Probably a daft question, but I've noticed when starting up my V6 in these deep freeze conditions that shortly after starting the engine, there's a noticeable smell in the cabin of "hot electrics".

It's only briefly there, tends to come as soon as I turn on the climate control "screen" option which turns the fan to full, soon goes and doesn't happen when the car is started from warm.

To try and pin it down, I turned everything off inside the car (climate control, heated seats, heated screen etc), started the car with the bonnet open and started checking around the engine. The battery wires were good and cold, but the smell was there in the airflow that was being dragged over the engine by the viscous fan. No sign of the smell in the cabin, so I tuned one the seats, climate control, fans, heated rear screen etc, none of which caused any problems.

The car starts fine and kicks in on all 6, so the only thing I can think of is that the extended glow plug cycle when the temperature is below freezing causes the glow plugs to smell "hot", and as the climate control fan pulls in air from the outside, some of which is air that is being wafted over the engine, giving the smell. As the glow plugs cool, the smell goes away.

Not really a problem, just wondered if anyone has noticed the same?

Not noticed it in my V6 TDi.

I very much doubt you should be able to smell them like that, If you can Id suggest somethings wrong

Thanks for the feedback .... I'll start hunting around under the engine cover.

the only hot electrics i can remember smelling in my previous car was one of two things......one was a after market radio i put in......and the casing got hot...that was traced to bad earthing point.....nd the 2nd hot electrics was the fan speed resistor....one of them burnt out and i had to replace it.....and that was a dash out job......but i imagine the superb is even harder to distmantle.....hope you get it sorted.

I've done a little more detective work.

Started the car this morning for the first time for a few days. Turned off the climate and seats, and started the car with the door open and my feet hanging out. Long glow plug light time but car started very easily even on slower cranking speed than normal.

Immediately smelt the "smell" (as the door was open) , so pulled the bonnet catch and opened the bonnet to see white "vapour" coming out of the hole on the cover over the turbo, as shown on the photo.

Wasn't sure what was under there, so took the car for a run to warm it up, then lifted the engine cover and had a look around with a torch, but could see nothing amiss other than a small weep of oil around the injector O ring on one the "cylinder nearest the driver, on the off side", which is so far away from the hole that it couldn't have any effect.

After 10 seconds or so of watching, the vapour just stopped, the smell disappeared and that was that.

I'm puzzled now .... I never notice it on normal starts, only when starting from very cold.

Edited 8 January, 201016 yr by CRC

id take the engine cover right off and expose everything and then maybe get a better look at to where the problem is arising...maybe get someone else to start the car up while you get a good visual inspection.

Let us know what it is.....regards andy

Took the engine cover off and removed the bolts from the turbo cover which enable me to get my hand down inside it, so had a good feel around for any fluid everywhere I could reach, but dry as a bone.

Started the engine up and no vapour this time, so assume the vapour I saw yesterday was a result of condensation that was burning off the exhaust.Couldn't really smell anything abnormal today in the engine bay, but it was only -2C so maybe it was too warm. Am wondering if it's related to the sub zero belts having to work very hard initially to get things going as it's a very temporary thing?

I normally garage mine at night but i couldn't be bothered last night, probably not a good idea as it was -12. Anyway when I started it this morning I got the same smell your describing. Will let you know if i find out whats causing it. BTW mines a 1.9tdi.

Haven't driven mine for a week now as I've been working away, but last night I started it up to drive home (about 7C temperature) and got a "diesel mad" mate of mine to cast his nose around, and the smell is definitely coming out of the vents from the engine bay which exit just under the windscreen. His view was that it was either exhaust fumes or fluid (diesel?) burning off the exhaust manifold as it rapidly warmed.

It takes a few seconds for the smell to come and by the time I'd lifted the bonnet there was nothing to see. Am wondering now if it's related to a slight issue around the turbo as I'd originally seen the vapour rising out of the hole in the turbo cover. Have put in a call to a friendly mate / mechanic to get him to cast his eye over it as it doesn't seem to be so related to very cold temperatures now.

Apart from that, it's as good as gold.

Maybe its oil deposits burning off from a small leak somewhere......or coolant leaking from the heater pipes going into the bulkhead into the heater matrix.....i think oil burning would take a while to burn off, where as coolant would be a lot quicker and produce steam vapour and dissapear quickly...thats my impression. Hope you find the culprit !