Hi all, hoping to get some thoughts on what I may be seeing before heading into the shop with my 07 V8V. Obviously I'll be having this looked at in-person by a professional as soon as possible, but my first stop will be at the independent dealership I bought this car from and due to a couple of issues I'm now becoming wary of this dealership. I don't have a AM dealer locally. I'd love to go into this inspection/conversation with at least some ideas.

I have had some spirited drives in the V8V lately but all on public roads and so nothing I'd say is outside of the normal use of a sports car. The car has less than 20k miles and had the clutch replaced with the AMR dual plate earlier this year.

Today while driving, a mostly easy cruise, I pulled off for a quick stop and noticed a bit of a burning smell coming from the V8V. When I started the car afterwards it showed the warning "DSC service required/traction control temporarily off". Almost immediately when pulling away the cabin became very hot with an extreme amount of heat coming through both seats and through the central armrest. The engine temp stayed normal/consistent. I took it very easy on the way home but the car drove normally the whole time except for the heat. When parked in the garage at home the burning smell was much more pronounced although not overwhelming like an active fire. I can't identify the burning smell as anything more specific than just a burning smell with a bit of a chemical aspect.

The heat and burning smell are definitely the top of my concerns and I'm not sure where the DSC light plays a part. Any thoughts on what I could be experiencing here? Thanks in advance.

 

sorry to learn about your issue... From 2500 miles away it's difficult to pinpoint exactly, but... Heat comes from 2 places: mechanical friction or leaky exhaust. You would know the exhaust was leaking by a change in tone/exhaust noise.

The mechanical friction could easily be a sticking brake caliper or something in the transmission. The absolute cheapest/easiest way to figure that out is to pick up a $20 remote thermometer from amazon. Drive for a while and measure the temps of the disks. They should all be roughly the same, and in general the rears should be less than the front. The transmission housing shouldn't be over about 200F-250F (max).

Good luck!

 

Also rather than a leak, could be a problem with a cat.

 

+1 on this excellent suggestion!

Again, a remote (optical) thermometer will tell you much.

 

Thanks both for the thoughts! The brake theory could make sense as I believe there are sensors/wires for the DSC in the wheel hubs? At least that's what I'm seeing from past threads on common reasons the DSC warning goes off. I started the car again a few hours after all of this happened and the DSC warning was gone.

The cat theory might be most preferable as 200 cell cats were an upgrade I was planning on anyway, although not right at this very moment. If I can't get an appointment to be seen tomorrow I'll have to find a thermometer and start testing, but this is at least helpful ideas to have going into a potential conversation tomorrow. Thanks again!