I noticed over the last two weeks maybe 5 times when I come to a stop - either waiting to make a turn or after pulling into my garage I noticed a strong burning smell.

It is not the common burning smells like brakes or clutch after a bit of hard driving - it smells more like electrical insulation or some fluid other than engine oil.

It almost stings your nose - but only slightly. It doesn't last long in the air - maybe 30 seconds or so and then it disipates - so I assume if it is something touching a hot surface it only touches it for a brief time, or if it is a fluid it isn't leaking continuously.

Every time this has happend it was after a pretty leisurly drive - wife and kids in the car. Also, each time I had the windows up and you could smell it in the car - so I would assume it is coming from the front and getting pulled in by the fan.

I have about 5,000 miles on the car now since I got it on June 30th 2005.

Does anyone have a similar experience with any strange burning smells?

thanks
Michael

 

Burning smell are you or have you been using the seat heaters if so it could be the wiring for them if you have not had the factory recall done on them. which intells removing the seat back and upgradeing the wireing or the actualheater elements.

 

no rear heated seats, I have front heated seats but I was not using them when I smelled the odor.

Does the defect you mention include front seat heaters when they are off?

thanks
Michael

 

I think the recall was only for the front seats - I don't think they re-wired my rear seats anyways. It should not be possible to have a short on the seat side of the switch if the switch is off so that's probably not your problem. Your dealer can tell you if the recall applies to your car and it would depend on build date but I had mine done in January 05 so presumably they wouldn't have built cars with the defective heaters after late 2004 sometime. I would take it in and tell the dealer to take a look to see if anything looks like it might be touching something hot - shouldn't be up to you to determine.

 

Have you tried to put you noice on the fron of a ventilation ovent to see if it comes from here? It may be a small leackage of coolant on a warm piece inside the engine and then the smell produced is trapped by the airco system...
Even when driving relaxed, the pressure in the coolant circuit is high and it may be that there is a small hole somewhere (eg a pipe junction which becomes loosy)

My advice when it occur,
Try to force the air recirculation to see if you avoid the smell in this case.
This will at least confirm it comes from the engine cage. Then you can let the engine running and open the front door to see if you can see a small white smoke which would confirm my theory.
If not, next step would be the dealer...

What I personnaly got sometimes is a very strong burning smell when I made long manoeuvers to park somewhere. It appear that in this case the Particule filter reacts in a strange way and the exhaust produces a light smoke and this strong smell.
The dealer told me it may occur and it is not an issue to have this...
Maybe someone here will actually tell me the contrary; hopefully not! :'(

Have a nice day

 

it's definitely not from the ventilation system - because I have smelled it from outside the car as well.

I dread having to take it to the dealer to tell me the standard answer for these types of issues (smells and noises) "customer states...", "could not reproduce"

If it happens more regularly I will spend the time to bring it in.

- Michael

 

What a flashback. It just turned cold down here. Another winter where there's a 50/50 chance I'll spontaneously (with a little seat heater help, of course) combust.