I'm a long way away (in Birmingham) but if you can get it here, I'll have a look at it for you. Internet/telephone diagnsis is very tricky I find!

Thanks very much, that is a very kind offer. but im in a bit of a rush to get back to plymouth for monday, so i think my dad will take it to someone down here while im back at uni. its a real pain, times like this make me wish i had a boring car!

Joe, I've worked with cars long enough to know that boring cars break just as often (if not more and certainly more spectacularly and expensively) as 2CVs!

Stick with it matey, it'll be worth it in the long run.

That said, I'll swap it for my Disco

haha, i guess so! its just that when i seem to get one thing sorted, another comes up. it is a daily driver though!
im just looking forward to not have to think about it once it goes to a garage!

i dont think ill ever get rid of it, even though i hate it at the moment, the chicks dig it.

haha

Joe,

Only just got round to reading through your thread here.

When you said sweet smell it rang a bell. Does your car have the rubber engine shrouds? One time an exhaust manifold gasket was blowing on mine, although with my usual inability at getting exhausts together I didn't hear it, as the rest of the exhuast was leaking at the joints a bit...

Anyway the manifold was blowing a hot exhaust jet onto the rubber cowlings which was causing them to melt and bits of burning rubber to go through the cardboard tubes into the cab! Since then I've been no fan of rubber shrouds you can guess!

Noticed this when driving at night with the heater on and red fireflys kept landing on my shoes. But I remember the smell was sweet...

Easy to check, wait until dark and run the car with the bonnet open look around the exhaust manifolds while you rev the car for any sparks of red.

Do not put your fingers down there because if it is leaking you'll burn your fingertips off. Useful for not leaving fingerprints if you are planning a bank raid, not useful in the pain department.

Don't know how this fits with the rest of the diagnoses, you may have had the car to a professional by now, if oil were leaking from a valve stem seal could that have rotted the exhaust gasket???

Anyway just an idea, you may not have rubber shrouds at all in which case ignore this!

metalshrouds4eva
Chris