I get a burning rubber smell, but only very rarely, usually only when driving through a hilly neighborhood. What could be causing this?
Nothing under the hood is smoking/catching fire. I just changed my air hose last month, no change. Noticed the burning rubber smell maybe a year ago, but like I said, it's mostly from driving in a hilly area - I live in the flatlands.
New brakes give off a distictive smell, same as a new clutch would (different, but distictive)
Check the gasket that's at the rear of the hood just before the windshield. If this is bad you can get underhood smells into the air intake then into cab. davidj92
These type of incidents in anolder vehicle are not uncommon. Basically, once you start driving in hilly country you are using more throttle and brakes and the engine is providing more horse-power. This in turn causes temperatures to rise virtually everywhere ie engine-oil, coolant, exhaust-system, the engine itself, tires, brakes and so on. Any one of these will start to smell if there is a build-up of oil, grease or even plastic road-rubbish stuck on the hot exhaust.
If the smell is that bad,..stop the car and see if you can localise where the odor is coming from.
As an aside, I had many years ago, a shitbox old Passat. I was descending down an extremely heavy incline and I had to use the brakes more,..a lot more than usual. The car was automatic (to make it worse) and had limited engine braking. Eventually, I had to pullover as the brakes were fading. When I got out, there was smoke coming from the front wheels. That was the hot brake-disks causing the caliper-piston dust-boots to smoulder.
That was an extreme account of the extra stresses and heat that occur during hilly driving,...what a bastard of a car that was :-)
Jason
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