I had this burnt plastic smell coming from my air vents, and I paid no attention for about a week, with a loud belt squeel. Then I looked under my wheel well and I had a big white plastic bag that wrapped around my passenger axle and was burning from the exhaust pipe. I ripped the bag away but the belt squeel still there. Whenever I start the car, it squeels about 10 seconds and the idle is bad, then the squeel goes away and the idle smoothes out, so something with the squeel is messing up my cold start idle. I have since sprayed wd40 on the power steering and main serpentine belts and that took care of the squeel, but the initial crappy idle after startup is still there. I am wondering if some of the plastic melted onto a pulley or something but its too cold and snowy to really get under there to look. I also have the 00vi swap and 95 ecu. I have a 99 maxima.Any ideas? I know that with the 00vi swap some have rough starts, but the car worked better before the melted bad ordeal.

 

Replace the belts and never spray wd40 on anything rubber. Wd40 is petroleum based and will eat the rubber. The squealing was the belts slipping against the metel pullys, all the wd40 did was lube them so they don't make noise while slipping.

 

00vi, 95 ECU, WD40 on belts, I don't know where to start.
Maybe put the tools down?

 

Did you check for wire damage to the crankshaft sensor?

 

Crankshaft sensor wires are OK. My original 99 ecu went bad so since I had a 95 ecu laying around I used it and it works great, I read mixed reviews that wd40 would fix it and I sprayed it on at 5:40am and it quieted the noise enough so the squeal didnt wake neighbors up. I wanted to use some sort of rubber conditioner but the wd40 was handy so I used it. I just wanted a fast easy fix!! Also wanted to know why right after starting the engine my rpm needle stayed around 800 when it was squealing and had a rough idle, then when the squealing stopped after about 10-15 seconds the rpm went up to around 11-1200 and idle smooths out. Perhaps the squealing was indicating that the belts were binding up the engine? Beats me. After the initial startup it runs great though. I'll replace the belts and call it a job well done.

 

Low battery voltage causing week ignition. When your belts slip you replace or tighten them. Don't lube them so they slip more. Those belts charge your battery.