I am planning to take the car to the dealer but I was wondering if you guys had any ideas what is going on.

I noticed about a week ago a strange burnt grease/metallic (?) smell when I stopped the car. I do not know how to describe smell, but it was somewhat similar to a clutch or break smell but not the same; I think I would recognize these. I was trying to figure out from where this was coming, even opened up the hood, but no luck. It seems to be coming from the bottom of the car, perhaps the tires? Recently, I had my tires changed (to Falkens ZIEX 512). Could it be the tires or something that is connected to changing them??

Other than the smell, I did not notice any other changes in driving characteristics of the car.

Here is what I think it is not:

1. Gas. I have been buying from the same gas station for over 6 months and I never leave too little gas in the tank before refill.

2. If it is the clutch, it is not because of my driving (22 years of driving stick, all cars had a stick never had a single problem with transmission or clutch).

3. No, my parking break is not engaged

I bought the car in May 2004 and never had any trace of this smell before. It started after the tires were changed, so this is a small hint, but I just can't think of why tires would produce this smell. One more thing - the car needs to be driven at least 2-3 miles to get the smell. If I move the car for a short distance from a cold start (e.g., less than a mile), the smell is not there or very faint (which is another indication that it is not the gas).

Any ideas or help is greatly appreciated!

 

Wow - that could be just about anything (brakes - wheel bearings - clutch). I'd get it to the dealer fast. You don't want a fire on your hands.

 

I had a similar problem, check out my thread about it, it might help. The smell in my car eventually went away without me having to find anything.

https://acurazine.com/forums/car-parts-sale-361/wtb-hids-97760/

Road Rage had a good answer that might help you:

 

I get a pretty nasty smell whenever I accelerate hard. Not sure why but it's something I planned to have investigated next time it's in for service. I hardly ever beat on the car so it's rarely an issue. But on those rare occasions....it's pretty bad.

 

Not to question the obvious - have you given the tires a good sniff - cold and hot?

 

Never heard of this..please keep us informed on the status.

 

Also here are some things to listen or check for. If it's a wheel bearing you can listen for a noise that increases with acceleration and decreases upon deceleration. You can also jack the car up grab the wheel at 12 and 6 push the top and pull the bottom and vice versa. If there is excessive play then you have a wheel bearing going.

Since you have new tires if the wheels were installed with an impact wrech without a torque stick then it is possible you may have a bent rotor which would could be rubbing against the brake pads. Could also be a sticky/bad caliper.

Clutch well that is a little harder to check.

However fla-tls is on point with it could be anything. It's possible it's nothing at all however I think an appointment at the dealer is in order.

 

Interesting!

We just had a cold snap here in SoCal. Right after the weather turned chilly I noted a very nasty burning/chemical odor--acrid, not sulfurous--from the climate control. It started immediately as soon as I fired up the car and seemed to be more intense when the heat was predominating over the AC. No odor under the hood at all, only in the passenger compartment. Couldn't get to the dealer, but the car was fine in every other way. It was there whenever I drove for about a week, then poof! it went away and so far has not returned. I have 9000 miles on my 2004 5AT and use only Chevron premium gas.

Maybe a shopping bag stuck to and burning on the exhaust manifold or catalytic converter?? But why would it smell bad only INSIDE the car?

A mystery still.

Regards,

VOdoc

 

I also had a strange smell. They had dropped some rustproofing on the catalytic converter. The smell only happened under hard acceleration. Took about 6 months to go away.

Did you have anoil change? Maybe they dropped something on the exhaust pipes if you did.

 

I had an oil change but that was almost a month ago. I do not think it is connected to it. It does correlate somehow with the tire change.

I will check the underside of the car to see if there is any junk attached to the CAT or the exhaust. This is a good idea.

Yes, I did sniff around the car, LOL and the tires. Yet, I do not think it is coming from the tires themselves.

many thanks for the feedback guys. This is an awesome forum What would the world be without the Internet?

 

Acugirl,
It very well could be your tires! I just replaced the tires on my wifes Suburban and they have been stinking for over a week. You can really smell it when pulled into the garage after driving for some time. Same thing happened on my civic. It definitely has a strange smell and not entirely like hot rubber. Tires have numerous compounds in them besides rubber that can emit different odors. It should slowly diminish over the next month. I would still have your dealer take a look but my guess is your intuition about your recent tire swap is a legitimate one.

