KIA Rio (2005 - ) - 09 1.5d - Hot metallic smell when under load.

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Mon 16 Mar 2009 20:41
09 1.5d - Hot metallic smell when under load. - diddy1234
I recently got a new Rio 1.5l Turbo diesel and was wondering if this was a 'normal' part of everything bedding in.

When climbing any steep-ish hills on the motorway I get a hot metallic smell coming into the car.
The smell would appear be stronger if the engine has to work harder (say puting my foot down when going uphill to maintain 70mph).

upon further investigation, I stopped and checked where in the engine bay this smell was coming from and its definitely the turbo unit.
The turbo unit is on the far side of the engine not far from where the air intakes are for the internal passenger compartment (air for hot / cold and aircon).

Since :-

1. its my first diesel engined car
and
2. its my first turbo car

Is this normal or am I being stupid ?

Edited by Pugugly on 16/03/2009 at 20:45

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Mon 16 Mar 2009 20:47
Hot metallic smell when climbing hills on motorway - stunorthants26
Some new cars do indeed get 'hot' smells when very new. Id given it 1000 miles or so before worrying about it unless there are any other symptoms. If the turbo had a problem I would expect it to show up in the driving long before any smells.
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Thu 19 Mar 2009 16:04
09 1.5d - Hot metallic smell when under load. - boggles
At 70 mph, the turbo on the exhaust side would be probably 600 degrees "C", so a bit of smell when new is to be expected.If you could look at it, you would see a dull red glow. The aluminium compressor side is not that hot of course, but the boost air could be 100 -ish and this goes through the intercooler which will get warm and smell a bit too. Nothing to bother about.
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Thu 19 Mar 2009 17:01
09 1.5d - Hot metallic smell when under load. - diddy1234
thanks for the replies.

The smell doesn't always seem to be present.
Since I do the same journey (to and from work) the smell was happening at the same point on the journey (climbing a steep hill) but since the last few days the smell has not been happening.

I only became aware after completing the first 600 miles (varied driving needed) so I had not driven the car any harder until after this mileage had been achived.

The car has done over 1200 miles now and everything is going well.

When I had looked at the turbo in the past (when the smell was present) I didn't notice any glow of the turbo so maybe I hadn't thrashed the car hard enough (not that id want to).

I think the smell was more noticeable since the turbo is at the the of the engine and the interior vents are only a few inches above and behind this, so maybe the metalic smell was wafting up.

Thanks again for the replies.
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Fri 20 Mar 2009 10:45
09 1.5d - Hot metallic smell when under load. - mike hannon
Just make sure you pull out the dipstick regularly...
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