2009 V50 1.6 - smoke from alternator housing/auxiliary belt area

[Jaymojohnson]

Hi,

So I bought a 2009 1.6 DRIVEs second hand a couple of days ago and I've had no problems until today. I've probably done close to 100 miles since purchasing the car on Monday.

Today I was driving home and I caught the Air Con button with my hand but I turned it off when I noticed after 2-3 minutes as it really isn't the weather right now for air con! A few minutes later I started to smell rubber burning. I assumed it was the van driving in front of me as I entered a car park.

When I stopped and got out the car I noticed smoke coming from the engine bay. I lifted the bonnet and the smoke seemed to be coming from the alternator housing/auxiliary belt. I left the car with the engine off for around 20 minutes and eventually it stopped smoking. I then tried to turn the car back on and there was no power. Another 5 minutes passed and I could hear a clicking sound so I put the key back in and the power worked again. This time the car wouldn't start but the starter motor made the ticking sound. I left it a further few minutes and tried again and this time the car fired up, no warning lights, no problems. I drove home which is roughly 5 miles.

I had the heater fan on at 21 degrees on the way home, air con turned off and when I parked up, no smoke.

The car has been parked up for roughly 6 hours now and starts without any issues.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be and if it's safe to drive?

[Cees Klumper]

Only thing that comes to mind is the A/C compressor clutch hung up and burned? Something like that? I'm definitely no expert but I would very carefully try to, with the car sitting, engine idling, turn on the A/C to see what happens. Read out any codes. And be extremely cautious, smoke and burning rubber are very bad!