burning smell?

2000 Legacy GT wagon - 5speed

Hey, I have never had a subaru before, and it just recently snowed alot here, and so I have been driving around, and the AWD works great. However, I just noticed the other day when I am reversing, I smell a burned rubber smell. It only is there if the cabin is set to fresh outside air. When I drive for a while it goes away, but then when I reverse it comes back.

I think it first started doing it the other day when I was backing into my parking spot and I didn't give the car enough gas to get through the snow and it stalled rather hard. Could I have messed something up?

Reply to
CanonLaw
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You might want to check the front inner CV boots. If there is a tear then grease is thrown onto the exhaust and you get the smell. Just a thought. Ed

Reply to
Edward Hayes

Mine smells of burning something or other everytime I do any serious spinning in the snow. I have gotten used to it and attribute it to the differential doing its thing. I think the diff works by heating up the fluid due to speed differences until the fluid gets thicker. It might be the clutch too, because I think I smell it when I ride the clutch too much.

The Subaru needs a bit more gas than you might be used to on 2-wheel drive cars. Don't worry, it'll crawl through just about anything!

Chicobiker

2003 Outback Sport - 5spd
Reply to
Chicobiker

Reply to
CanonLaw

I had same type odor problem and it was leaky seal. Easy for me to see when I drove up on ramps I use for oil change and looked over top of exhaust system. Does not take much of a leak to get a lot of odor. Frank

Reply to
frank.logullo

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:09:58 -0500, frank.logullo wrote: which leaky seal? On my 05 Impreza Outback, I had this smell at first... it went away eventually. A couple of winters later, I was stuck in the snow and spun the wheels trying to get traction as we put salt under the wheels to melt the ice. The smell was then back for a month or two, tho not as bad as it was those first few months. Hasn't been back again in the past year.

Reply to
Dave Botsch

I cannot name the seal but it was not a cv joint. Dealer fixed under drive train warranty otherwise it would have cost less than $100. Smell was transient and I could not pin it down, since it smelled "burnt" and did not appear to be in engine compartment, that's when I put Forester on ramps and looked underneath. Seal was not leaking much but drips on exhaust were evident.

Frank

05 Impreza Outback, I had this smell at first...

Reply to
Frank

How would a smell get out of a sealed device? I've never smelled a differential working on any of the other vehicles I've owned. Some automatic tranny Subies have friction clutches for the rear drive, those can stink just like any other clutch. Maybe this is your smell?

Since the OP has a stick shift...

I had a burning smell from my manual shift '01 OBW twice, both times it was the clutch slipping. Both times it was under low speed, high load, high traction conditions, pulling a 1200 pound trailer up a steep incline. On the second occasion, the car filled with smoke, just like the TeeVee drag races.

The clutch burning smell is similar to a "burning rubber / burning brake" smell. My clutch was a frequent complaint, slipping on cold mornings from 7k on (before I towed anything or loaded the car beyond two people!), and completely turned me off from my local dealer network. Once, I had a service manager in the car while the RPMs shot up during an interstate highway hill climb at a steady ground speed. He claimed not to understand what I meant!

FWIW, If the OBW had a low range in the gears, I think the clutch would not have slipped, but since the wheels couldn't...

i sold the car 2 years ago, with 39k, so I don't know how long the clutch will last.

Reply to
B A R R Y

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