after i drive the car car, say 1st gear through 4 or whatever, what i start to slow down and the engine wines down...i can smell burning or melting plastic...has happened each time ive driven it hard for a short period of time. its not burnt rubber or clutch, its definately a plastic smell. any ideas?

 

Make sure you didnt run over a plastic bag, and its stuck under the car. It happened to my GF.

 

+1 on plastic bag. I had one stuck to my Maxima's cat conv once and I was convinced I had a short circuit somewhere (had installed my stereo just a week prior to that!)

 

Is your car new? If so, that could be the cause of your smell.

 

I know what you are talking about. Its with new cars usually. I had that same smell. In fact..even now once in a while I can smell it.

 

i don't fart im my car

 

The dealership I bought my car from put an undercoating on the car, and that caused the same sort of smell for me. Thankfully it's finally wearing off.

 

When I had my civic I smelled the same smell and a plastic bag was found underneath the car.

I now smell the same plastic bag smell and lookie what I found. A plastic bag melted onto my Y pipe.

I'm sure it's a plastic bag just take a good look underneath your car.

 

Dont take this the wrong way...but... that could be the clutch..... you do know what that smells like right?

 

i had that problem with mine...there was some sticker on the cat that was burning. its all toasted off now though

 

Only happens when driven hard? Sounds like the clutch to me too.

 

...happens to my retardedly lowered 510 ALL the time.
j!
Oh, here's the 510...no pics of the Z33 cause it's still stock.

http://fiveoneoh.com/gallery/jan/jan1.htm

 

i have a weird smell comming from under my car after i ran over a plastic bag last month. it went away but now its back, i can't seem to find any traces of the bag left. it was pretty big about 5' by 4' and the smell is sweet (pretty sure not coolant) doesn't any know of any other possibilities?


(didn't mean to steal thread but just didn't start a new one)

 

I have no clue. Just jack up the car high and look.

 

definately not a clutch smell like i said. i burn the clutch every so often and i know the distinct smell of burning clutch. and i havent looked under the car yet, i will when i get outta work.....but if that were the case wouldnt it smell all the time till the bag was burned off?

 

no plastic bag under the car....is it possible it is the valve cover heating up or....

 

I was going to say plastic bag also since this happened to me as well but since you confirmed, I'm not sure. Our Y-pipes are prone to getting them caught. When you looked under, did you see any black gunk on the piping (you will not see an actual bag)? When it happened to me, it melted it right on the pipe & left it smelling like plastic for weeks.

 

happened to me a while back. everyone said either clutch, which again it wasnt the smell of a clutch, or plastic bag. i jacked up the car and found nothing. after a couple of weeks it just went away, slowly but surely.

 

You don't have an early style kinetix plenum, do you?

 

nope, im stock