[Closed] Burning smell coming from car - any ideas?

And oil spilt on the manifold or anything?

Little oil leak hitting the manifold or further up the exhaust? How longs it been happening?

*edit* damn it! 🙂

I win!

For once!😁

Just noticed it today.

Will have a look for signs of oil in engine bay.

Excuse the ignorance, but if it's a oil leak is that likely to be from a pipe or something more serious like the cylinder head gasket?

Could be oil filter - mine is directly above the exhaust at the back of the engine.

Smell is definitely coming from under hood rather than back of car

Interior fan resistance switch does this on my car. The smell is horrible in the car, but not in the engine.

do you have breakdown cover? if so just give them a call and say you're worried about whether or not it's safe to drive.
edit: yes I'm a bad man.

aux belt idler or tension pulley failing? dont always make a noise once stuck - belt gets hot though.

My sister in laws burning smell ended up being a plastic bag stuck to the underside of the engine block. Have you had a good look underneath?

#sucksteeth

It's your head gasket mate.

Your parking brake might be stuck? Happened to me many years ago.

Does it slow down easily without applying too much braking if so it could be parking brake?

Could it be the smell of a sticking (front) brake caliper coming through the engine bay?
Next time you drive the car for 10 minutes or so, put your hand on the front wheels to check for a very warm wheel.

Could be a lot of things. A good way to check for small leaks in hard to spot areas is next time you arrive home after a longish drive that gets engine upto temperature is to lay an old but clean bed or dust sheet under the engine and gearbox or a large sheet of cardboard or something to catch any small drops of fluid that might drop.

However it could be something as simple as after a dry spell and driving on newly wetted roads after heavy rain you’ve picked up some water from the road contaminated with oil or diesel and it is in the process of burning off on your exhaust or something.

What sort of ‘smell’ is it? Oil and rubber, for example, are two distinctly different odours.

Perhaps you spilt your coffee and you actually have Covid?

Is that a diesel model? My Vito had that on and off for a while, it turned out that it was a leaking injector.

Have you opened the bonnet ?

Have you checked for the/a cat ?

I’m at a loss as to where the transmission dip stick is to check if there is any oil in there, or if there is even one

Unlikely to be that, but transmission oil level is usually set by the level of the filler plug in the side. You squirt oil in until it runs out. If it's leaking it will be on the driveshaft.

My jalopy has a leaky injector at the mo, that stinks a bit. Is it an oily burning smell, a rubbery burning smell or an ozoney burning smell?

thestabiliser
Member
My jalopy has a leaky injector at the mo, that stinks a bit. Is it an oily burning smell, a rubbery burning smell or an ozoney burning smell?

Yes, that is the smell I had

Our Clio 2 1.6 used to smell like that if it had not been used for a while/ driven gently and was then caned. No issue was apparent when we owned it so I assumed it was dirt and grime getting hot in the confined engine bay with a larger engine.

If it's a fishy smell check your speakers.

My old Clio used to smell like that of not driven for a while. It would clear up after being given a decent thrashing along the road for 15 mins

If it’s a fishy smell check your speakers.

😀

If it has been in a flood recently they could have got in through the door bins.

Edit: the bass that is

Ok. Its eithrr 2 groups oil or friction
Oil, look at filter, rocker cover gaskets, oil filler cap, dipstick area, gear box seals
Also ser power steering fluid level and cooler pipework
Friction
Hot burning smell caused by rubbing
Air con pump clutch
Altetnator over run clutch
Fsn belt tensionet pulley
Air con pulley
Power steering pump pulley
Posdible hvlp fuel pump eating itself
Soething caught in the belts
Outlier water pump seizing
Inj seal failure
Fuel pressure reg failure
Fuel line failure

Get your night lights out and have a search around

Then drive and chevk wheels and hubs for different heat levels

OP Do you smoke in the car ? 🙂

Also had this once when the alternator was failing but was accompanied by battery warning light

Edit: the bass that is

Very good.

Last burning smell I had was in a pug306, the solenoid(?) for the lights had come off its mount and fallen onto the manifold. I couldn’t work out what the burning smell was. I soon found out when my lights died at night on the motorway!

Alternator died in my V50 last year, smelled reeeeed hot.