Phoenixx

I own a 2008 acura tsx, bought it used, haven't had any problems with it, it has about 88K miles on it now. I have been getting a burning smell in my car and I can't figure out what it is. My mechanic checked my car, looked at the breaks, see if anything is stuck under it, looked for leaks and nothing. I saw that there was a recall for power steering hose, went to the dealer, he said it was already done by the dealer before I bought the car.

About the smell,
- comes thru the vents, happens pretty randomly, mostly it's short, like1 or 2 or 3 minutes, random 5 minutes, but was driving in a hwy recently and it smelled for most of the drive which was like half an hour.
- it's not a burning break smell, when the smell show up, I pulled into an empty parking lot couple times and went around and smelled each tire, most of the time, the smell was gone by the time I pulled in though, if I had to choose, would say a burning plastic, burning wire maybe
- strange thing about it is that it happens mostly during the night, like 80% plus
- sometimes it happens when I hit certain speed limit, recently was driving on a hwy during the night, and when I hit 60 miles per hour, the smell would start and when I went under, it would go away, it is a random thing when it happens, but usually with other people in the car if it happens on a hwy
- the time I see it happening more often than not is when there is a red light, I take off my foot off the gas, most times no breaking, just let it slow down by itself, then the light turns green, i hit the gas and the smell shows up and leaves after minute or so.
- it only happened once, but it started to smell bad, I cracked the windows and I could actually smell more burning smell on the outside and coming into the car, all other times, when I crack the windows, it's only fresh air.
- the car was not in any accidents, had both breaks done last october, I've been getting the smell since december, I would say it happens more often now than in december.

I am really at loss, both mechanic and the dealer said they see nothing wrong with the car and both told me to come back when it smells, mechanics are closed at night when it smells.....

Mr Marco

Could be a leak (tranny fluid/engine oil) that is too small to be obvious. But when you drive faster air flow pushes it back on to the hot exhaust system where it burns off creating the smell. I would put a clean piece of cardboard under the car and run the engine in neutral for five minutes see if anything appears on the cardboard. If so, measure the stain from three corners/spots on the car so when you remove it you can triangulate the exact spot. Then trace the fluid up to the point of the leak. It might be something simple like an oil pressure sensor.