Prius C :: Burning Smell After Harsh Acceleration?
Jul 24, 2012
I've had my c for about four months/2,000 miles. I have a short city-based commute, and I drive it fairly gingerly. Since I don't drive on the highway much, it very rarely even goes into the power zone on the HSI.
This past weekend my boyfriend and I took my car to the Oregon Coast to go camping. He drove, and although he has a heavier foot than I, it's just kind of a tough drive for the little engine (though not something that it can't handle).
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Car Details : 2004 Mazda 6 V6 3.0 L engine automatic transmission with 88,000 miles
Car Problem Vignette : After driving for a bit, say 20-30 mins (after my engine gets hot), I start to smell a burning oil smell. I’ve looked under the hood at my engine and do notice some oil leaking from the engine. This is not just some simple oil leaking after an oil change. The oil appears to be coming out of the engine "seams" itself. This has persisted for some time now. This problem started at least a year and a half ago now (12/05/12). I’ve had a mechanic take a look at the oil leak and supposedly he fixed the head gasket or valve cover gasket (I’m not sure which one), but the problem never fully resolved.
In a related or unrelated situation (I’m not sure yet if it is related) during this time my car started to jerk and sputter when I drove, so much so that I wasn’t sure it was going to make it to work one morning. The check engine light came on and I eventually made it to work and back home that day. It gave me a code that said one of my cylinders was misfiring. I proceeded to change all of my spark plugs to no avail. I then changed out one of my ignition coils to the bad cylinder misfire. It fixed my problems with the stuttering and I could drive my car again without fear of stalling. However, I still smelled burning oil. Over time I eventually started to feel my car struggle to take off during acceleration which felt different from when my car seemed like it was going to jerk and sputter to a stall. During this time frame one day I was at a stop light and when I went to take off, a huge plume of bluish / white smoke came out the exhaust and I smoke-screened the people behind me. After that incident, I ended up changing my positive crankcase valve (PCV). After changing my PCV my car felt like brand-new again! I could not believe it! My car started accelerating smoothly and driving so much better. I felt like I had gotten the “Zoom Zoom” back for my Mazda.
Sadly this didn’t last long, maybe a month at the most. My car started struggling during acceleration again and I started smelling burning oil again. I have dealt with this for over a year now. My car still runs and gets me around, but I can’t remember the last time that my car ran smoothly or didn’t smell like burning oil except for that time I changed the PCV. I have never seen any kind of smoke coming out of my exhaust again like that one experience.
Problems:
•Burning oil smell coming from my engine due to leaking oil coming out the "seams" of the engine
•Car is struggling when accelerating especially at lower gears
•I feel it every so often when I accelerate somewhere between 2nd and 3rd gear that the car jerks and makes this “chunk” type sound and feeling when it shifts gears.
Questions:What is wrong with my car? Are all these situations related? And what do I need to do to stop the oil leak and acceleration problem?
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Noticed a burning smell while driving in 2010 prius?
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I was driving on the highway, beside the concrete wall that divides the two directions. Suddenly, I saw a deer in the air, jumping from the other side of the wall. It landed on my windshield before I realized what was happening. The windshield smashed and the hood opened. I couldn't see a thing. I tried to hold the wheel and stop the car. Then I guess I hit the the concrete side wall and stopped. All the air bag discharged. I walked out unharmed, except a little bit disorientated.
The Prius was actually beeping. Then I powered off it. I smelled a strong smell of burning plastic. I looked the front, the coolant for ICE was ok. but the coolant for the hybrid system was gone. The window wash tank was fine but the right head light was gone.
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I've put almost 3K miles on my Prius C and there have been times when I've gone up a long hill that required spending a lot of time in the red POWER zone. For example climbing up into the Berkeley hills, but always on a less steep switchback route. Quite often by the time I get to the top I can smell something like a mild burning coming from the engine. I imagine this is a normal reaction from the motor to being used to get up a long hill, but it is unnerving anyway. It is noticeable inside the cabin also, but more pronounced over the hood.
