Ok here's the deal,I have owned my 05 S for over four years and just recently installed a tow bar to take my car with me behind my motorhome. We pulled it up the Santa Fe to go snowboarding this last weekend and when I started the car to let it warm up in the morning I started to smell what seemed like burning rubber coming from under the hood. I know that a lot of people tow their mcs becuase I have seen it and have read about several that tow them on various forums, and they all have stated that it doesn't hurt anything as long as it is a manual tranny. Does the tranny have some kind of belt in it or is it the steering that might be causing this? Let me also say that it only does it after I towed it and after driving it all day the smell went away.

 

If you towed your mini by the front wheels with the trans in neutral, and didn't have your parking brake on, you're not smelling the trans. There is no transmission belt on a manual MINI. It's possible that if you smelled rubber upon start up, before you started driving that it's the drive belt of your engine slipping over a pulley and getting hot. Common culprits: your idler pulley, tensioner pulley, or supercharger pulley. Did you hear a squeal when you started the car?

 

If you ever tow your MINI with the front wheels on the ground (rolling), just make damned sure your tranny is tied with a rope in neutral. If you should hit a bump and the tranny every went into reverse, you will ruin your engine in about a hundred yards. You engine will be running backwards and the oil pump will also be running backwards and you will have no oil going to a turning engine... instant seizure. Not a good idea to tow this way anyway, other than for just a very short distance.

Get on of those one axle drive on type tow trailers and just drive the front up and tie it down and away you go.

YD

YD

 

Just a bump on this. No towing, and I got this smell this morning, no weird sounds, car in neutral and idle, stank up the whole car and was strongest in the engine bay.

 

I can't imagine hitting a bump and the car going from neutral into any gear, let alone reverse - especially considering that in the MINI to get reverse you have to get past a significant detent. That said, any thing that forces you to double check that the car is in neutral before towing it is a good idea.

I think Helix answered your burning smell question above...

 

Haha, sorry, I wrote this wrong, I meant to say I was bumping this thread back from the dead.

I started my car this morning, let it sit in neutral for about 5 minutes, came out and it stank like crazy of burnt rubber.

The heater fans sucked the smell into the car too.

I think after the drive this morning to work I heard my power steering pump making a noise and I am guessing that something there is burning, maybe when I go back to the garage my car will be on fire ?

No recall yet on these eh?

 

I tow a my 05 MCS behind my motorhome and I think I know what is going on. When you tow, I believe that the rubber dust that is on the road gets kicked up and blown every where on the Mini. Since the Mini is not running, it doesn't get burned off until you start it an run it for a while after towing. It's a slight smell that doesn't last for too long.

Now the sinister part - I have about 96K on mine and I got a really strong rubber burning smell the other day, along with a rattle that varied with RPM. Turns out my harmonic balancer was failing - it lasted about 50 miles after I first started smelling the burning rubber. I replaced it with a PRW 2510900 fluid damper, which cost about half of one from the local Mini dealer. If you have the tools, you can do the R&R in about an hour. I can send you pics of how the damper failed if you'd like.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, My expansion tank decided to let go during rush hour stop and go, emphasis on the stop.

I do see that if the tank leaks, it hits the heat shield and looks like it drips on the exhaust further down.

That I would think would just smell like steam, but I don't know.

I got my power steering pump replaced after the smell, as it decided to squeal like a banshee all the time soon as I posted this.

But yes, I would be interested in seeing pics of the harmonic balancer, where did you get it and how much?

I pretty much won the lottery with this car. For one week everything worked great and now week after week something breaks.

Waiting for the coolant tank now so I can put that in!

Thanks!

 

Here are some pics of my failed harmonic balancer:

I bought this balancer:

http://www.jobberwarehouse.com/sfi18...r-2510900.aspx

Here's how to do the install:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...oem-tools.html

 

Ahh, reading this I see it's just a crank pully. I had mine replaced before I got the smell.

Thanks!