February 10, 20215 yr its a 2001 outback. today on the way home i noticed an odd rubber like burning smell first smelled it about 10 min after leaving work but it went away and figured it was something i passed by or was following but then about 2 miles from home the smell came back and got stronger. not really sure what it could be i could not find any warm wires no smoke anywhere exhaust smelled normal but the car was definitely making a burning rubber like smell. any ideas what it could have been?
February 10, 20215 yr Check the charge cable pole on the alternator. Mine was lose and things smelt hottish - on my volt metre it wasn’t charging properly either. The nut was beyond finger tight but the charge wire could be wiggled easily. Cheers Bennie
February 10, 20215 yr Author just started it smell came back almost instantly alternator cable is tight. i do have an alternator belt that squeels for a moment when first started but it stops squeeling within 5 or so seconds could it be belt im smelling?
February 10, 20215 yr Author The smell went away after few min must have been left over from last night. It was on and off for the drive to work. Still not seeing any obvious source
February 10, 20215 yr check cv boots? splashing that grease onto exhaust is a peculiar smell. I once snagged a plastic shopping bag on the exhaust and it took a while for that to burn off and the smell to go away.
February 10, 20215 yr Author Axles are not leaking grease the car has 0 oil leaks i had the engine out last year and did all gaskets under side of the car is dry minus a weeping transmission. The smell was non existant driving home until i stopped at a store. Headlights were not on before store when i left i turned the lights on and immediately started smelling it
February 11, 20215 yr I once had Toyota that started smelling of burnt rubber - just before the timing belt broke.
February 11, 20215 yr Author 3 hours ago, 1 Lucky Texan said: I once had Toyota that started smelling of burnt rubber - just before the timing belt broke. the timing belt pulleys and pump are a year old. i could pull a cover to look at it in the morning
February 11, 20215 yr 8 hours ago, sirtokesalot said: Axles are not leaking grease the car has 0 oil leaks i had the engine out last year and did all gaskets under side of the car is dry minus a weeping transmission. The smell was non existant driving home until i stopped at a store. Headlights were not on before store when i left i turned the lights on and immediately started smelling it have you checked the headlight bulb connectors? have come across a couple "melted" ones over the years.
February 11, 20215 yr Given the OPs name could the smell be caused by something unrelated to the car? Until you find it you may want to carry a fire extinguisher with you and don't park it in the garage in case it goes up.
February 11, 20215 yr Author i actually have checked the headlight connectors the first night wiring was cool to touch no melting at the headlights. timing belt looks good i changed the alternator belt and well see if that makes a difference today the old one was a bit stretched Edited February 11, 20215 yr by sirtokesalot
February 11, 20215 yr maybe use a white grease pencil or some liquid paper and make a mark across the crank pulley. maybe it is delaminating?
February 12, 20215 yr 13 hours ago, sirtokesalot said: i changed the alternator belt You might have fixed it with the new belt. You said the belt squealed on start up and then when you turned the headlights on the smell came back. Both of those cause the alternator to charge and put a load on the belt. A lot of times I use a small wire brush and clean out the grooves in the pulleys with the engine at an idle. Be careful.
February 12, 20215 yr Author i think it was the belt. i did not notice the smell yesterday during the 2 hours of driving with every electronic on i could turn on.
March 19, 20215 yr This has been a persistent problem with my '99 OBW for years. Every time I stopped and got out (after driving for a while) I'd get hit with that burning rubber smell. Couldn't figure it out, drove me nuts. Eventually I sussed that it was a leaky PS reservoir/pump that was pooling some fluid on the top of the block. Once the block heated, it'd begin to smell.
March 19, 20215 yr success - good! Wow - wonder how many missed or delayed diagnosis I've had since I can't smell anything. On 2/11/2021 at 6:26 AM, mdconvert said: Given the OPs name could the smell be caused by something unrelated to the car? Until you find it you may want to carry a fire extinguisher with you and don't park it in the garage in case it goes up. post of the year!
March 24, 20215 yr Author interesting thing i found out on this. the smell hadent stopped because i changed the belt. the smell stopped because the thing that was burning up finished burning up. i found both my fog lights not working a while after i changed the belt and when i dug into it the entire hid setup i had self destructed from the wires burning off of the bulbs and both ballasts being melted in the centers. i picked at the burnt rubber around the bulbs and it released the same exact smell i had been smelling.
March 26, 20215 yr On 3/24/2021 at 8:22 AM, sirtokesalot said: interesting thing i found out on this. the smell hadent stopped because i changed the belt. the smell stopped because the thing that was burning up finished burning up. i found both my fog lights not working a while after i changed the belt and when i dug into it the entire hid setup i had self destructed from the wires burning off of the bulbs and both ballasts being melted in the centers. i picked at the burnt rubber around the bulbs and it released the same exact smell i had been smelling. ok, so i wasn't too far off with the headlight guess, LOL.. just needed to look further down
September 7, 20214 yr On 3/18/2021 at 11:04 PM, jonathan909 said: This has been a persistent problem with my '99 OBW for years. Every time I stopped and got out (after driving for a while) I'd get hit with that burning rubber smell. Couldn't figure it out, drove me nuts. Eventually I sussed that it was a leaky PS reservoir/pump that was pooling some fluid on the top of the block. Once the block heated, it'd begin to smell. I had this issue as well leaking out of the rack / pinion seals as it dripped when I was driving the wind pushed it back onto the exhaust. I just used to Power steering stop leak and it immediately fixed the problem.
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