I don't know much about cars. I have a 99 Mercedes e-320 and I started smelling a burning, but when I opened the hood, there wasn't any smoke. What could it be and is it still safe to drive?
View 7 RepliesI have a 2002 ford f350 triton 5.4 V8. I just put front brake pads on my truck today. Started driving around and i could smell burning brakes. Stopped and alot of smoke was coming from my brakes on my front passenger side but nothing from the front drivers side. Replaced all the brake pads on the front. What is making them so hot?
View 8 RepliesI recently noticed that my car was starting to smell like oil burning off. Soon i realized that from time to time there would be a bit of smoke form under the hood I looked under the car and noticed that oil is dripping onto the cat but i am not sure from where. There is not alot of room in the back of these engines to see.
View 3 RepliesTook about a 200 mile trip this weekend, stopped at a rest area about halfway through and smelled burnt carbon, smelled like a burnt clutch almost. It was very strong and there was smoke coming from the engine. It wasn't a lot but it was cause for concern. I checked the oil, last oil change about 1500 miles ago but no problems there, temp gauge was in the middle. Let the car sit for a 10 mins or so and then headed of again. When I got home that night, couldn't smell it and there was no smoke. Car has 42K ... Also, I got an airbag fault light about 30 mins from my house.
View 8 RepliesSo yesterday I was on my way home from work, and I had smelled a little burning and then I saw smoke from the steering column???? i pulled over and it had stopped no lights came up? the car is fine now..? I don't know whats going on?
View 4 RepliesSo I took off today and my friend behind me in his ford ranger was telling me my car smelled like ish, and there was a lof of black smoke coming out my exhaust.....
View 1 RepliesToday was the first day I notice smoke from the wheel well, it wasn't heavy smoke but enough to caught my eye. The past few days I been smelling burning oil from that side of the car. I am not leaking oil from the motor because I check it everyday. Why it would smell and be smoking from the wheel well?
View 3 RepliesI can smell burning oil and when stopped see oil smoke coming from the right front area. Theres absolutely no fluid on the ground ever even after sitting for days. I cant visually see any oil leak on the engine but I cant see the back. Im guessing its a valve cover leaking just enough on top of the exhaust on that side. Ive seen the gasket/plug seal set from $25 to $80. Some include the timing chain area gaskets/seals. Is that necessary to change at same time? Also, is there a gasket where the intake manifold and valve cover meet needing changed along with?
2004 Passat 2.8l V6 GLX
We have a 2015 Santa Fe Sport AWD (without turbo). It has about 4,200 miles on it. Recently my wife complained about a burning smell that she hadn't noticed previously.
I drove it and noticed the smell. Pulled into our garage and left the engine running and noticed a minor, but noticeable amount of smoke coming out from the hood on the passenger side. When I opened the hood it appeared the smoke was coming from the lower, back side of the engine.
I later went out and started the car and let it idle for a bit. Didn't notice any burning smell or smoke. Later drove it again and noticed the smell and a little smoke. So it seems like it occurs when the car has been driven rather than simply started and not driven.
2002 Santa Fe V6
Ran the AC yesterday for the first time after a long cold winter. Seemed fine for about 15 miles but then I came to a stop and all of the sudden smelled burning plastic/electrical... white smoke started blowing out of the vents. Pulled over, popped the hood. The smoke appeared to be coming from the passenger/rear side of the engine.
Drove it another 15 miles home (had to) but with no AC or even fan on... made it and noticed the smell and smoke but only very little.
This morning I started it up .. got under the hood and clearly can smell it coming from the same area. That is the alternator at the back of the engine passenger side right? Voltages read fine... seems to be charging ok as well.
The only indicator that it is going bad is of course the smell and smoke... I can feel it is getting very hot.. too hot to touch after only a few minutes running. Spun bearings in it maybe? Just thought I'd put that out there before I start tearing it apart.
Yesterday I made a 3 hour round trip with my car, and on the last leg coming back into town, I noticed my check engine light came on, and I saw white smoke coming from underneath the hood of my car, along with a burning smell. Luckily I was able to make it home just fine. I've googled this issue, some people have suggested coolant leak.
Also, I checked the oil levels today and they appeared to be slightly below the lowest level tick, which could be why it was having issues yesterday. Last time I got an oil change was November of 2015. I'm surprised it's this low considering I normally don't commute farther than a couple miles each day.
