Technical Engine judder, burning smell & loss of power

[jndaneb]

Af'noon

Having a slight mare of a day and facing a dilemma.

I drive 67 miles each way to work and this morning I got to about mile 60 and my motorway muncher Fiat Punto 1.2 16V Sporting (2000) decided to play up. If it was at mile 5 I would have changed cars

The Engine when idle (M4 traffic = lots of idle) will judder and I've lost about 30% + power. At one point the smell of burning kicked in, which was quite strong (idle)! There were no signs of over heating or temperature increases and the hot air was blowing fine. I'm thinking the common things like h/g, water pump etc. I checked for mayo and there isn't any, there's plenty of oil and the water/coolant has not gone down.

Here's my dilemma, I'm at work, my partner is due any time soon (20th Jan) and I can fix it with my brother in law but at home (67 miles away). I intend on leaving early to avoid any idle driving and traffic so can have a clear run at getting home and while I know any driving will cause risk to further damage, is this something I can get away with and any clues (without testing for compression, pump etc) to what it might be would be very helpful!

Cheers
Dan!

 

[RB2009]

Can you try to run the engine at idle with bonnet up to try and identify where the smell is coming from?

67 miles is a long way to drive, and if its an electrical problem of some kind (although electrical at idle only? I don't know, it doesn't seem likely... but IF... then you could end up with a burnt out car.


Try to idle it with bonnet up to see if you can tell where its coming from.

Do you have breakdown on your car insurance? most insurers offer green flag etc.

If you do, and it recovers you home.. best to get it recovered.

67 miles is a long way to drive and you could end up doing more harm than good, or break down completely on a motorway which is never good!