I bought this car yesterday for a surprise for hubby. Was driving it around today, and I noticed a funny smell, almost like burning plastic. Soon after, I noticed whiteish smoke coming from the passenger side front tire area (not a ton of smoke)

Any ideas what this could be? My brother, who is really good with cars, will look at it tomorrow, but I would really like to know ASAP.

Thanks so much!

Hi,

Welcome to TOC.

My "gut feeling" is that the plastic idler tension pulley seized, and it smoked both it and the belt.

It may not be the tensioner, but the belts are on that side of the engine, and I can't think of anything else plastic on that side of the engine that could potentially cause a smell and smoke.

Good luck, I hope it's a cheap fix!

Andrew

Thanks for the input! I will let my brother know to take a look in that area!


Maureen

Let us know how it turns out-

Andrew

Well, he came down on Saturday and drove it around, and got no issues at all. He said the pulleys seemed fine.

I drove it Monday, and of course, it started again...I'm such a jinx.


So he's going to come down tomorrow and check it out, pull the wheel, check the caliper that the seller replaced on that side...

Wish me luck!

Well, I figured out what the burning smell and smoke was...the hubcap is MELTING!

My brother thinks that it may have something to do with the replaced caliper sticking and making the rotor heat up...he's coming tomorrow to take a look...

My brother fixed the caliper and all is well with that...and now it's sporadically leaking antifreeze...I just want to cry.

I love that the guy I bought if from said it's 100% dependable, "You can drive the kids down the shore in it!"...yeah, right. If I had tried to do that, we'd probably all be dead now....