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burnt smell in WRX?

Once or twice a week, I smell rubber burning from inside my 2002 wrx when windows shut and outside ventilation. Sometimes, the rubber burning smell is followed by electrical burning smell (I think electrical wires have a different odor than rubber). Usually I'm cruising on the freeway when this happens (did not gun the engine or anything). My clutch was replaced a year ago by the dealer under warranty (clutch judder).

Today the two smells were so strong, I was afraid there's going to be a melt down or car fire. But nothing happened. Ten minutes later I stopped the car and opened the hood. Did not see anything suspicious or smell anything.

This has been happening ever since I got the car new. Any ideas?

Reply to
peter
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Check for a split CV boot possibly throwing grease onto the exhaust.

Carl

1 Lucky Texan
Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Just as Carl suggests, a torn CV boot is a likely culprit. Oil leaks from the front of the engine can cause a stink as well. Failing this, DO NOT continue to operate your car until you find the cause; a car fire is no joke, and even a melted wiring harness is troublesome (read expensive) to repair. I'd start by taking as much of the dash apart as possible, while leaving the car drivable. Buy, borrow, or beg one of the infrared non-contact surface temperature thermometers (or even better, one of the IR "night scopes"), and start looking for the hot spot the next time you detect the burning smell. Keep going 'til you find it. In particular, check around the fuse box; several high current wiring feeds are present there. It may, or may not be useful, but I have the complete WRX service manual available on my server. Feel free to grab anything you want, but be warned; the files are large .pdf documents, and probably unsuitable for 56K modem action.

Happy hunting, and please do report back and let us know what you find.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

Checked CV boots -- nothing. Thanks for the manuals. I was hoping this is a common problem with a service bulletin. Guess not. I think the first order of business is to isolate whether the smell comes from inside or outside the firewall. Next time I smell the odor I will close the vent, open the window for a few seconds to clear the odor, then close the window. If the odor comes back, then it is from inside the car. If it doesn't, then I re-open the vent.

I think I'll also bring a fire extinguisher with me.

Is there any known report of WRX catching fire while running?

-peter

Reply to
peter

I had smell problem in my '98 Forester. I change my own oil so I just drove on ramps, crawled under car, and looked at exhaust where I found a wheel seal leak. Was fixed under drive train warranty. Only takes a few drops of grease to pyrolize to bad smell and never thought there was danger of fire. But, do not rely on your nose to find problem.

Reply to
Frank Logullo

On mu Jeep, the burning smell came from a bad bearing on an idler pulley.

Al

Reply to
Al

I had a a 97 Probe GT awhile back. Very strong burning smell inside and outside the car. I would pop the hood, no smoke, thought maybe the clutch was burning. After reading posts on messages boards found out that the front o2 sensor going bad was a common problem with the Probe. Never had a CEL but the code was in there. The smell was most noticable after hard acceleration. I replaced it with a universal bosch o2 sensor and no more smell.

Reply to
Michael

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