I have a 93 Aerostar RWD 4.0L that I was driving around town a few weeks ago and I noticed it wasn't braking that well. The pedal is usually firm but easy to push and very sensitive...instead it was a lot firmer and didn't brake as quickly when i put my foot down. The van itself felt a little under powered, like something was holding it back and I had to put my foot down a lot more to get it up to speed. After awhile I began getting a really bad burning smell coming in through the driver window. I pulled over and saw small faint lines of smoke coming out of the front driver side wheel well, upon closer inspection I got a good wiff of burnt brake pad (I am familiar with the scent) and the hub cap on the wheel was really hot. I automatically assumed the caliper was ceased.
Later when I had free time took the wheel off removed the caliper from the wheel and everything looked fine. I was able to push the piston back in with ease using a C-clamp, but there was a lot of corrosion in and around the piston, I wire brushed it off and greased and cleaned everything up. I took it out since then on a few short trips to the store, everything seemed fine. Today however it happened again, and I began smelling burnt brake pad from the same wheel well. It only seems to happen when I have been driving it for a long time like 30mins to 1hr, short trips everything is fine. Is this the caliper or the Master cylinder? Due to the excessive heat around the wheel hub should i maybe think about replacing the inner and outer wheel bearings as well?
I've got an 08 Gen II with 173k miles on it. The last few days of coming up the huge hill in front of our house I've noticed a burning smell, link burnt coolant.
So today I actually popped the hood to investigate and found a small tuff of smoke coming from the back of the engine.
After climbing underneath I found a leak of some sort of brown/cream fluid.. Kinda scary color. Anyways it seems when put a significant load on the car going up a hill it sprays this fluid on the exhaust, thus the burning smell..
Oil is clean on the stick and under the cap.
So I've always been aware of my slight oil leak on my 2003 Hyundai Accent. But it wasn't until I took it to Firestone for a discount oil change that it started getting worse and began to actually smell of burning oil while driving. I've checked the obvious places (ie the oil pan bolt and the newly installed oil filter) and I've determined it's definitely coming from higher up in the engine. Also, when putting cardboard underneath, you can see that it drips from right behind the engine. I figure it is probably that seal that costs but loads of money in labor to replace but when checking it today I noticed that the oil SEEMS to be in the top part of the engine dripping down. I'm attaching pictures of the one spot in particular that appears wet with oil. I'm not sure what it is but I believe it is next to the injectors.
View 53 RepliesOk, here's the situation... (Elantra GLS - Automatic)
I was at a 4-way stop sign. No other cars were around so I accelerated. Then suddenly, I hear and see a car coming at me REALLY fast, and well, I panicked. I floored the throttle (almost literally), and I heard something popping or maybe it was a farting sound... It happened so fast that I don't remember clearly...
Then behind me was a HUGE cloud of smoke behind me. I mean really, it covered up the whole street. It was 10 PM, so I couldn't really tell what color it was, but it seemed to be white... So I turned off my car. Checked the engine, no smoke from the engine. I started it up again, and instead to revving to about 2000 rpm at start up like it always does, it only went to about 1000, and more smoke was flushed out the exhaust.
I was close to home, and with no 24-hour mechanic shop around me, I drove home. As I drove home, I had quite a bit of smoke trail behind me which scared me through out the whole 2 minutes of driving. I got home, and I checked the exhaust again, but there was no more smoke. However, a burning smell lingered around the exhaust.
My mechanic cannot figure out what's wrong with my car My car is a manual trans 1996 Toyota Corolla with almost 154K miles. I had the oil changed two weeks ago (about 1000 miles with my commute), and at that time, I let my mechanic know that it's been losing oil and so check it over. At that time, he changed the oil, cleaned the engine, and added a dye to the oil to show up any leaks.
I took it in this past Thursday for him to locate the leaking, and the mechanic let me know that 1) It came in mostly dry (no oil), 2) there was no visible leaking except for a seepage around the oil pan, which he says could not account for the loss of 4 quarts of oil in two weeks, and 3) it's not burning it out in the exhaust system.
