Oakmaster Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 2015 Puma 110 utility 2.2 Was about / less than 2 miles from home, cabin filled with stinky smoke, (not electrical – I did wonder, not quite clutch) could not see where it was coming from, (or see anything else!) I verged it (new verb) - couldn’t see where I was going, jumped out to grab my extinguisher, and through the door could see it pouring out the handbrake shroud. It diminished before I could remember how to deploy the extinguisher (so much for the training) I opened all the doors and let it settle. When I pulled the hand-brake on it just snapped! When I got home and relayed this sorry tale to Wife, Daughter No1, and Mother in Law, the inevitable accusations of – you were driving with the handbrake on flowed. In my defence after 17 Land-Rovers over 30 yrs – I think I’d have known, and no warning light, and no effect on performance on an ‘enthusiastic’ (70 MPH till I hit the side-roads) 10 mile drive home, and the very rapid on-set of the smoke, makes me think I’m less of a halfwit than may family take me for? You may know different? Is this a case of a poor earth, and the handbrake cable burning out due to taking the whole earth to chassis? - Or?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Have you examined the main earth cables yet ? Mo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Sounds like the handbrake cable became a earth cable, check the main battery earth cables. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakmaster Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 I'll be checking those when it gets light (and hopefully dry) - strange thing is there was absolutely no hesitation when I re-started? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 I was going to mention the earths too. That would be my first thing to look at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crwoody Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Earth via handbrake cable is a real fault but it would only be a major issue when cranking the engine to start it, during normal running there won't be enough power flowing there to cause the symptoms the OP describes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 That does sound very plausible. It happened on my Tdi RRC. The cable isn’t really up to the current and gets hot enough to melt the Teflon coating. With the vehicle parked in gear, try engaging and releasing the hand brake repeatedly and looking for stiffness or binding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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