Bad burning smell and white smoke coming from the engine.?

Question

I have 98 Dodge Neon 4 cylinder duel overhead cam. In the past year, I have had the head gasket replaced the valve gasket, the radiator, several hoses and plugs. Not to mention a long list of non-under the hood work done. All in all I have dumped more then $2,000 worth of repairs into this hunk of junk, and now a new problem has arisen. Yesterday, I noticed a bad burning smell somewhat like rubber but not quite coming from the engine, also small amounts of white smoke. I checked the fluid levels and my oil was dangerously low, the coolant was a little low, nothing to bad. I filled the oil and topped off the coolant. There has been a slow leak of oil for sometime, no one can seem to figure out where it’s coming from. But what concerns me is the smoke and burning smell. I checked the belts and they look fine, however there is a generous amount of oil all around them. Also there is an abnormal whirring sound coming from the area, I thought it was coming from the timing belt, but I’m leaning more towards the serpentine. Could this just be oil buildup burning off the exhaust or belts? I asked my step dad, and he said I should clean up the engine first to get the oil out of there.

Answer 1

good idea to clean but noting u had previous head job maybe gaskets are going out but clean first run it look aroung check ur tensioner for sounds

Answer 2

white smoke might equal wires burning.  and it doesnt take much to make alot of smoke.  it also smells pretty bad like plastik and metellic.  

Answer 3

I would go with main bearing seal, or crank seals on the belt end.

Oil onto belt - belt slip = burning white and occasional noise.

Answer 4

really sounds like its time to junk it and find one that runs right for 2000 you could have brought one by now

Answer 5

I agree with your dad that you should clean the engine first. Now on to the questions from me. When they head gasket was changed, was it because of the notorius neon bad headgasket leaking oil thing, or something else? Also while they had the head off did they do a valvejob and use new valve stem seals?  How about the timing belt and the cam and crank seals? The smell you are describing sounds like oil leaking and getting hot and smoking scent that a lot of us are all too familiar with. If the oil is near your drive belts, then it's time to check your repair order and see if the shop replaced your timing belt, and if they did, look for camshaft and crankshaft seals. Those are known to go bad after 70-90,000 miles and will leak lots of oil that migrates to hot spots and make the smell you are describing. If they were not replaced, and if you were not spoken to about them, I'd be fussy right about now. It's been a year though so you'll liely have to pony up the coin to fix it if this is the case. Same if it was recommended and you refused, but I don't know why anyone would as the belt comes partially off to do the head anyway. figure 1 more hour of labor charged to do the belt replacement and seals. I hope you get this locked down soon, as you are already in the area where you won't get your money back on the repair even if you sell the car right afterward. My money is on the tbelt/seals.

Good luck

Answer 6

I believe your car is gone. sometimes we have to know when to stop putting money in a dead car.

The main problem is finding a good and honest mechanic. Your car is not that old but seems that was not well tooken care.