Strange smell from engine - after driving at high speed for extended period of time

A smell of burnt marshmallows/burnt sugar can indicate an issue with coolant.

But a 'nasty' smell can be CV joint grease, slung onto the exhaust, from a split boot.

Another nasty smell is burnt clutch. I suppose your RPMs were normal at cruising?

let us know what you find out.

I get that from my '89 GL...the trans has a 'breather' tube on it, and tranny fluid drips out of it...right onto on of the Cats! It makes a weird smell, for sure!

Sounds like my 2000 Forester. I've been told I have a leaking head gasket. I repeatedly have to add coolant and I smell the coolant. Maybe that's not your problem, but I"m afraid it's a possiblity.

If it is a head gasket issue, you can probably drive it for quite a while just making sure the coolant and oil is topped off. I've been quoted $2300 to fix it along with a timing belt change. ouch. If it's leaking on the exhaust side, it's possible it won't pass the environmental part of your state's inspection.

I found the cause of the smell:

A plastic grocery bag was melted onto the exhaust system under the car and I was dragging the bag around for a couple of days without realizing it, I got on my back to squeeze under the car and when I got it off I noticed the part that attached to the exhaust system was partly melted and the melting plastic was the cause of the smell.

I'm glad it was nothing more serious than that.

Glad to hear. Also other advice given was good as to what other problems might develop.

I had same problem on '03 Forester and complained to Subaru. No response from SOA or dealer after over a month. First, a year ago, they blamed water pump and replaced it and did timing belt at same time for $700. Then a year later it was head gasket for $1,400. This after only 40k miles.

ROFLMAO!!!!!

Well, at least you got some good advice out of it! ;)

For you HG guys, I used that Bar's Head Gasket repair successfully in my '89, but I had a leak on the INTAKE side. My '97 has a leak on the EXHAUST side...no luck there...but I did the repair three years and 15,000 miles ago, and it'a still not leaking.

If you try this FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER, and FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH! Coolant causes the gasket repair to congeal and mess up your cooling system. You want to flush it until the water runs clear, then fill the system using the HG repair, let it sit overnight, then FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH again until the water runs clear. Also, I bypassed the heater core to keep it from getting gummed up.