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Frenchie
29th May 2019, 02:08 PM
Hmmm, so I’m in Coolgardie, heading for Southern Cross today. I stopped for a break a while ago and the vehicle filled with a weird smell, very strong, sort of sweet and sickly. I crawled underneath and it sounded like something was boiling, not a loud sound, sort of a crackling/hissing, near the transfer case. I assumed I had run the transfer case dry and the remaining oil was boiling as it overheated. So I left it for a while to cold down, pulled the filler plugs on the g/box and transfer case, they were both full of oil and it didn’t even seem that hot. There has been a leak, there’s a film of oil over the bottom of both boxes.

Any ideas? I’m wondering if oil is leaking into the handbrake and cooking in there? Is the T/fer case pressurising?
101RRS
29th May 2019, 02:27 PM
Other than someone farting in your car - sweet and sickly is normally engine coolant. You may have a pinhole in the system somewhere - often in the heater line. With a pinhole you can smell and hear it but not normally see it with the engine off.
Frenchie
29th May 2019, 03:03 PM
Other than someone farting in your car - sweet and sickly is normally engine coolant. You may have a pinhole in the system somewhere - often in the heater line. With a pinhole you can smell and hear it but not normally see it with the engine off.

Really doesn’t smell like coolant, and the noise is definitely underneath near the transfer case.

Hard to describe the smell, it’s almost eucalyptus, at first I thought I might have some vegetation trapped underneath.
RobMichelle
29th May 2019, 03:48 PM
No road kill guts stuck anywhere ?
PhilipA
29th May 2019, 04:04 PM
My first thought is that you have a bad earth on the body/engine and that the smell is the handbrake cable smouldering.

Regards Philip A
Frenchie
29th May 2019, 05:04 PM
No road kill guts stuck anywhere ?

No, and I did wonder if the piece of tread that came off one of my tyres yesterday was stuck on the exhaust somewhere, but no such luck.
Frenchie
29th May 2019, 05:05 PM
My first thought is that you have a bad earth on the body/engine and that the smell is the handbrake cable smouldering.

Regards Philip A

That’s an interesting idea, the noise could be electrical I suppose. It does keep going with everything switched off though and stops when it cools down. I have stopped for the night in Southern Cross, I’ll check in a few hours when it’s cold.

I have driven 1000km in the last two days with it like this so it doesn’t seem to be terminal. (Pun not intended).