Hello,

My car has started to give off an odor that smells kind of like what art class did when we made enamel jewelry which was taking a plate of brass and cutting it into the shape of say a butterfly and then coating it with some enamel powder paint and 'cooking' it on an electric burner until the powder turns to smooth coat.

Anyhow also kinda like burning peanuts.

I opened the hood and I see that a large amount of whitish fumes pour off of either the power steering pump or the ac pump. AC does not work.

The PS pump is coated with 'oil' or ps fluid so I assume that it is leaking, but this is a 300k plus car, and they always look coated at least I think so. And I am pretty sure the PS pump was coated a month ago without this fuming problem. Anyhow, is it likely that the PS is leaking? And then, is it the AC pump that is doing the cooking? If I disconnect that AC pump, will the leaking fluid no longer be cooked? Or does the PS pump itself do the cooking? Do I have to actually solve the leaking PS pump? I think power stearing is still working, would I be able to just disconnect the AC pump AND the PS pump and not wreck something stearing related? Like the higher lower human pressure on the system will be fine? I can deal with the extra 'effort' in stearing manually, but I don't want to wreck other components like the rack or whatever that I don't really understand.

The fumes are getting to concern my health...

All help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks