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Weird smell


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When i drive my car somewhere, i stop, get out, do somthing, come back 5 minutes later, and it smells wierd inside the car, like somthing burning, its not coolant tho, its almsot like a paper burning sorta smell, that goes away when i start driving abit. My dash lights, especially the 4WD one likes to stay on dimly lit and if u rev it somtimes goes away, but now it stopped going away when you rev it. And today at idle the Brake fluid, Stop lamp, and Charge light came on at idle and i reved and it went away and never came back. Could this burning smell be my alternator burning up???

 

Also this morning, i started it and it idled high and it had NO power and acted like it was missing or somthing, it went away after a minute of driving, but i could hear a squeeeeeeeek at between 2-3 thousand RPMs from the driver side of the engine, wich also went away after some driving.

 

 

Also! Are all EA82 alternators that same?? Theres one at the yard, but the serpintine belts are really skinny compared to mine, is it the same?

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When i drive my car somewhere, i stop, get out, do somthing, come back 5 minutes later, and it smells wierd inside the car, like somthing burning, its not coolant tho, its almsot like a paper burning sorta smell, that goes away when i start driving abit. My dash lights, especially the 4WD one likes to stay on dimly lit and if u rev it somtimes goes away, but now it stopped going away when you rev it. And today at idle the Brake fluid, Stop lamp, and Charge light came on at idle and i reved and it went away and never came back. Could this burning smell be my alternator burning up???

 

Also this morning, i started it and it idled high and it had NO power and acted like it was missing or somthing, it went away after a minute of driving, but i could hear a squeeeeeeeek at between 2-3 thousand RPMs from the driver side of the engine, wich also went away after some driving.

 

 

Also! Are all EA82 alternators that same?? Theres one at the yard, but the serpintine belts are really skinny compared to mine, is it the same?

 

Hopefully that burn smell won't reveal itself into something serious.

 

I have found the heater resistor block to catch strange things and burn smells from it.

 

The light on dimly on all the time seems to be whatever triggers it is wrong and indicating when it isn't supposed to. The squeal a loose belt?

 

missing when cold could be adjustments carb/injection.plug wires, cap ,plugs and other tune up stuff like engine being clean.

 

The alternator could be intermittent- sometimes its the stage before giving up entirely, as the brushes insde the alternator bounce around to the engine it finds sweet spots to keep functioning even when they are quite worn.

 

good luck, whren you mentioned all the charge lights came on, it may be the source of all the probs in the charge of alternator somewhere.

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well the smell seems to have just started, but i did replace the blow motor resistor block a week or so ago with a working one, mabye i should pull it out and make sure nothing got stuck on it? Also i opend the hood and saw smoke of some sort with no smell rising from the alternator, it didnt smell like anything, it was odd, it was coming out from under it, not out of it. Gosh this cars got one thing after another, sheesH!

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ok new alternator, still have the 4WD light dimmly lit, and it fades as the RPMs get higher. Windows are indeed faster. Wow no one told me how much of a pain in the rump roast puting and alternator on would be, i had to take a grinder to the ears to get it to fit over the bracket. what a nightmare, and i find its leaking coolant, over right under the water pump/timing belt area AGAIN, WTF is going on!!!!! ahhhg i hate, this, car with passion, my little mazda was nearly trouble free, i never had to worry if it got me placed, this thing im constantly worrying about a head gasket and hoses and crap. My Mazda just needed a clutch, heater core, and valve guide seals. It runs like ************ when its started when warm, hardly running and chugging and hesitating with no power then that just goes away with abit of driving and it idles fine and no hesistation. I was told these cars were reliable, i was lied too :mad:

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I was told these cars were reliable, i was lied too :mad:

 

You have a 20 year old turbo car - stop whineing and learn to wrench. It was reliable enough to make it 20 years and into your hands..... Stop blaming the car for your inadequacies. The car is as reliable as you make it, and maintain it to be. If you feel you can't hack it, then make car payments, get a warrantee, and leave us without your negative attitude.

 

GD

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yeah, i'm with GD on this too. if all your going to do is whine about it then sell it and leave us alone. otherwise, either fix it or pay someone to fix it then you'll have a good car. hell if i had the money i'd buy it from you and fix and have an awesome car. hey, i'll give you a 100 bucks for it and take it off your hands. :lol:

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you guys are a-s-s-h-o-l-e's

a weard smell could be any thing, and any car is as reliable as youy make it i have spent the last year fixing my xt-6 and it hasn't left em stranded for 5 months now it still has it's kinks but it is a 17 year old car, expect problems but with all the stuff you have done just don't give up and start half assing the work and you will eventually have a good reliable vehical

edit: check the tension on your belts that is the most likely source of a squel\

second edit : quit ***************ing

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meh the squeaking (not squeal) went away with the different alt. I dunno about smell. I have put SO many hours of my own work into this car, dont even try to say anything, iv put MANY hours getting it to run, its abit frustirating to put 400-500$ into a 100$ car and put so many hours into out in my driveway out in the cold and still just more and more problems just keep popping up. I fix one thing, its all fine, and another things pops right up, its getting really annoying, if my damn Mazdas Clutch wasnt going out and heater worked, and didnt burn through a quart of oil in 400 miles id keep it. I could prolly get some sucker to pay 800$ for this thing, they have high resale over here. I AM trying to fix it, obviously, its not like im ignoreing it, and complaining, i just dont know where the hell to start with it.

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I think nothing ever would have gotten beyond that point if you hadn't said "i was lied to," which kinda implies we were the liars... :rolleyes:

 

all of us have said "i hate this FRKING CARR!!!!" a time or two.. but GD kindly point out that you DID buy for the turbocharged model, which comes hand-in-hand with the potential for difficulties. it is more complex, after all.

 

I dont think ANYone had any malice or jackassery intended beyond making that simple point.

 

And prospeeder: i hear ya....

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one of the hazards of buying an 18-20 yr old car that wasnt taken care of before you bought - it may take a while, and a few dollars to get all the "little" things sorted out, but if you keep after it, you will eventually do so and have a GREAT vehicle on your hands.

 

case in point: bought my 89 GL wagon for $150, before I could even get it home, I had to spend roughly $200 for tires all around. then it was $100 for an alternator, several hours sorting out rear hatch wiring (PO had broken the rear glass and decided it would be easier to swap the entire hatch), then it was off to the repair shop for a new clutch and front axles - that was $600...

there were several other things that had to be sorted out, radio wiring (really hate it when people just cut wires) and assorted other nonsense, just to get her running/driving right and on the road i spent roughly $1200 including purchase price and license/registration fees.

But - this has been an AWESOME car with very few problems over the 5 years I have owned it, and most of the "problems" have been basic maintenace type things - timing belts, oil seals, brakes, etc, and some were just age/rust related - leaky fuel pump and lines....oh yeah, and a couple of cheap rebuilt alternators (60amp alt dont like those after market driving lights! :P )

 

moral of the story is this - yeah, it can be frustrating to sort out stuff that wasnt taken care of by the previous owner, but once you DO get it all sorted, and maintain the car properly, you have a great, reliable car on your hands.

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ok, sorry for being an *** earlier but i do hear i had a bad experience buying a $100 car that had been sitting for a year before i got it. i already knew of some problems going into it which wasn't to bad. first off i knew it needed battery, front hubs they we're striped with supposedly new axles. well it needed new hubs, axles, 1 steering knuckle, 1 brake caliper frame and both front wheel bearings.

 

ok great get that all fixed start driving was going to be my dd and light trail use vehicle.

 

next up right rear wheel bearing no problem get that fixed.

 

go to do a tune up, belts and an oil change well two of the spark plug hole we're stripped and spit out the new plugs :banghead: and i can't get the oil drain plug to loosen up. so had to heilcoil the plug holes because i didn't want to be pulling heads if i didn't have to and i just left the drain plug alone and added oil and changed the filter.

