Smoking engine, burning rubber smell
 

Situation: 2000 land rover disco 2...made a knocking sound knocking sound while the owner was in traffic today, the sound of a belt squealing, and white smoke came out the tailpipe and from the top of the engine. The coolant level was fine, but the temp gauge rose just short of the last stop before red. He turned it off and we towed it rest of the way. After 2 tries, it'll still turn over but almost immediately starts to smoke from under the hood....doesn't overheat, or rather, gauge doesn't move....where should he start? (Against my better advice, he hasn't had a tune up in 3 yrs!!!!!)

sounds like the overheat situation has fried the head gasket(s)............or they were bad to start with....and caused loss of coolant to cause the overheat.....a viscous circle..

Routine maintenance on a D2.

No sweat.

Git er done!

Remove belt and look for a seized/dragging pulley/idler bearing.
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And if its seized?

Replace it. The idler and tensioner pulleys simply bolt on as a whole unit.

If a/c clutch pulley the bearing may be able to be replaced if clutch not toast. Water pump or alt bearing, duh.
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Sorry! But I'm new at this! Now, are we talking about the serpentine belt pulley?

Update!
 

Pulleys aren't hardly turning on start up....smoke comes from serpentine belt area and serpentine belt has a tear in it? Could this be the problem? Last time power steering was lost was due to faulty water pump that resulted in belt falling off....he replaced it with a used pump because he had one available....that was last summer

Great news. You've got some fairly easy, cheap, satisfying, probably problem fixing work ahead.

You want 2 idler pullys, 1 tensioner unit/pully, 1 serpentine belt and about 1-2 hours and you'll be very happy I imagine.

Do a bit of reading here and you'll find which bits you need.