Nissan - Sentra :: 2001 - Burning Plastic Smell From Catalytic Converter
May 3, 2012
Where do I start. I have a 2001 Nissan Sentra. 128,000 miles. In Aug. of last year, the engine detonated, so I had it replaced along with other parts. Shortly after that, I noticed a burning plastic smell coming from the car after driving it for a while. I confirmed that that the smell wasn't coming from a plastic bag. Fast forward to Dec 2011, my check engine light comes on. I go to Autozone, have the code read; it's the dreaded 420 code. I go to have it checked out, was told my cat went bad and probably because of the old engine and that the smell is probably coming from that.
The check engine light went off on Christmas day. Fast forward to last month, the light comes on again and I pony up the cash to have the cat replaced since inspection is coming up in June. Now, I had an engine diagnostic run right before I got the cat replaced and it came up fine. The cat was replaced on 4/20. Everything seemed fine. The burning plastic smell went a way, but lo and behold, it came back this week. I don't know what to do. I did a little search on the net and it seems that burning plastic smell indicates there is something going on with engine and possible misfire.
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I live in CA and recently my car passed the smog test, but failed inspection because the check engine light on the board was on. When the diagnostic test was done, it said there's a problem with the catalytic converter. It's so frustrating because the car's emissions are within limits. , I was thinking... Is there a way to get the catalytic converter to run cleaner without replacing it? If it can run long enough to pass the diagnostic test, my car could pass inspection.
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My 2003 Nissan Sentra was doing fine a few days ago until I started up a very steep hill and went into 1st gear. There was a burning smell for about 2 blocks so I shifted to 2nd gear. The smell went away. When I was in 1st gear it did not sound or feel like I was trying to go too fast for the gear. I just smelled the burning. Same hill in 2nd, no smell. How much should I worry?
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Minis are renowned for oil burning. They're replacing engine due to excessive oil burning. Are O2 sensors and Catalytic converters also effected, and should they replace them as well?
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I have a 2001 Pathfinder w/ ~190K mile on it. It has been used regularly until this past winter. It has been sitting for about 3.5 months and I'm just now getting it back on the road. The battery has been draining due to non-use but I charge it and the car will start. Today I started it and after running for about 2 minutes the engine quit. When I got in the car I noticed the strong smell of electrical burning but no smoke. I did not notice this outside of the car. Upon trying to restart the car the engine just cranks with no sign of trying to start (as if there's no spark). I suspect something (probably electrical) has failed while it was idling but what it could be.
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My 2000 Nissan Maxima has a PO430 code for the catalytic converter that has been going on and off for over 1 year now. My ? is, how would I know that the converter needs replacing? Someone said there wouldn't be any smell necessarily, someone else said I would be leaking qts. of oil in between changes and someone else said it would get bad mileage. Each one debunks the others comments etc. Also just for info., this car had the ses light come on at 57K miles, my brother replaced 2 of the O2 sensors and I replaced 2 also, one duplicate one and a mass air flow as well.
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I've been having issues with my car, i took it to Orielly's & they ran diagnostics, one of the codes said a recommended fix was replace the MAF sensor. Today I took it by an auto shop for them to look at, and the guy said it was my catalytic converter, and I mentioned the MAF sensor, he said fixing the CC would take care of the MAF sensor malfunction. So I have a couple questions...
1. Is what he said correct?
2. If you have a bad CC, does it ever NOT smell bad?
Bc I've never smelled anything other than stinky exhaust, never any rotten egg smell.
It's a 98 Nissan Maxima, 6 cyl. it has 265K miles.
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Having issue with snap, crackle, pop noises from all the cheap plastic in the dash of their Nissan Sentra? It seems to occur most when the cabin temperature is between 40 & 60 degrees. If you have had the problem, have you figured out a fix? The dealer just says "they all do that".
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So I have a 2003 Nissan Sentra which was given to me by my family and it's main issue is how much oil it is burning constantly. I find the car to be a lot more safer and reliable than my previous vehicle a 98' ford taurus. I have my 1 year old son with me daily so his safety is my #1 concern especially when we are in the car so whatever I must do to fix this issue, I am ready though I am hoping to not have to replace the engine. The car is currently at 176,653 miles as of right now. I have done a lot of research on this issue in these past months and this is what 'lve come up with.
