Any thoughts would be appreciated -
My Maxima has developed a burning smell through the heater vents when it comes to a stop after highway driving for 20 minutes.
It has had a minor oil leak from the rocker cover gasket since before I bought the car 2 years ago, which doesn't appear to have become any worse.
It may well be the oil leak causing it but at the moment I really can't afford to spend a day replacing the gasket only to find that wasn't the problem.
Opening up the hood and sniffing around didn't give me any clues, it just smells like a warm engine with nothing more than a very mild smell of hot grease and oil.
Any suggestions of what else could be the cause?
Thanks,
Jon

 

http://forums.maxima.org/infiniti-i3...d-driving.html

 

No, not hard-driving just a fairly steady freeway speed 65-70mph.

 

Check oil asap

 

Don't forget to check the boots on the front axles. I once had a similar smell on a cross country trip and couldn't figure it out. The smell eventually went away and then about 1000 miles later the transmission did too ... costly mistake. One of the boots had split and drained all the transmission oil which landed on the exhaust manifold, thus the smell, but no obvious leaks.

Live long, and prosper

 

Shot in the dark but you have a manual tranny maybe your clutch hydraulic fluid is low, causing the clutch to rub and burn a tiny bit every shift?

 

Any smoke at all (sound like there won't be)? Use a torch - will be easier to spot. I've had a leaking high pressure power steering hose before, it I tracked it back to the oil getting onto one of the o2 sensors on the cat.

Either way, I'd guess the most likely spots are exhaust, cat, manifold, o2 sensors etc.

 

is the air filters stock?