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It's been a regrettably eventful quarter for my TL with small things going bad, and I'm having a hard time tracking down how to approach these.
Firstly, the most worrying one: I slowly started getting a burning wax smell when I turned the heater on. Mild at first, now after the cars been running a few minutes, I can't have it on. I replaced the filters thinking maybe something was stuck but no, I have something burning in the engine compartment and it's bad enough now you can smell the burning around the outside of the car when you get out, but I cannot find where it's coming from. I see nothing obvious from the generally exposed engine, standing over it and peaking around; I can't see smoke coming from anything specific, etc. Where do I start with this?
Another recent fun bit, I've had water leaking in, dripping through the passenger front side airbag. I can't see any obvious faults in the door sealing, so also am not sure where to start besides trying to replace the whole thing. That feels like something that will compound badly if left, however.
My cabin button for the trunk no longer works, and the trunk does not stay up on it's own anymore; it'll come down with bone breaking force when released so I have to gently let it down. That ones obnoxious but not a compounding problem so will probably stay that way forever at this stage (231k miles) but wanted the communities input if there's something not bad to deal with that.
Lastly, the sat nav has been increasingly to entirely nonfunctional for years, but excepting when I'm in the back country I prefer use my phone anyway. From previous readings, most of the time it just needs to be pulled and have the laser cleaned to my understanding, but I was wanting input. It had been having trouble starting up, or randomly failing and saying contact dealer. It did that for a few years, seemed worse with bumps in the road and such. Now it hasn't been able to load more than once in the last year, and last night it loaded a bunch of random squiggly lines all over the screen. It also has refused to eject the disc for years.
So...my poor TL needs some help, and I'm hoping for some guidance to keep it going, especially that first point. That has me concerned. I don't have an easy way to lift it right now to check the undercarriage for debris that aren't visible for the top, but that's certainly what I'm hoping for, but guessing more in the direction of a wiring issue, but it's having no driving or electronic symptoms otherwise. Thoughts?
1. You'll have to keep looking---you just haven't found it, yet. Try cleaning the entire engine bay.
2. Assuming your door seal is good, check your sunroof and the drain.
3. Does the truck latch "click" but not "pop" Try some silicone on the weatherstrip and clean & lube the latch.
You could add a helper spring to the hinge, but it involves taking off panels and some minor engineering.
4. It's toast. Either rebuild it or replace it. Pull the fuse or unplug it if the screen is annoying.
Everything but problem 1 are somewhat "common" issues that have been covered in the forums over the years.
1.) Wax smell...no idea...kid drop a crayon down on the heater core?
2.) water leaking on dash - either sunroof drains or front window seal failed
- not 100% sure what airbag you are for sure referring to? I originally read it as the passenger airbag, but now see you said side airbag...I don't remember where that one is hiding? in the seat itself? my TL has been gone for 3 years
3.) cabin trunk button not working - does the remote button for it work?
- yes - pull the switch and check wiring
- no - check the wiring of the actuator in the trunk
4.) trunk slamming - torsion bars are broke, replace them
5.) Nav - its dead, remove it - expensive repair - check for junk yard parts
1. You'll have to keep looking---you just haven't found it, yet. Try cleaning the entire engine bay.
2. Assuming your door seal is good, check your sunroof and the drain.
3. Does the truck latch "click" but not "pop" Try some silicone on the weatherstrip and clean & lube the latch.
You could add a helper spring to the hinge, but it involves taking off panels and some minor engineering.
4. It's toast. Either rebuild it or replace it. Pull the fuse or unplug it if the screen is annoying.
Yeah, that's basically next step, then it gets trickier if it's a wire that's losing it's insulation or something as it'll be hard to find when it's cold, impossible to work on when it's hot.
Good idea on the sunroof, though it's odd that it's only leaking one direction
The inside button does nothing. The trunk button from the key fob does pop the truck, it just won't lift it without me manually doing so and then it takes some strength to hold up. It's like someone quadrupled the springs.
The screen itself is still working but...on and off. Portions are turning on, sometimes all of it, sometimes it won't. It's been...weird, especially lately.
The wax is just upon entry through the heating ducts. Step outside the car and you just smell burning from the engine compartment. As Pair was suggesting, gonna start with a general cleaning and going from there. Just hard to do in 20 degree weather with rain when you don't have a garage and you're busy moving to boot around working 6 days a week...eesh. This is the one that definitely needs action before it cascades but that's so much easier said than done.