I have seen a lot of blogs regarding similar issues that their nissan sentra was burning massive amounts of oil due to the manufacturer's precat. It has been said to relieve the vehicle from its oil burning issue to change the precat to a header so one of my questions is would you find that to be the most reasonable answer, to change the precat to a header?? I was told the precat in my car had been changed previously so I inspected the car myself due to finding the mechanic had replaced the precat with another precat thus making no change to the issue at hand. I am getting really tired of feeding my engine oil when it just guzzles it down in a day or two. Here are some questions i have:
Would changing the precat to a header be the most reasonable solution to ridding this oil burning problem?? (if thats the case this would really relieve me over the stress i endure from this car)
I currently use SAE 10W 40 High Mileage engine oil; the owner manual says to use A) SAE 5W-30 viscosity oil for all temperatures & B) SAE 10W-30 or SAE 10W-40 if the ambient temperature is above 0*F so after using choice B, would changing now to SAE 5W-30 be a good idea?
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Can a piece inside the HID be replaced. I noticed that my bulb was coming loose because every now and then the light would stop working.
I'd open the hood tighten it and all would be good for weeks sometimes months. Today it stopped and I opened it and this time it had a burning plastic smell.
Can this piece be replaced?
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After driving about 60kms yesterday for the first time and driving pretty cautiously to break the car in i noticed a pretty strong burning plastic like smell in our garage.
This is only my 3rd brand new car and i don't remember the other 2 having this smell..
does hyundai coat their new cars with Cosmoline? or another protective coating that burns off and takes a bit to go away?
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My car smells like some plastic part is burning inside. The heat works just fine but for some reason i am getting this horrible smell. How to get to air filter of the fan.
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I have a 2007 Sonata V6 with 198,000km (123,000 miles) and when I was driving yesterday I smelt a burning smell like burning rubber or plastic. The smell seemed to go away after a while and I was wondering what could have caused it?
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1991 Buick Regal. I'm driving at night a few days ago and all of a sudden the lights on the instrument panel go out. The headlights are still on and the radio is still playing.
So I click the headlights on and off and the instrument panel lights come back on. The next night this happens again. This time I just give the headlight switch a little jiggle and they come back on. Tonight they go out again, jiggle the switch and they come back on. They go right back out. Jiggle the switch again and they're on.
I drive for another five minutes and now I smell plastic burning; it's the typical electrical/wire short smell. I turned the interior lights on and there was no visible smoke.
I'm going to try and pull the dash tomorrow and see what's going on in there, but they want $400 for an OEM replacement switch! I found some used ones online, but I'd have to get them mailed from a junk yard for about $50 bucks.
So I'm wondering, is there a easy/cheap way to rig a headlight switch in the interim so I don't have a fire in this thing? I don't understand why a headlight switch has so many prongs on the connector.
The only caveat is that the guy who had this car before me rigged the ignition through the headlights (I was told as some kind of security feature?) so that the car will not crank unless the headlights are on. Maybe/hopefully some shoddy wiring on that is just causing an arc.
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After battling the general nitwit public earlier. I was on my way home and as I neared my house, a party bus was blocking the road. Well, I got angry, shifted to reverse, revved the engine while letting out the clutch to back up and take a different route. Then this horrible burning electric/plastic smell inundated the inside of my R. I knew I rode that clutch while backing up. My question is did I do noticeable damage my clutch, or is it one of those: it'll be fine just don't do it again thing?
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My exhaust on my 01 was rattling. It was coming from the catalytic converter, I assumed it was the heat shield. Put it up on the lift and lo and behold it was something in the cat that was rattling. I was popping a code for the cat anyways so figured I'd just swap it out. Fast forward to tonight. I get the car back up on the lift and I wiggle the cat but no rattling? I go farther back to the first muffler/resonator now it's rattling. It's not a hanger or a heat shield or metal to metal on the outside, there is obviously something of substantial mass inside of it I can almost feel where it is by wiggling around. I chose to wait and cut the exhaust up a different night because I plan on taking that section out as well now, hoping to get out whatever is rattling. If not I'll just have some spare pipe on hand to replace it.
