This might sound a bit mad but I've noticed on a couple of occasions that there's a real smell of burning clutch friction material emmanating from under the bonnet... :confused:

To be fair it's occurred after a particularly hard blat in the car with a trial 0-60 dash mid way through. I'm also sure the clutch showed signs of slip at this time in first and second gear aswell (hence the stink maybe).

Have I bust my car?? and it's a vRS BTW :(

I have recent experience of that with a Nissan 200SX. A strong burning smell preceded clutch failure, possibly due to a leak in the clutch slave cylinder not being fixed soon enough. All OK now that a new clutch and slave cylinder have been fitted. As a rule of thumb, I would not expect to smell burning from the clutch in normal driving.

Does normal driving include heavy traffic?

Yes. But heavy traffic in a multi-storey car park is a different matter.

I got a smell from the clutch when I tried to pull the ride-on mower I use out of a heap it had got itself stuck in (I wasn't driving it at the time, honest)

However, its had no long term effects on the working of it....phew

Both my Octavias used to smell if you slipped th clutch a lot . The worst time was when reversing up a 1 in 3 slope, into a hotel car park. I could smell it for days........

Phil

Not in my Octavia yet, but had it when practising heel/toe technique in the wife's 106..

Don't tell her...

Regards,

Mark