Car Smells Like Burning Rubber After Oil Change

Often when your car smells like burning rubber the cause may not be due to something related to your car but something external like a shopping bag getting stuck in your engine bay during one of your road trips.

Car smells like burning rubber after oil change.

You need to stop the engine and jack the car up. If you notice the smell not long after an oil change the leak might be caused by a loose drain plug or filter that wasn t properly attached or an oil cap that wasn t screwed on tightly enough. If it s from a leaky valve cover look for smoke coming from the exhaust. If it s from a leaky crankshaft expect to see oil on the pavement beneath your car.

It can signal a leaky radiator or hose or a leak in the. Many people find that a plastic bag stuck in the engine will create a burning smell. You cannot take this lightly at all because it could start a fire in the car. If your sniffer gets a whiff of a burning smell when you hit the brakes pay attention.

There are a few possible reasons your brakes smell like they re sizzling. Inspect the area around the oil fill cap for any oil that may have spilled when the technician added oil to the engine. Your brakes use friction to stop your moving vehicle and friction generates heat. As a temporary measure such as during along trips or when you can t get to your mechanic you can manually tighten the coupling surface on the gasket.

That may heat up and release the smell of burning rubber. Try avoiding driving over garbage to avoid this scenario. You can also have parts of the heater core itself melt which causes a burning smell. If this oil comes into contact with a hot part of the engine like an exhaust manifold then you will get a burning rubber smell.

If there s an oil leak in the vehicle and it drops on a hot part of the engine it can produce a burning smell which can be easily mistaken for burning rubber. There could be fumes as well because of the burning oil. It tends to be more noticeable when you re out of the car or when the windows are down. The car may have accidentally picked up pieces of garbage like plastic packets etc.

Now the oil is burning off when the engine gets hot and is releasing that smell. One possible explanation may be that during the oil change oil was spilled on the exhaust manifold or engine block. Of course the smoke is often visible when you step out of the car and check the exhaust pipe so it is much easy to notice car smells like burning oil after driving. The sweetish smell while the car is running or has recently been turned off could be the ethylene glycol in the coolant.

There are plastic parts in the heater the fan and other electronic devices fit into the car. Burning smell from brakes. The hot engine burning that shopper would also make the burning smell of rubber as in other cases. An oil leak from a bad gasket or seal can cause problems such as oil dripping on the timing belt or the crankshaft seal.