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I'm getting smoke from the catalytic converter area on my 2001 Subaru Forester. The smoke smells of rubber or oil. I've only noticed it after the car has been driven up a long, steep incline of at least a couple of miles. I've never seen it happen after normal highway driving. The car runs fine, gas mileage is good, CE light is not on, 85K miles, regularly serviced.
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Car is a 2001 MK4 Jetta with 2.0 Auto Tranny and 120k miles, stock exhaust
A little over a year ago I was getting a cel and the code that was being thrown was a DTC 16804. I changed the cat and both o2 sensors and the light went away for almost a year. The other day I was driving and the light came on again. Scanned the car and its the same 16804 code. I replaced the front o2 sensor thinking it was bank 1 but it didn't solve the problem. I clear the code and it comes back the next day. I'm finding it hard to believe that the cat is bad after only a year. I checked for vacuum leaks, faulty MAF and nothing under the hood looks out of whack. My mission is up next month and the car won't pass with this code.
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2000 Nissan Sentra with 105,000 miles. Runs great. All scheduled maintenance from the beginning. Grandma owned until I got a hold of it 2 years ago.
The beginning...
The car has had a slight exhaust-type smell for about a month. I thought it was either an exhaust leak or a small oil leak. I overlooked this as it was running great and I only drive to and from work at a total of 5 miles/day. I was going to be driving it about 20 miles so I figured I should just double check the oil.
Before my drive, I checked the oil and the dipstick said I had absolutely no oil. Backstory: I got my oil changed about 2 months ago and they broke the dipstick. They replaced it with a new one. I drove a few blocks to get oil. I purchased 2 quarts filled it up. I drove off and about a half a block later it started smoking bad. White smoke canvassing the whole street.
I turned around and went back to the auto parts store. I had a guy come out and look at it and he was baffled. The only thing he though was that it had run completely dry and it need more oil. We put 2 more quarts of oil in it (4 now) and it did not register at all on the dip-stick. A small oil leak was discovered coming from the head gasket (that was the smell). Also, there was no milkiness under the oil cap indicating
I decided to drive it back to work to leave it overnight. It smoked like hell and I made it about 4 blocks before it died. I pushed it the rest of the way and it stayed overnight.
The next day, I spoke to a mechanic friend. The only thing he could think of was that the dipstick was not the right size and it wasn’t reading any oil. The oil I put in was extra and the car was burning it off. He suggested I drain out all the oil and put 4 quarts in.
I drained all the oil but only 4 quarts came out. I added 3 quarts of oil and checked it again. Not it was reading about 10 times more oil than what I was supposed to have.
My mechanic friend said to start it up and the oil level should go down. I did start it up and the oil level did go down but it was reading about 5 times more oil than it should have. That is where I am at at this point. Hopefully it isn't a blown head gasket or piston.
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Last night I was driving in my 2003 jetta on the intersate at 65mph with the cruise control on. As I came into a turn I had to tap the brakes. As soon as I did the check engine light came on. The car was doing fine so I drove home from school. Today I drove the car to work which is a five minute drive, and back with no problem. I later went to grab lunch and bring it home and then I noticed the check engine light started flashing. I then felt the engine start to stutter, as if it was misfiring. We had the windshield defrost when we started to smell a rotten egg smell. Luckily we were pulling into our drive when we smelled the odor. I immediately turned off the car and got out. I couldn't smell the rotten egg smell, but I did smell burning plastic. I didn't see any smoke and could not pinpoint the cause of the smell.
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After hearing some loud noise coming from my exhaust system, it was determined that there is a hole (from rust) in part of the cat. assembly. Three shops advised for replacement, there are no aftermarket products for this unit. I have NOT gotten any error codes, the only problem is the noise. What to do? The car is 10 years old with 86000 miles. I have been reading about some of you getting just the one piece and having it welded on, but I do not believe any of the shops here will do that, and indicated that it would be a very temporary fix.
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