The curtain airbag is towards the front of the door in the roof. When I first saw it dripping that was...very confusing.
The inner button doesn't, the fob does, but it feels like an internal structure has broken. You can barely, if at all, tell that it's been unlatched by looking at it until you go to lift it. If you had your hand on the bottom seal while letting go of the trunk lid at the top, it would not just break bones, it would shatter them with the force it's giving.
Sadly I'll prolly just let the nav stay dead. Except when I'm in the back country, which isn't much these days, using a phone is far more convenient than the car navigation, it's just useful for at a glance navigation so I do miss it. My TL's at 231k so all the small things are happening more frequently. It's certainly teaching me more about car work at this stage in it's life.
I went through this issue last year when I found that one of the two trunk torsion Springs in my 06 TL had snapped.
I was unable to locate replacements through parts houses, on-line, or OEM.
i ended up going to a local junk yard, found some 3GS and got several sets of springs. I had mine installed by the dealer, since a specialty tool is required, and the springs are under a great deal of tension.
I attempted to offer them through this forum but I didn’t have enough posts. I did sell two sets through eBay but lost money since the shipping costs was near $50 each time. I would be willing to sell for my actual cost from junkyard (15) plus actual shipping cost. Sorry if this is not allowed, just trying to help a brother/sister out.
The burning plastic smell could possibly be AC compressor related
So this past summer on one of the hottest damn days, possible, my Boyfriend finally gave in an let me take his 2007 TL S type out for a nice long drive all by me self without his supervision. Upon me accelerating pedal to floor from a stoplight the AC went from blowing ice cold to blowing hot air, I thought nothing of the ac going out mid drive so I turned it off continuing on about my fun drive until the burning plastic smell started coming in through the vents. What Caused my issue was that one of the plastic wire harness clips that holds the wiring safely away the belt had broken off causing the wires to now come in contact with the belt repeatedly for about 15/20 miles of driving that completely destroyed and melt the AC compressor’s wiring 🤦🏼♀️ needless to say I haven’t been granted permission to drive his baby ever since then. Yours could be as simple as to what I experienced.
I think it may be something simpler still, in a fashion. Its finally above freezing and I did a bit of a drive to warm it up and popped open the engine, and could see smoke coming directly out. It looks like a seal I've known needed replacing has gotten worse and now instead of just getting some mild oil leaking that goes down to the oil sump, but now it's covering more of the engine. So I expect I need to clean the engine well and get that seal replaced on the top of the engine itself.
With that, suggestions for a cleaner for oil that won't leave a residue that will itself burn as the engine heats?
I usually use Gunk or CRC QC-82 degeaser with good results. Personally I prefer OEM parts, but I see a lot of people using Fel-Pro gaskets.
As far as the leak goes, people always say sunroof drains, and that's definitely where I would start to look. However, that's not always the issue. Pull the A pillar trim off and have a friend use a hose while you look inside with a flashlight. Could be the windshield seal, but it could also be a small crack in the seam sealer on the roof. It's not something I've seen posts about on Acurazine, but it has been talked about on Facebook groups when guys hunted down hard to find leaks. Could also be one of the door seals, can't rule those out yet either.
If you find it appears to be the seal seamer crack, you have to remove the trim piece the runs along the side of the windshield all the way to the top of the rear window (on the outside of the car). You don't have to remove the full piece though. There's a good YouTube video with a guy removing it on the AHC Garage channel, be careful because the metal will bend easily and the clips are quite fragile.
Try the hose test with the interior A pillar trim removed and go from there. Definitely start with sunroof drains though as that's another common issue.
So cleaned off the bank 2 cat, and yeah, there was some burnt to a crisp (crunchy, really) oil on some of it. So that makes sense. So got it nice and clean as I could for the moment and fixing that valve seal should deal with it beyond that. Next...to find where that damn leak is coming from.
The trunk button for the rear not working is most likely broken grounds.
Ive had that happen to me and there were other threads about it that I can’t seem to find. Basically, behind the left side of the covers in the trunk, there were wires that have broken into two. Slowly, my licenses plate didn’t work and then my cabin trunk button wouldn’t work. It’s a common problem. I just crimped the wires back together and haven’t had a problem since.
edit;
here’s a thread referring to all the broken wires which many people experienced with the same problem as yours with pictures.