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Today, when I returned to my parked car from grocery shopping, I noticed a strong interior electrical burning smell. Like wires burning or similar. When starting the car the yellow warning triangle came on and the hybrid warning message to pull over and park the car. What could cause this? Want to mentioned today was a very hot day 105. Up until today the car drove flawless.
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Last week I was driving our 2001 Prius, and I noticed a mild burning smell. I was in town, it was very faint, and I wasn't even sure it was coming from my car, so I headed for home and figured I'd check again there. Everything seemed fine until, going 60mph on the level highway, the engine died and the dash lights lit up. I was about to turn off the highway and begin descending toward my town, so I made the turn and coasted for the remaining 7 downhill miles until I got home (to avoid a giant towing bill) .
When I got home, I popped the hood and smelled the scent of burning electronics. The smell was strongest over to the right of the hybrid system, but it didn't seem to be coming from the hybrid system. The smell was definitely not as strong to the left side of the hybrid system. I checked the fuse box (fusible link box no. 1) and didn't find any fuses blown.
My dad (an electrical engineer) came over and checked it out. At first he thought a wire may have shorted under the hood, but we looked and couldn't find any melted insulation, char marks, or the like. I jacked the car up and looked from beneath; again, nothing. The smell did linger for a while though, and was quite noticeable even the next day after having the hood shut overnight.
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History: 2005 Prius has 130,000 miles and was rear ended in mid November (less than 2 months ago) on drivers side rear.
Yesterday my husband was driving at 65 MPH when all the lights on the dash all lit up for a second before the entire car died. The car was DEAD, wouldn't do anything except the lights worked (I'm assuming cause it's the starter battery). Ran hazards for approx an hour waiting on tow truck but the rear left light only flashed approx 1 in 10 times compared with the rear right light. Car had a terrible burned smell.
1.5 hours later the tow truck shows up and says "your car smells terrible". We towed it to Toyota Dealership.
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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.
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This morning I noticed a strong burning odor, like burning wax. It only seems to occur on high current regen events (eg coming off the freeway). It also happens to be raining, although I'm not sure if that's part of the issue or just a coincidence.
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117,000 miles, 1 previous corporate car owner, 30 day warrant. Bought 1 week ago, odor of burnt electrical. Seems to be stronger in the back inside.
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I just drove my Prius through 8-10 inches of heavy wet snow. The car did amazingly well. At times my traction control light was on when trying to get up an incline until the car got going. Then when I got home I stopped in my driveway for the garage door to open and started into the garage. The car was stuck, but then the light came on and the car climbed the driveway in about 10-15 seconds and made it in the garage. I then noticed a smell like burning tires. Maybe it was the tires from spinning. I hope that I didn't hurt my transmission or another component. Does the Prius protect itself if it is stuck and the traction control light is on from overheating something? I think I recall that the 2nd generation Prius would not allow for wheel spin to protect the traction battery.
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I had a very strong burning rubber smell coming from under my Prius tonight after climbing a moderate hill at 40kph/25mph for approximately 3 to 4 minutes. The car had been driven for about 50 minutes through regular traffic, outside temp was 7C/44F and I drove up to a scenic outlook. When I pulled into the parking lot, we put the passenger window down and the burning rubber smell was very strong.
I searched all around using a small flashlight and couldn't see anything touching the exhaust, but it's difficult to see anything under a Prius with it's low ground clearance. The burning rubber smell was strongest under the car, but was getting pulled into the HVAC system when we stopped. I have smelled it before, but passed it off as other vehicles. After tonight, i'm sure its coming from my car. I drove the car home for 50 minutes through stop and go city traffic, so the engine was not always running. After parking, I checked under the car again and the smell was very light almost non-existent.
I have 13000km/8000mi on the car, and I have had it for 11months. It has been driven in hills and very hot weather last summer, so I don't think this is paint burning off or the car getting hot for the first time.
