A bit of context first - I was driving on a motorway for about 30 minutes, average speed around 65-70mph, on my journey home I could smell this horrible plastic burning, looked in the mirror and sure enough there is a plume of greyish smoke trailing me, I pulled over straight away to inspect and noticed the catalytic converter appeared to be burning. So I let it cool down for a bit then slowly travelled another mile to a roadside service station where I could properly get a look underneath. When I parked up I opened the bonnet and noticed that the CV boot of the offside(RHD) half shaft  is touching the exhaust and the burning was the boot melting away and dripping down onto the cat. 

Let the motor and exhaust cool until safe to touch, wiped up as much as I could and made a slow journey home and I didn't notice any more smoke, still a smell though.

My usual commutes are only 25minutes on lots of B roads. Radiator never overheats and the fan comes on when I'm in traffic. 

 

I'm curious as to why this has happened, surely the Felicia isn't manufactured with the cv boot resting in contact with the exhaust?

Any suggestions as to what I need to do to fix this? Obviously I will need to put a new boot in and a heat wrap would be a wise investment. I also need to replace the exhaust system, due to numerous leak.

Any similar issues occurred to Felly drivers?

Thanks

Oh yeah, worth mentioning there's just over 88 thousand miles on the engine, everything else is working and no other problems, Had new tyres fitted and an alignment last week.

- Other than the exhaust that is seriously due a replacement, from cat to back silencer

Edited 16 April, 20215 yr by Lfallax

After watching a few videos, I'm pretty confident it was actually the grease from inside the CV boot that was dripping and going everywhere; same colour, same viscosity. So perhaps the exhaust burned a hole and the rotations forced out the grease? Or it just split through wear and tear and the burning smell was just the grease on the exhaust?

I am keen for some more knowledgeable users to point me in the right direction

Edited 16 April, 20215 yr by Lfallax

An original new exhaust pipe and a new original CV boot will solve the issue.