 

ok so get this all fixed and it starts dieing periodically sometimes at a light fires back up no problem sometimes while driving comes back to life. :confused: eventaully this gets worse to were it starts leaving me stranded. ok well that ends up being a distributor replace that still having problem ends up being defective distributor ( went through 2 before getting a good one :mad: ) so get that all fixed.

 

then it start running funny, :banghead: find out its only running on 2 cylinders on the same side even though the other 2 are sparking just no power. found this out by grabing the exhaust header pipe barely warm verous the other side nice and hot. ends up being a vacuum leak at the intake manifold so then i go nuts new gaskets (intake and carberator), vacuum hoses, fuel lines and water hoses.

 

also had to put in a new alternator and fuel pump somewhere in this time frame of problems.

 

moral to this story is my $100 car i bought in the first part of january of this year ended up being a good dd by the end of febuary or first part of march not sure but it was a full 2 months of hell and frustration until then. i have no clue as to how much more money i have put into just to get it to that point, i'm afraid to add it all up but i'm sure its around $600-800 hell maybe more. but i can tell you this it has been a good running car all summer and has been on alot of offroading trips and a week long adventure trip in eastern oregon fully load with 2 kids and camping gear with no problems ( i did post a thread with pics about this too.) until the mudpit at WCSS8 now it needs a clutch, oh well we had fun burning it up and now i need to fix it it getting harder to drive it like that.

 

so hang in there its only going to get better and by the time your done you will have a good car if frustration doesn't get the best of you.

 

sorry for the long post but thought i should tell my story after ribbing you alittle. no hard feeling. :drunk:

 

btw, thought i should mention this is on my 84 GL wagon and i also have done some mods that have nothing to with getting it to be a good dd just a better offroader for the fun times.

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ah yea, i guess that makes sense. I was only aware of 2 problems the car had when i bought it, Timing belts, and oil leak. I fixed both. And find out its drizzling out coolant, and theres more rust than first assumed, headlights were toast, alternator going bad. But It has new CV joints, new rear driveline, 30k rebuilt motor (they must have taken ALOT of short cuts, never replaced hoses nor vacuum lines) new tires and a few other things. So i was happy, it came with new timing belts (wich i didnt use, they were deformed) new brake pads and tire chains new in the box, and a small ratchet set. I guess thats what i get for 100$ car, lol, my Mazda was somewhat of a nightmare at first, i got it for free, 80$ to get it home, 60$ inlicening, 75 for a head, 90 for gasskets, 30 for fluids, then the main seal went out, find out the crankshaft keyways destroyed, 6$ for a front main, 30$ for crank parts to hopefully fix it, 200$ for new suspension installed and aligned, 3 thermostats at 8$ a piece, it blows oil smoke like an SOB and its clutch is nearly burned up (first stick shift iv drivin, and it took some time for me to get used to it) And it has a Salvage title. not to mention the heater cores plugged up and its suppose to be my winter car?! Its over an 8 hour job to pull the dash, im not into doing that

 

My SUbaru, iv put

100$ to buy it

70$ worth of parts to get it running)

andother 40$ to stop coolant leaks

Anoter 100$ for a muffler

100$ for a radiator

80$ for an Alternator

13$ for a new plug for the CTS

$9.50 for that chrome tip, lol

 

But i really have to admit, im glad to buy parts for this thing, and not that mazda, parts are WAY WAY cheaper and always in stock for the Subaru.

I guess once i fix enough stuff there will be nothing left to break! :D

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You need to learn to spend your money more wisely. You live in WA, and that means you have access to junk yards FULL of part. $100 for a muffler is just stupid - you can get them on ebay for $20, and my last one came from my local yard for $6 and appears to have been recently replaced (shiny, no rust, etc).

