Yesterday I was driving around and it smelled as if something was burning,
after turning down the radio I found a terrible whineing coming from under
the hood(sounds kinda like something rubbing against a belt) After
inspection under the hood I did notice a smell, but saw nothing rubbing
against any of the belts. The next thing I noticed was that my volt guage
is running a lot higher than normal. Normal - 11 to 12 v Abnormal 13 to
14 v) Could this problem be my alternator, I came to this conclusion since
it was the area the sound was coming from and also since my system seems to
be charging more than normal. Thanks
Nick K
Jacksonville, FL
My alternator made a squealing sound which was from a bad set of internal bearing(s). It was still charging, however. I loosened the alternator belt and tried to turn the alternator pulley by hand and I could feel that it was binding and took some effort to turn by hand.
It could also be your AC compressor (if you have one) such as the clutch. If you have AC, and you think the alternator is OK, try pulling the AC belt.
Can you tell if the burnt smell is electric or not? Electrical burn has a distinct smell to it.
And last, it could be your water pump or the timing belt tension wheel (or both). A bad water pump can make a squealing sound but usually not a burning smell (unless it's an electric water pump). Although on a previous car where the water pump had it's own belt, the pump had seized up and so the belt basically burnt up which produced not only a very loud squeal but a distinct burning smell too. In the case of the CRX, I don't think it's the belt since it's driven off your timing belt which is why I thought perhaps it may be the tension wheel - it could be sticking.
CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal)
1990 Honda CRXsi (http://www.hooligan.cc)
ICQ # 3714283 (nickname: godzilla)
Julian Drive (San Diego County) - February 22, 2003
http://www.crx.org/southcal/events.html
