recall/ repair. So.... I now have no pump and just a little nylon crossover block instead of pump. Saved a few pounds and won't burn up in the yard. Tough backing out of parking spaces though. Way too many spontaneous combustion MINIs for me to chance it.

 

Can you describe the symptoms when it started to go/went? Just heat and smell? Did it show up when the car was on (idling) or just when driving? Does it get harder to steer?

This evening we will take a closer look at it. Thanks

 

I could smell a burning similar to what you're talking about in my R50, maybe 50 miles later the Midlands tranny was dead.

I hope that's not the case for you, just my experience.

 

This would be ugly. Any idea what happened to it? Thanks

 

With mine I had drove it fairly hard through a few curves. Really not much at all, maybe a 1/4 mile or so. When I got home, I could smell and see smoke coming from under/ around the battery tray after I turned the car off. Something was still running; not sure if it was the pump or the blower. I unhooked the battery and waited for it to quit smoking before I shut the hood. Started doing some research on the "net" and found the power steering issues and spontaneous fires. Decided then to find a way to insure that would not happen to me.

 

A gear bit the bullet. 3rd if I recall correctly. The broken chunk of the gear actually ground a couple of synchros with it then blew a hole in the bottom side of the case!

Basically I dropped my daughter off at school and headed to work. I smelt a burning smell while cruising at about 60 MPH in 5th, I noticed it getting worse but thought it was something that could hold off until I got to work. About 15 miles later apparently an RV missed the on ramp and decided it would be absolutely fine to just cut me off. I had to downshift to 3rd, was only going around 50 MPH, to accelerate past them. So I ended up on the on ramp on the side of the interstate. I stopped, when I tried to resume I heard this horrible grinding sound, knew I wouldn't make it to work so I just decided to call my buddy with his roll back. The car would drive in 1st, 2nd, and 4th. Not long after we got it to the shop 1st gear went out.

I'd suggest you definitely not drive the MINI. Check your transmission fluid, make sure the case is good and sealed. I really hope its not your transmission. Mine died around 150K, so I definitely got my share of fun and use out of the car. I still have it and hope to rebuild the tranny, AGAIN...

 

Thanks for the additional information. Hopefully tonight we can take a looks and try to figure out if its the Trans or steering pump. I'm thinking its one of the two.

 

Ours has about 140k miles.

Do you know if the oil was low and that caused the problem or did something like a bearing go out? Hard to believe a gear could just self distruct unless there was a flaw in the metal. Thanks