 

Same goes for the alternator, CTS, ect. With all the soobs in the yards here in the NW, it's almost a sure bet that I can find recently replaced "maintenance" parts for anything I need. People like you spend their way into a hole and then give up and send them to the yards where I reap all the benifits - buying your $80 alternator for $15, someone else's new water pump for $5, and some other guy's muffler and tip for $6. It's pretty obvious when the engine has 200,000 miles of grease on it, and a shiny water pump with brand new RTV. :rolleyes:

 

Only thing on there I would have bought would probably be the radiator and if anything I would have spent MORE on a double row, monster unit. Turbo's don't like the heat.

 

I've owned 2 EA82T's, and likely I'll never have another unless someone gives me one for free.

 

GD

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GD speaks truth. JY's are your best friend. you will find things you didn't even know you needed. example of this: i'm picking up a set of rear discs for my wagon next weekend for $60.00 and they are in beautiful condition. happened to come across a matching '84 wagon like mine while ratting around. now i don't need them but i'll be claiming the perfect tail,side marker,and signal lights off of it. not cause i need them but i like having spares of those. glass is perfect (except windshield) may get glass too if price is right. point is spending a little time in a jy will save you a lot of $$. luck to ya.

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my local You pull yard had TONS of EA81 and EA82 Subarus, many with engines, he crushed ALL but 3 EA82s (2 with out engines, and one with a blow SPFI engine, beat up rusty, body parts gone, windows all left down ect..) and 1 EA81(really nice Green wagon, tan interior, a/c power windows and power locks)....right before i bought mine. The other place has 1 wagon, and the OTHER year, wich is like 45 minutes from here has a bunch of subarus, but wants unbeliviably high prices for stuff and wont bargin down, they want 80 for a gauge cluster, 85 for a beat up, old, 1 row radiator, and crap like that its rediculous, i dont go there. Where i am, there arnt many junkyards, and i cant travels a hundred miles because my mom doest really trust my car going long distances, and im only 16 and she doesnt want me leaving far untill i have more driving experience

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At 16, have you considered that you probably should just get a halfway decent newer car and enojoy being young and able to go out, get to work, and have fun without wrenching on someone's 20 year old, aneamic, problem child of a turbo car?

 

You should buy a lightly used legacy wagon, make a small car payment, build your credit and go look for some hot chicks to fill the cargo area with.

 

GD

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Ha i actually have 3 cars, and im 16

 

I have My First one, 1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand Prix, 3.1L Turbocharged Intercooled V6 with 72 thousdand original miles on it, leather, power everything, sunroof, the works, but i had an accedent in it (wich is fixed now, its a my summer car), and needed a car quick, so i got my Mazda 323, then i gave up on it witht he clutch, crankshaft keyway and oil burning. So i got this little beater car. I love fixing cars, im going to school to be a mechanic whe ni get out of highschool, and love 80's cars for some reason. And the kicker is all 3 of my cars are bright red, lol i love em all tho, and iv paid for them all myself.

 

 

1132.jpg

 

mazda2.jpg

 

RX.jpg

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Assuming you have a front wheel drive car, when the boots rip the axle grease will spill out and onto the catalytic convertor, which is hot, and causes an odd smell to happen. If that is the problem you'll probably see grease sprayed in little splats up above the cat against the firewall (is that what they call it?)

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hey you all started somewhere, right?! give him a break... he might be 16 but hes trying to learn! Im the same way, I payed for my car, (my parents didnt buy me anything) worked on it, fixed it... Drive it all the time, same thing just not a RX, GL-10T sedan, I ask 'dumb' questions like these all the time, and at times hate my car too! Like when I had to take off my intake just to tighten/repleace a few stripped and one broken bolts?! but never once have gotten a response as GD gave... But point is you all are not above him or any of that, just cuz you have no life and post in every thread on here.... Grow up, you do know (half way) what your talking about, and arent a few of you guys apart of the moderators?! what an example... If your not willing to help a guy out in need then dont post...

Isnt that what this board is about, our love for subarus and helping each other out? enough ranting....

 

pm you later prospeeder

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