As for the others (VOdoc) worried about a smell from the heater. I also questioned the sweet/acidic odor when I picked up my 04 last Dec. I would have sworn I had an antifreeze leak in the heater core. I do believe it was just the plastics and assembly lube burning of within the air system. Mine went away within about 3 months of heater use. I kept an eye out for leaks etc. - nothing.

Keep us posted

Smitty

 

Update: A friend of mine came over and helped me narrow down the source. It seems to be coming from the front right wheel. I made an appointment with the place where they changed the tires to look into it. Will let you know tomorrow.

 

Hmmm... burning grease/metallic smell near right front tire... Sounds like wheel bearings or brakes...

/SWAMIHATOFF

 

I do not recall hitting any pothole. Bearing on a car with 5500 miles?

 

My wife had a seized caliper on her old car - but you would have other signs if that were the case. You have not reported seeing any faint smoke coming from the tires, so I would rule brakes out, plus being in the front as you suspect there may be some pull then. A bearing would be throwing some grease or something, no? I know that smell well from a previous car.

Try rotating the suspect tire to the back - see if the problem follows it.


Sorry had to LOL when you admitted to smelling the tire - at least I am not alone in the world. My wife has witnessed me twice sniffing various parts of the car and each time she gets closer to throwing me out or calling the men in the "long white coats"... good luck with your detective work.

Please let us know what you discover.

-TB

 

You can have a hung-up caliper and the car will not necessarily pull. Try putting the back of your hand on the wheels after you park. Any wheel with a tight caliper will be MUCH hotter than the other wheels on the car. And, yeah, it may "smell hot." For obvious reasons, don't try this after riding the brakes down a mountain road or autoxing the car

 

Another update:

Took the car to the same place where they changed the tires. Once the mechanic got a sniff, he immediately said: "you ran over some garbage, probably a grocery bag, and it got stuck to the exhaust. This is a plastic smell, 100%." He told me to not worry and drive the car hard; the stuff should burn off in a week or two. Looks like VOdoc got the puzzle right

I specifically asked him if the smell could be a break pad or ball bearing or clutch and he said _no_ with confidence.

Well, guess what I will be doing with matches and a grocery bag tonight!

KT88, the first thing I tried was to touch the wheels to see if any wheel is much hotter than the rest (all were fine). The thing is that although the rotors themselves were just little warm, the smell was still strong.

About the front right wheel ... that was probably a misleading clue as the smell follows the drift of the wind, this morning it was more on the left side ...

Quote by TBone2004: "Sorry had to LOL when you admitted to smelling the tire - at least I am not alone in the world. My wife has witnessed me twice sniffing various parts of the car and each time she gets closer to throwing me out or calling the men in the "long white coats"... good luck with your detective work. "

I bet my experience this morning at the tire place can beat this - a middle aged woman running around the car, touching the rotors and smelling the tires ... must be a car enthusiast, huh?

 

acugril:
I hope everything gets fixed.

 

Jesus Christ, I just went over 100 posts!

 

See! If everyone just asked for paper instead of plastic - this never would have happened!

Hopefully it will be burned off soon.

 

 

I had the EXACT same thing happen. I thought it might be because this is the first time the heater has had much of a workout, but it seemed to be most prevelant just as I started the car, not necessarily when the heater was really cranking. Also seemed to be in the morning, not when I left work in the evening. Hopefully it was just some break-in thing and is gone for good.

 

that smell seems normal for some new cars. My 04TL had that for the first 2k miles, along with a catalytic converter smell. The metallic burning smell went away, and the CAT (sulfur/rotten egg smell) only comes back if i floor the car unexpectedly.

My friend got a brand new 04 Mustang Cobra and it also had a burning smell for the first few thousand miles

 

MY roommates 4Runner had the CAT smell...so did my TL between 3K and 6500 miles.......It's just gotta break in.

 

well, i dont no if this is the same smell, but we had a strange smell tho ours is auto.... smelled lik burning rubber but wasnt 2 bad.... went away but that was in the summer.....
check it out, wouldnt want smthing bad 2 happen