Whenever I punch the throttle and the engine is around 5-6k, there's a burning smell that comes from the vents. Any idea what this could be?

 

im having this same problem and i jus cant figure it out. mine smells like hot metal. what kina smell do you have...like a burning ruber or burning fluid type smell?????]

check back a couple days and try to find the post that i made. maybe about 4 days ago was the last post. check it to see if any of the suggestions they gave me may help you

 

Me too...I think my alternator is on the way out...it smells electrical.

 

i smell a hot metal kinda smell too under the same circumstances

 

im have the same problem

 

this happens but only at WOT at around 110+ then it kinda smells like a matchstick got lit behind the dash KINDA....similarity in smell..

It kinda stopped doing it tho...havent had that problem for about 4 months now...fixed itself?

 

you know what guys, i think i may know what my problem is. coming from work i floored it from 0 to about 80 and then let off down to highway speeds. sure enough i smelled the burning smell again, like hot metal. then when i got home i put the car in park and reved to about 6k and held it for about 10-12 seconds and i no longer smelled it, i tryed this 4 times and got outside also and smelled nothing.

im thinking it may be something with my tranny or drive line since ill get the smell in motion but not in park. can this be a possibility or am i just an idiot. i really need to figure this ish out. im getting nervous. btw the tranny & engine feels as strong as ever

 

wow! this is strange that everyone is having the problem. Im actually smelling it too. Smells like burnt metal like magikone said. My dad told me that they are oxygenating the gasoline now for the winter. Not sure what it does or why they do it but maybe this is the root of the problem? Maybe not...

 

Could it be metal rubbing on metal in the tranny area??

 

if its a rotten egg smell, then ur cat is gone

 

true, but also rotten egg smell could also be a acid leak or battery

 

its not a egg smell. Its more like metal. IDK how to explain it. Its very faint

 

yea its hard to explain the smell cause it sounds wierd lol. hot metal, the engine gets hot duh....but its different, i never smelled it in the past and it just concerns me. i hope it isnt my tranny. no rotten egg smell for me

 

well could the tranny smell? I know mine is going, i just dont know when..

 

Does it smell like fumes emitting due to friction of some sort? It's not a very distinct smell but you can tell when it does. My friend's Camry does the same thing after he enters the freeway at WOT. His car has 120k+ miles. This might be clutch related. It reminds me of a similar smell when after a burnout or power shifting.

 

my engine bay smells like that too after a couple DYNO runs..... i think it's normal if the car is under heavy load

 

maybe a sudden increase in temperature is the reason for the smell? cause im sure when im just cruising and i instantly floor it the engine temperature surely has to rise.

 

Okay, so I'm not the only one with this smell too. I think it's normal then. Maybe the exhaust cant get the gases out fast enough and it gets into the cabin? I doubt it's the tranny. I've got a lead foot but my tranny oil is not burnt.

I dont really mind the smell.

 

yeah, and the list goes on and on and on.
i had the same smell two monthes ago, and i happened to burn the clutch and the flywheel. the tranny won't grab anymore, so i have replaced them with some spec stage 2+stillen flywheel. the smell was gone, but now it seems like I f-ed up my synchros. at the very first gear, it grinds and clings if i rev the rpm too high. then after that it seems to shift normal. dunno how long it will last.

 

Mine does it too BUT mine does it when i leave the car idiling. When i drive it goes away, but when i run into the store or something and the heat is on i get the smell bad and i could swear i see smoke in the car. As soon as i start to drive it goes away. My heater fan makes a racket [like everyone elses] and i think it gets bound up when the car is idiling [just a guess] i will wait till the spring to diagnosi, hopefully the whole car doesn't go up in flames before that.

 

Mine used to smell like metal on metal giving that friction smell, i just gave my car a oil hange changed trans fluid and sterring fluid and greased up just about everything that can be greesed and the smell whent away.

 

wtf could it be?

 

seens like its a common problem. I hope its not the clutch. Ive been driving my car easy since i got the clutch in. It smells faintly like clutch but i dont think it is. It also mas been raining a lot. Could it be related to that?

 

Speaking of rain, we get flash floods out here and I never got that smell when driving over flooded streets.

 

Interesting. I get fumes too but I thought my SC was causing it. My fumes smell like unburnted hydrocarbons or something.

 

i've had that same smell for ages, ever since the car was relatively new, back in early 98. It always seems to be there after a WOT run from 40-80mph (freeway onramps). I haven't smelled it quite as much lately, but I guess that's because I don't driven as aggressively as I did in the past.

 

I read something very interesting from this forum. (I know its a Ford source). Maybe this might shed some light. Interestingly, I remembered smelling the same type of fume in my car a long time ago but it wasn't so bad that I didn't really bother. One day, while replacing an EGR component in my car, I decided to replace all vacuum tubes in the system (took several hours). Also changed the PCV valve while I was at it since my engine has over 115k at the time and I'm pretty sure the PCV is pretty clogged which can contribute to carbon build-up in the piston rings. Anyhow, since then the smell never came back but of course I was trying to fix another issue totally unrelated. Just throwing out some ideas.

Anyhow, when was the last time y'all changed the PCV's in your car? Also, vacuum hoses tend to like to split in time especially in high mileage engines when they tend to be brittle and are no longer air tight.

 

how many ppl got this smell AFTER switching over to syn oil???

 

I switched to syn 4k miles ago, no smell. Although I know that it has some type of detergent or something in it that does something to introduces leaks thru the engine. Perhaps the detergent in the oil eliminates build-up inside the engine which plugged up a leaking seal prior.

 

I am inclined to think that the air vent (which is always open unless you are running recirc) could be pulling some fume in from the engine bay or air cirulating from the cat. I have never smelled what you have described at WOT. Interesting phenomenon...

 

The same thing happens to me, but it seems as if it only occurs when I accelerate from 0-80 WOT.

 

i changed my pcv about 10 months ago, i do have syn oil (2nd oil change using it), and i do think im going to look into the hoses. last i checked everything seemed pretty good. i did have a hose changed about 2 years ago cause there was a big crack in it and it was hissing. ill look over all the hoses to see if there is no problem.