So I've noticed the last couple days that I'm getting a burning smell from my car after getting home. And then today after leaving work I noticed alot of smoke coming from exhaust at the first light I stopped at but then after getting on freeway and then pulling over I never noticed it again. I have a 04 acura tl. Also a couple weeks ago my wife drove my car in 1st gear on the freeway. The check engine light came on after she did this but I had to unhook battery and was expecting it to come back on but it never did. And I have noticed in the past if I push the car to hard the check engine light will come on but eventually goes away after a short while.. please any help is much appreciated! The car seems to be running fine but I'm worried

 

what color is the smoke? blue or black indicate you are burning engine oil white smoke indicate you are buring coolant. BTW what do you mean by your wife drive the car in 1st gear on the freeway? accidentally going to 1st gear and I also assuming you have MT?

 

It appeared to be white. I only saw it from side mirrors and when I pulled over it had stopped. And no its automatic but she put it into the Manual option. Thinking it was in drive

 

04 TL autoshifts from 1 to 2 unless she floors it and never lets it shift. But then it autoshifts when it's somewhere in the red (don't recall which rpm precisely) so she couldn't have drove it in 1st on the freeway for very long.

 

go through autozone to see what is the code cause the CEL to lit. Check and make sure your coolant/ engine oil level and make sure they are at the same level week after week, since you have AT then the least I worry about is bent valve.

 

i had that happen

someone was driving my car on freeway, thought putting the shifter over would put it in overdrive... smh.

it's been almost 5 years since.

 

white smoke typically is antifreeze, does it smell sweet? is your car low on coolant? how is your oil level?