Burning plastic smell??

[ThunderChunk]

Alright, I'm not much of a mechanic but I'm pretty sure when you smell a burning plastic or rubbery smell its bad. I checked the belts under the hood and they looked fine (no fraying) and when I popped the hood i didn't really smell it coming from there, it smells strongest on the sides of the car. So, any ideas? I imagine it could be lots of things but whatever you think is a common cause would help out if its a diy. Thanks a lot.

 

[JPB-Pro5]

Could be brakes, some times they smell like that. stuck caliper or you left you e-brake on a little! Next time it happens smell near the brakes and see. Or may be as simple as a plastic bay got stuck on the exhaust, look under the car. Hope you find out what it is!

 

[arcane73]

sounds exactly like what i noticed a couple of weeks ago...took a peek under the car and TADA!!!! a bag....not just some normal convenience store bag...some heavy duty 3mil thick bag that could have doubled as a parachute for a M1 Abrams....it took quite a bit of work to get it off...

 

[wcprotege]

For the last few months I've noticed the same smell coming from my P5. Now that it has warmed up here I'll have to look around the engine bay.

Have the noisy valvetrain thing going on too.

 

[pasadena_commut]

Alright, I'm not much of a mechanic but I'm pretty sure when you smell a burning plastic or rubbery smell its bad.

Not always. I saw a plastic grocery bag go under the car, and not come out the back. Checked when I got home to find what looked like vaseline, and smelled like hot wax, over about a foot of the exhaust just behind the motor. It has been a month and it still smells a little. Apparently it takes a long time for one of these to burn off. The smell is definitely stronger under the car than under the hood. If one of these bags melts to a brake it can be a problem though.

 

[Foolish]

Likewise, I have a burning plastic/wax smell coming from the MPV, I've had it for about a month. I also found the nearly-unrecognizable remains of a plastic grocery bag melted all over the catalytic converter. I scraped off what I could, but it's been burning the rest off for weeks!

Here are a few steps to try, that will help you isolate where the problem may be coming from:

Do you smell it immediately when you start the car, or does it take a while? If it's a mechanical problem, as in something rubbing, you might smell it right away. If it takes a while to stink, then it's something that heats up over time, such as exhaust.

Does it stink if you and let it sit and run it? If so, you can rule out rolling parts, such as brakes and wheel bearings. If it only stinks when you drive around, you can probably stop searching the exhaust and engine bay.

Have you done any recent electrical work? Any new stereo bits, etc.?

Just a few ideas.

Good luck. Weird smells are always unnerving.

Edit: Just read this:

it smells strongest on the sides of the car.

I'd take a long, hard look at the exhaust system, especially the catalytic converter, and see if there's anything stuck to that. The cat gets very hot, so it's easy to melt things onto, also, it's about mid-car, so the "location" of the smell is about right.