Burnin' rubber smell

[Novice_cardude]

This has been an issue for quite a while on my car, but because I haven't figured out what it is, I thought i'd throw it out there and let folks kick it around in their noodles.

Before I did my massive service last September or so, I had started smelling a burning whenever I came to a stop light with the driver's side window down. I assumed it was all the oil that was dripping down the back of the block, and some was burning off. After my service which included drive belts, timing belt, all new seals, VC gasket, distributor o-ring, etc etc etc., I smelled it, but imagined it more as a burning rubber smell. I loosened the drive belts, thinking I has tightened them too much, they had heated and cooked a bit. Still smelled it.

I figured it might just be new belt smell, or residual oil burning off, and went with it. It didn't get any better or any worse.

3,000 miles and a few road trips later, it was time to change the oil. This is when I replaced the motor mounts and the driver's side half-shaft as well. I finished that up pretty quickly, and decided to take off the timing covers, on the off-chance that my timing belt was rubbing something and burning off. It was perfect. All the seals I put in were dry. Yay for me.

I buttoned it up and drove it some more. It's been about 2,000 miles since then, or 5,000 miles from the original massive service. I still smell it. I've only recently decided to post about it because i'm moving. The garage in my rental house is finally clear so I can park in it. in the mornings or even after a few minutes of the car sitting in there with the garage door closed, the smell is intense and stifling.

I've tried popping the hood with the car running and looking for smoke, sniffing around everywhere, looking like some retarded animal, to no avail. With the hood shut you smell it, you pop the hood and sniff all around, and there's no trace. The timing cover has a subtle, almost sweet smell of new rubber, but nothing like burning. The strange thing is that it only smells when i've been driving, not if the engine has been sitting and running.

Yes, i've smelled the tires. They smell like rubber. With the hood shut the cowl area only faintly smells of burning rubber. I've looked at the underbody, there's nothing stuck to the exhaust and burning off. The hoses aren't hitting anything hot, the CV boots aren't rubbing on anything... I'm stumped! The only thing I can think of is the exhaust leak has gotten very bad, but i've never heard of an exhaust leak smelling like anything but ... exhaust. It's the flex pipe, and I plan to put a new one on in a couple more weeks. I guess I could see if that fixes it, but for now it's driving me nuts.

Any input on what to check would be great, even if it's something that seems stupid. Who knows?

A little detail, it's the 5sfe 5-spd '96 with 124.5k miles now.

Thanks!

[Mike Gerber]

Just a few random thoughts. You've been pretty thorough in your checks. Any chance it's the hood pad hanging down a bit and coming in contact with the pulleys or something else hot on the top of the engine? I would also inspect the entire exhaust system again looking for a plastic bag that's stuck on the top portion of a pipe where it's a bit harder to see. After that I would get some engine cleaner and really clean all that residual oil off from the previously leaks. They can really stay on the car if nor proeprly removed.

Mike

[KiDGiB]

You could try to pressure wash your motor. Have you checked your tires for signs of rubbing?

[Novice_cardude]

Thank you for the suggestions. Cleaning the motor is up there as far as priority. I did check for the hood liner hanging down, and it's not.

I will perform another full exhaust check to see if I missed something. One thing it could be is the leaky oil pan dripping oil onto the exhaust, but that should leave a blackish residue on the exhaust where it's hitting, and I didn't see that.

When I get my lazy ass around to resealing the oil pan and fixing the leak, i'll clean everything and see what happens.

I did after a while suspect the tires or something in the wheel well rubbing, because it only smells when the car's been rolling. I checked to make sure the tires aren't hitting anything, and they don't appear to be. My suspension is stock, if a bit old, and I didn't see any shiny spots where rubber's been hitting.

Thank you for the suggestions so far! I'll keep you guys updated, might even make a DIY for the oil pan reseal if nobody has yet.

[MyCamry01]

How is the smell going, I know this thread was almost 2 years old, I was wondering if you ever found the source of the smell.

I just did my timing belt, seals and Water Pump. Replaced Power steering belt as well as Alternator-A/C belt.
Now I am having the same issue, the rubber burning smell. I sniffed around after driving (when the engine still hot), nothing comes close to the rubber burning smell.

I did the Valve Cover and tube seals a month ago but the smell was not there until the timing belt job.

I googled around and found your thread with very similar problem, so I was wondering if your problem might be the same as mine which would save me time finding the source.

Thanks.

