burning smell when i put on heater or AC

i have a Nissan Primera dated 2002, suddenly from yesterday, in middle of Motorway, i smell burning , no smoke, just smell and find out that smell is coming from heater or AC is on.

should i be worried, i stopped driving and using a friends car. can some one please enlighten me on enormity of this problem, cost of repairs, what is problem? please

You could have a simple oil leak which is dripping onto the hot exhaust manifold or hot exhaust downpipe causing it to burn. The smell is then being channelled into the climate control system.

Take it to a good independant garage and get them to check the engine bay and underside of the car for an oil leak, before you start pulling out the heater matrix!!

Do you have any spots of oil on your driveway? It could be a telltale sign.

Thanks Daithi for your time and tip. i dont have any spots of oil, but i will give a very specific check.

best regards

Hi greencl,this mightn#t be much help... i used to own mondeos and was a member of an online mondeo forum. apparently this was a common enough problem on the older mondeos and was easy enough to sort yourself. it was caused by the heater resistor pack failing.

i know it sounds nerdy but maybe do a google for Primera owners clubs and they might be familiar with it.

good luck.

I had a similar problem in an astra earlier this year (thought the car was on fire). Turned out to be the pollen filter. It was full of dust/debris etc that it was causing a burning smell. Once changed problem solved.
Worth checking out.