A couple weeks back my wife was driving the 75 CDTi Auto (since Christmas she had been using the 75 as a daily driver rather than the Zafira which I was going to attempt to change the inlet manifold on, and have off the road for a few days)
when she noticed a strange smell in the cabin.
I was asked to come and check the car, she had parked at our daughters dancing lesson ,and didn't want to drive any further.
I started it up and couldn't smell anything unusual, I had a good look around the engine bay but couldn't see anything. My daughter then told me that it happened when the aircon was on with front window demist. I put the AC but still couldn't smell anything and drove home without any problems.
We carried on using the car as normal for about a week, and I did notice a strange smell when the AC was on a couple days later, the smell was almost like a burning rubber or electrical smell. Then last week my wife came home from work and said she had a charge fault warning light and the power steering became stiff and heavy momentarily, "the steering just went" were her exact words.
I started it and looked under the bonnet. When I put on the AC the fan didn't start up. I took it for a drive at this point still no fan but the air was blowing cold when set to low. After going round the streets a couple times when I returned home the fan was running.
On Tuesday I started it up again to move it nearer to outside our house. The fan didn't work when the ac was switched on and I could smell something in the area around below the power steering pump. I didn't go any further and switched it off. I've been so busy with work these last couple weeks and haven't had time to investigate, though I'm hoping to this weekend especially as the weather is picking up a bit.
Any ideas? I've read on here the alternator brushes can smell when wearing out
, or could it be the AC compressor