[zythr]

Originally Posted by MyCamry01

How is the smell going, I know this thread was almost 2 years old, I was wondering if you ever found the source of the smell.

I just did my timing belt, seals and Water Pump. Replaced Power steering belt as well as Alternator-A/C belt.
Now I am having the same issue, the rubber burning smell. I sniffed around after driving (when the engine still hot), nothing comes close to the rubber burning smell.

I did the Valve Cover and tube seals a month ago but the smell was not there until the timing belt job.

I googled around and found your thread with very similar problem, so I was wondering if your problem might be the same as mine which would save me time finding the source.

Thanks.

He probably sold it.

[Novice_cardude]

Nah, haven't sold the car. It's gonna take a wreck to get me to dump this car...

I believe I've tracked down the burning rubber smell. It has diminished significantly over the past ... year and a half or so, but it's still present. I figured I would just let it ride until something started making noise, broke, or caught on fire. None of those happened, but as I was doing a tire rotation and checking my front brake pads I smelled the rubber very strongly. Turns out the source of the smell is the driver's side outer CV boot. I did replace this half shaft not long after the timing belt job with an aftermarket shaft. The same part was designated for ABS and non-ABS for my car, so I got the part, and popped the excitor ring off the end of the shaft. I didn't think anything of it, but I did hear a rumor that the driver's side half shaft for ABS vs non-ABS is a different length. I could be running with a permanently preloaded joint which is causing excess friction, thus heat, thus hot rubber smell.

Like I say though, it's been 20k miles since I did that and nothing's gone wrong. Still waiting on something to give.

[93cr250]

yeah when you drive a camry you burn rubber without even realizing it lol jk, im not even sure i could if i tried

[MyCamry01]

Originally Posted by Novice_cardude

Nah, haven't sold the car. It's gonna take a wreck to get me to dump this car...

I believe I've tracked down the burning rubber smell. It has diminished significantly over the past ... year and a half or so, but it's still present. I figured I would just let it ride until something started making noise, broke, or caught on fire. None of those happened, but as I was doing a tire rotation and checking my front brake pads I smelled the rubber very strongly. Turns out the source of the smell is the driver's side outer CV boot. I did replace this half shaft not long after the timing belt job with an aftermarket shaft. The same part was designated for ABS and non-ABS for my car, so I got the part, and popped the excitor ring off the end of the shaft. I didn't think anything of it, but I did hear a rumor that the driver's side half shaft for ABS vs non-ABS is a different length. I could be running with a permanently preloaded joint which is causing excess friction, thus heat, thus hot rubber smell.

Like I say though, it's been 20k miles since I did that and nothing's gone wrong. Still waiting on something to give.

So you still couldn't really pinpoint the source, and suspected the CV boot. Well, I did smell around all my tires after driving the car, I could smell it a little bit from inside the car and the smell is pretty strong from outside the car.
My car has not had any CV boots job, they are still good and originals.

I have driven the car regularly in the past week and the smell seems to have weaken, but I still smell it and nothing from all the 4 tires.
I am going to just do what you are doing, wait until something obviously tells me its broken, in the meantime I will just ignore it.

Thanks a bunch for your reply!

[BMR]

Are you sure it smells like burning rubber?... not hot oil? It's very common for a valve cover gasket to leak and the oil drips down onto the exhaust manifold where it slowly smolders away. Usually not enough to make visible smoke, but enough to make a stench that's hard to pinpoint where it's coming from.

[Novice_cardude]

Could also be the distributor o-ring or the distributor itself. Usually hard to see that leak and it can work its way to the exhaust as well.

And yeah burning oil does smell very similar to burning rubber. I was second guessing my oil leak fixes for a while until I caught a whiff of the CV boot. You can crawl under there and check the exhaust pipe, if it has what looks like tar or a dark brown/black residue on the exhaust just at or after the flex pipe, you're most likely smelling burning oil.

[oopssorryy]

I thought my boiled anti freeze smelled like burning rubber/oil. That's why I didn't think to check the rad, and continually checked my oil and belts, right up until my rad blew. I might just be simple with a busted sniffer, but it's what I thought I smelled. Is your spare/overflow rad tank being emptied?

[MyCamry01]

Now that I have driven the car for about 2 weeks, I don't think the smell is still lingering.
I could still smell the new timing belt when I open the hood, it smells good !!!

The rubber burning smell might be because of the oil or something else, car is running great...

Thanks for the ideas everyone!