A bit of the history of the car. I got it when it was at 59K, used, and there were a number of things wrong with it that I didn't discover until later, such as that no maintenance had been done to it at all in the 60K someone else had owned it. It came to me needing a timing belt, brakes, and an engine and radiator flush (the radiator fluid was brown instead of green).
At one point at around 70K, as a stupid teenager, I did let it run dry. The oil light came on, I panicked, shut it off, dumped in two quarts (which brought it to full on the dipstick, which I thought was weird), and took it straight for an oil change, where they told me it was dry, which was odd, because I'd just put 2 quarts in it.
After that, there were no issues until it hit about 120K. At that point, I started smelling burning oil and there was smoke coming from under my hood, so I towed it to my mechanic at the time. He replaced the valve cover gasket, the rear main seal, and the head gasket (with engine block machining and all). That more or less cleared the problem up, but then I took it across the country on a 3K road trip, and it ended up accidentally running dry again. Oil light came on, I shut it off, dumped in oil, took it for a lube job.
Since that time, it's been occasionally throwing me an oil light when I go downhill (I figure that this is because it's low but not out, and the change in pitch reduces the pressure?). Each time it does this, I've shut it off, coasted to a stop, dumped in 2 quarts (which brings it to full on the stick), and gone on, berating myself. These times have become more frequent, however, even though I now check the oil regularly.
So before I endure the deserved lectures about being dumb, yes, I blame myself, but regardless of my lazy maintenance, it's becoming ridiculous. My car is now finding a way to lose a gallon of oil over the course of 1000 miles, with no discernible leak or consumption.
Also, why my oil light comes on when it's only 2 quarts down on the stick sometimes, and then sometimes goes almost dry without throwing the oil light? I just got it back with the oil topped up, more dye in the engine, and instead of going for 2 weeks, I'm going for 1 week to see if maybe he can catch it in the act of learning this magic trick of vanishing oil.
I purchased a Certified Pre-owned 2008 Lexus LS 460 in January 2011 with 29,000 miles. On April 2, 2011 I was parking my car and smelled wires burning and then saw smoke coming out of the hood. I immediately cut the engine, got my kids to safety and called 911. The firemen threw water on the engine and disconnected battery. It was towed to a local Lexus dealer and has been there since. They believe it was the starter, but the repairs as of yet are not complete. I submitted a claim with headquarters to give me my money back or a comparable vehicle. I am concerned about the safety of this vehicle and any residual chemicals and smoke that may remain with the vehicle.
View 12 RepliesI turned on my AC in my 94 ford f250 and it made a squealing noise then I started to smell smoke or more like electrical burning. I turned off the AC and the squealing and burning stopped. I found that the compressor was the problem and after pulling the pulley and clutch assembly off I found that the coil had melted or got really really hot and smelled lie it had burned. My pulley and surpentine belt were still spinning fine so what happened? My AC had worked fine a few weeks before this.
View 2 RepliesI just had my van inspected and tires rotated...van sits for a few days then travels 20 miles and am now smelling something burning and smoke is coming out from front right tire. Other discussions say calipers/pads and that's ok BUT my question is since my van only has @24,000 on it, did the mechanic do something when he rotated my tires? I am a senior citizen and only use my van once a week.
View 6 RepliesLast Saturday I was driving my 1999 Mercedes ML320 SUV (163,000 miles) on a highway in California (for about 70 miles) when suddenly I saw a huge cloud of smoke behind me but I didn’t hear any noise and didn’t notice any change in the car driving. I was not sure if it was my car or somebody else car. On Sunday I was driving on a city street and suddenly I saw the same smoke but not of that extent but with a rattle from the back side of the car. I quickly stopped on a side street and saw whitish/bluish smoke from the tailpipe. In a couple of minutes, the smoke disappeared and I drove the car back home. No more smoke since then. I checked the code and it showed P0700 (is there for a couple of months) and P0442 (new code). I called a couple of mechanics and one checked the car but none knows what caused the smoke. The mechanic said that P0442 is not the cause of the smoke. The engine oil is still good and to the max. A mechanic recently replaced the EGR valve. Can I drive the car or I might do more damage?
View 2 RepliesHaving burning oil smell coming from the V6. Took it to the dealership and they tole me it has an oil leak on the the header then it burns off. It seems to get much worse when the RPM's are some what high. Only 70,000 miles too. Guess its getting to stay that way for a while.
View 9 Replies