Hey "car guys" question

[HEyHEY]

I was driving my 1992 Toyota Tercel and I smelled burning plastic... I pulled over and popped the hood... the smell appears to be coming from the valve cover. There's some tubes around it but it doesn't look like it's any of them melting. Any ideas?

[tammywammy]

1. I'm not a car guy

or a guy at all....but with my intuition, I'd say that's not good, don't drive it anymore than necessary to get to a good mechanic (or have it towed).

[billbuckhead]

2. Are you sure it's not burning oil from an old gasket?

It's common on older cars for the valve cover gasket to leak and let oil hit the exhaust manifold.

[HEyHEY]

3. Actaully yeah, that describes the smell quite well!

But, the engine wsa rebuilt last September.

[tammywammy]

4. Okay, a car guy at work says

It could be a spark plug insulator...one of the spark plug wires could be shorting and burning through the insulator at the spark plug wire.

What that means....I don't know. But I thought I'd pass it on.

[HEyHEY]

5. hmm thnks!

[HEyHEY]

6. Upon further further inspection - it appears the smell

Is coming from my alternator

[phusion]

7. Doh!

That sucks...Alternators can be $$$ on those cars!

I once drove a 1991 ford bronco. The alternator caught on fire while I was driving down the road. I had to run over to this house and grab their garden hose to put it out. :)

[HEyHEY]

8. No! It's cool my buddy just got it for me!

He said "Are you sure you didn't run over a plastic bag and it's stuck to the muffler or something?"

THEN I REMEMBERED! On the way home from work yesterday I DID! ANd I looked out my rear view and it didn't come out... I was thinking, "Where's that damn bag?"

Load of my mind!!!

[tammywammy]

9. hahahaha

sorry to laugh, but that's too funny. all this investigating for a plastic bag.

:rofl: