Strong rubber smell (possible home mechanics fail?)

lordrobs

lordrobs

lordrobs

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2003
Posts
16,763
Location
Norwich
I swapped out the power steering and alternator belts while attempting to do a cambelt change (the remainder of which was aborted when I got beaten by a couple of bolts :o ) a few weeks ago.

Since then my car has had a distinct rubber smell under the bonnet after a drive. Not a burning rubber smell more of a sex shop warehouse sort of smell... I'd imagine :o

Anyway, I've checked the tension using the vague rules of thumb that I've found on the internet and all seems well in that regard. The belts don't slip at all and after over 600 miles there are no signs of dusting, glazing or any other tell tale signs of poorly fitted or slipping belts. As you would expect the belts still look like new.

I've had a good sniff and I'm certain the smell is coming from the belts.

The only difference I can see is that one of the old belts had a definite taper in its profile where as these are completely square edged.

The last paragraph may well answer my question but the belts were supplied from an MX5 specific supplier and were sporting the correct labels.

Does anyone have any ideas or is it just "one of those things"?

TIA :)
 
I'm not that much of a failed home mechanic :p Nope, clutch is fine. This is just a strong rubber smell not like anything is burning :confused:
 
No pics Westy but they were both ribbed but with square profile. One of the old ones had a taper to the ribs but I'm not sure if this was from new or from wear.

Edit - They were the IL Motorsport branded ones from MX5Parts.co.uk
 
Earlier models had a V belt for the alternator.

Well I just checked it AGAIN and it all seems fine AGAIN.

I've seen one mention online of the IL Motorsport belts being slightly out of spec (a little too wide) which causes rubbing on the sides of the ribs against the pulleys but it was from a dead thread on a forum I've never heard of.

I think I'll just have to keep an eye on it.
 
Presumably, the only thing the belts can really do 'wrong' is slip and/or overheat and melt. As you seem sure that neither is happening, wouldn't it follow that the smell must be normal? Or am I talking crap? I'm prob talking crap :)
 
Nope, that makes sense.

At the moment I'm wondering if either A) the belts are slightly out of spec and are rubbing on the edges of the pulley generating a bit of excess friction and therefore getting the belts hot giving off the smell or B) the ribs of the belt are the wrong profile and generating extra friction as they are pulled down into the pulley.

I did notice when unpacking the box that the belts really did stink. It was like when I left brand new tyres in the back of my car for 24 hours :p

Knowing me I'm probably just looking for problems as usual but I'll just keep an eye on it.
 
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