Was driving up the motorway, and could smell a faint burning smell. Looked in the rear view mirror and thought I'd driven over a lit cigarette as a load of embers scattered from under the car.

Got to Tesco's and noticed the clutch pedal had become hard - I thought the clutch was cooking itself and pulled over.

Opened the bonnet and could smell burning, but the clutch area didn't smell, and it wasn't hot.

Then saw another ember drift in front of my eyes, and checked the inlet area and found one of the hoses (the narrow one from the oil cap to the back of the inlet) completely severed and glowing in two locations. The clutch cable was also victim (the plastic insulation was completely frazzled) as well as another one (which I think is the throttle cable).

I think this was down to the fact that they were all being pushed against the manifold by the new inlet breather pipe I put on the other day. Will get some photos tomorrow when I investigate further. Not sure how long this has been occuring? Maybe it wasn't clipped up correctly - I've noticed a LOT of support clips on the hoses!

I presume you mean "...pushed against the exhaust manifold..."? If so, then you could be correct.

Otherwise my first thought was of a failed engine earth strap meaning that the cables were being used to earth the engine. My second was of a failed engine steady.

Edited 20 January, 201214 yr by KenONeill

If your intake manifold is getting hot enough to cook the hoses then you have problems... Are you sure there's any oil in the engine?

Obviously talking about exhaust manifold.

Think they were less than an inch from it ... I've since put the old pipe on (pictured in the photo).

Edited 20 January, 201214 yr by Violet