Burnt Rubber Smell in Cabin Followed by Engine Failure

[louis110]

My car has been making a squeeling noise for the past 2 weeks. I thought it was one of the bearings for the fan belt, or something in that area. Took it to right drive, they tightened the serpentine belt, and still kept hearing the noise so figured it was the timing belt tensioner.

I ordered the tensioner, spring, idle pulley, and a Nismo belt on New Years Eve, but it might have been too late.

Tonight I was idling at the stop lights when the car just died. I cranked it once, didn`t start. Cranked it twice, it started, I made the left turn and pulled over immediately and shut down. There was a burning rubber smell coming in to the cabin. Tow truck driver said it could be the tensioner, or the water pump.

What do you guys think it could be?

[GTRADDICT]

Rubber smell could be tires, clutch, belt pulley of something hot. Did you have something wrong with the cluth? WOuld it not engage/disingaged?

[GTR-Dad]

The sound and smell are not necessarily related to the engine stalling, although it's likely. It's hard to say what rubber might have been burning that would cause a stall, but I don't think you've had an engine failure.
The fact that it fired for you tells you it's not timing belt failure as the engine wouldn't have started without valves being correctly timed to the crank.
Dan

[Daryl @ RightDrive]

Doesn't sound like the timing belt at all. Sounds like your engine is fine. Have you tried starting it since then? When you started it up the second time did it fire up ok and sound normal?
The burning rubber smell is kind of odd. Was it strong or a weak smell? It could just be an irrelevant coincidence.

[louis110]

Hmm well the transmission is fine. The car started with hesitation and I had to give it some gas, but there wasn't any knocking or anything like that. The smell was very strong and smoke was coming thru the vents.

[403Heatscore]

what were your temps and oil pressure doing when evrything went south?

[GTR-Dad]

Hmm well the transmission is fine. The car started with hesitation and I had to give it some gas, but there wasn't any knocking or anything like that. The smell was very strong and smoke was coming thru the vents.

A line may have come loose and contacted an exhaust manifold. Check to see if someone routed a breather line to the exhaust to get a bit of vacuum on it.

Dan

[nismo-152]

Could be a seized alternator and the belt just smoking over the pulley. Would account for the car dying

[sarazinj]

nismo-152 is right, its likely your alternator, low electrical power would also account for hesitation at start-up

[bellis_GTR]

My alternator pulley froze once, and the belt kept spinning but making tons of smoke and nasty rubber smell.

[Daryl @ RightDrive]

I saw your car today, she is safe and sound Probably simply a belt, so an easy fix.

[louis110]

Thanks for the input guys. The temps/pressures all read normally, but then again my attention wasn't fully on the gauges. The alternator belt sounds quite likely. Right Drive sent me an email saying that "one of the belts snapped, looked like the a/c belt" but I didn't get anymore details so far.

Thanks Daryl for the reassurance! The belt is an easy fix for sure, but the belt was new, so finding the cause of the belt failure is another can of worms.

[nismo-152]

Just try turning the pulleys by hand. You will find your problem right away. Also ensure your tensioners are working fine and and the bolt that locks them to place hasn't backed its way out. A loose belt can snap as it tries to ride up the outer lip of the pulley.
Should be a quick fix

[louis110]

So apparently "the A/C compressor seized, causing the belt to tighten up and make everything stall. The belt snapped and as it was rubbing against the pulley it was smoking before it snapped."

The compressor needs a rebuild which costs $400 + 1.5 hrs labour, so I'm having the A/C disconnected until spring time when I'll worry about it then. Is this cost reasonable? Or are there cheaper alternatives (short of tossing the A/C completely)?

[boomer3]

There are enough guys parting out their Skylines on this forum, I would try sourcing a used one from them if you want to go the cheap route. You could put it on yourself if you are savy with tools, but its highly recommended that you get the system recharged somewhere. If you do it at home, you aren't able to vacuum the contents of the system before adding refrigerant.