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Sometimes you have to put pedal to the metal to pass slowpokes blocking 2 line roads (I'm talking city/suburb driving here). but, i noticed that the smell follows. first couple of times, i thought it was coming from some other car, but this time, I realized it was me.
No, it's not burning tire due to the insane acceleration (not in this car). What else could be? should i worry about the car bursting in flames?
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We have a 2007 Prius and have been very happy with it overall. The right rear tail light keeps burning out and we keep taking it back to the local Toyota dealer for replacement, but they have been very good about it. Though an annoyance, if that was the only problem we had I would not be here right now typing this.
Today my wife was driving and came to an intersection at a red light to make a right-hand turn. She braked coming into the turn and as she made the turn. What happened next scared her and is very concerning to us -
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Well - took my car into the shop today for the death lag, harsh shifting, and acceleration during braking. I've read much on this site about tranny flash and ECU flash, and was hopeful there was something available for my 2004 V8 (I just purchased it in late October, but was unsure what TSBs and campaigns had been applied before I bought it)...
In the end, dealer was able to replicate/experience the harshness problem, but was unable to come to a confident solution. My 86xxx VIN V8 Treg was not due/eligible for the much discussed tranny flash (my engine type was right, but the tranny flash was not listed for my car). In fact there were no recalls or campaigns due for my car, and there were no faults on the computer.
The dealer stated the cause as "Harsh shifting patterns". and fixed via "Reset TPS and TRANS". Essentially, I was told, let the adaptive driving feature relearn, and hopefully replace the previous harsh shifting pattern. My ride home from dealer was short, so not sure if there was any effect - but I'm not confident.
2004 V8 Silver Touareg [Nav system, Sound II, Bi-xenon, Convenience Package, Parking Assist] VIN 86xxx
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2011 Elantra with phantom harsh shifting problem. Yesterday the Elantra began surging and nearly stalling out on acceleration after about 20-25 minutes driving. I was barely able to drive the car home; when pulling into the garage, there was a strong smell of something hot. Temperature gauge indicated normal engine temp; no icons lit on the dash indicating a problem. Surging/nearly stalling and overheating problem and is it related to other Elantra engine, trans, fuel system-related problems? I can’t find anything specific while web surfing today for some clues!
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Any input on replacing the entire transmission valve body or just individual shift solenoids? My truck has begun experiencing a harsh shift from 1st to 2nd under light acceleration accompanied by occasional shift flare from 2nd to 3rd and 5th to 6th. I have located parts to do either job. It looks straight forward from just disconnecting the harness. I also understand there are different bands associated with the solenoids. Is there a requirement to have new transmission programming to accompany swapping these components?
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On the way into work today, I smelled a burning smell in my cabin. Got to work and opened the hood and it's very clearly something burning in the engine bay.
Coolant levels are good (even opened the coolant reservoir and it filled back up a bit, so it doesn't seem there's a coolant leak there), checked the dipstick and oil level seems good. MK6 GTI, just hit 21.5k miles. The only things I can think of are:
-Haven't replaced the cabin filter
-Intake may need to be cleaned? It's been on for about 10-12k and hasn't been cleaned yet.
Might also be just because my senses are heightened because of this, but the engine sounds louder than normal, specifically the lifters sound louder, but might just me being paranoid now. Been hearing about the headgasket possible 2.0 recall that's been bouncing around, so could it be that?
I want to take this to my car guy, but he's about 1.5-2 hours away, so I'm iffy on driving it that far.
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Three times in the past few months I have smelled something burning in my car. It only lasts for about 10-30 seconds. I've taken it into the shop to have checked with no results. One dealer told me I was smelling burning leaves caught in the manifold. It sure didn't smell like burning leaves to me though.
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So i had a burning oil smell for 2 years. I finally brought it to the shop and had the valve cover gasket changed as well as the chain tensioner gasket. I now have a constant burn smell. It cannot be burn off because when i open the hood i see it dripping on the cat. converter i just cannot see from where. I seems to be right behind the heat shield that covers the edge of the valvle cover. What else could be wrong here?
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