I was driving home from work and all of a sudden, my wife and I smelled this strong burning smell, kind of like rubber burning. I lowered my wife's side passenger window and she could definitely smell the burning smell. At that point we both thought that the smell was from other cars or the environment. About 5 minutes later, the burning smell was almost non-existant. After about 8 minutes, I pulled my car into the garage and I could smell the same odor of burning rubber around the base of the windshield. I tried to smell the brakes and they smelled like brake pads heating up. I smelled the very front of the car, normal. I tried to smell the engine compartment, normal smell. But the burning rubber smell was the strongest at around the passenger side windshield base....

I took my RL out an hour later for a spin and see if I could duplicate the smell, then went back to the location where the smell was the strongest... Nothing, except the constant very faint rubber burning smell.

Any idea of what's going on here?

 

Have you had the PS Hose Recall done?

 

Could be PS hose, but I would say radiator hose, or heater core leaking.

 

Yep. sounds to me your steering hose is leaking. As been said ,there is a recall for it. Get it ito the dealer ASP

 

No, I haven't had the recall on steering hose leak done. But today I didn't smell anything from the car. I really hope that isn't the issue...

However, I called the dealer eariler this morning and told them the "problem" and see if I could bring my RL to have it checked out, the Acura of Bellevue said, "sorry, we are completely booked today." I thought this case would be considered an urgency if not emergency. I guess they think something burning is considered "ok"

 

They may not consider OK, but they are booked. And to some degree, if it is urgent by your evaluation, then you should go to the dealer and expect to wait.

Equate it to calling the ER and saying 'I'm bleeding..should I come in?". If you have to ask, likely if you do not consider it urgent enough to go in, they will not consider it urgent to diagnose.

 

Have you had your oil changed recently? If so, it could be residual spill burning off of your manifold.

 

In the ER, it should be "I'm bleeding, WHEN can I come in?" Not just "should I come in." The ER will tell you to go in right away, even if there are a lot of other patients, someone will still see you. Of course, if you are bleeding from a papercut, then you can make a proper decision to either put a bandaid or call ER. But if your car has a burning smell all of a sudden, unless you have a lift at home and you are a car mechanic, then anyone would consider it "urgent." Will the dealer take responsibility if your car catches fire because they couldn't see you eariler for the recall? You tell me.

 

Maybe it's the wiper motor? Were you running the wipers when the smell started and not when you took it out later? I'm not sure which side the RL wiper motor is but it's usually on the firewall at the base of the windshield.

 

Holy crap! I experienced the same thing tonight and thought of this thread. The smell lasted briefly and then eventually dissipated. It's late evening right now, so I'm going to check on it tomorrow morning, but, here's the kicker...I just got the car back yesterday from having the hose TSB done

 

Likely you are just smelling fluid burn off. From what I undestand, changing the hose will likely cause some fluid to spill.

 

Correct. It goes away after a day or two following the recall work. They seem to spill quite a bit of PS fluid in the process.

Check your front fenders--several of us noted dimpling on the upper surfaces after having this done.

 

No, my last oil change was sometime last year... right now my MID is reading 30% for my oil life...

 

The wipers weren't on at that time when the smell happened.... not sure what's going now. It's been a few days now and I haven't smelled anything funny lately...

 

The hose that has to be replaced is just under the windshield, I would be very suspicious that you are suffering the leak the recall is about. Note, I believe power steering fluid is flammable. I would take the car in ASAP to get the recall performed.