Hello,

My wife & I were driving up a pretty steep mountain last weekend...When we got to the top I smelled a burning rubber smell & then noticed grey smoke seeping out from under the hood. Upon inspection, it was definitely coming from the turbo area, which itself was sizzling hot. The turbo had certainly been working hard getting up the incline, but exactly what would cause this overheating? We let it cool down and drove home carefully (15 miles) without incident...Since then my wife has been driving the car around town (avoiding large hills) without problem, smoke, or increase in temp gauge.

Any thoughts on what happened? The turbo seems to be working, but I don't want to push it...What might need replacing? How can I test to determine the problem?

Grateful for any thoughts...

Greenjed

Check around the vacinity of the turbo. Could be seepage from a valve cover gasket, or the turbo drain. The turbo probably got very hot from the load of climing the mountain, causing any oil that may have been near it to burn off. The turbine housing on turbochargers will often glow cherry red when they are really being worked. I noticed a smell from my '82 300D after climbing a long steep road a few weeks ago. I'm not to worried about it.

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'83 300D 198,000mi Howard
'03 Saturn Vue CVT 75,000mi(wifeys)

It was probably heating up any oil that has been leaking on/around the manifolds.