I just got my Z today!!!!! YAY!!!! To be honest I'm not all that great with the clutch yet. I haven't driving a manual in a couple of years and I'm getting the feel for it again. Now as I'm driving I smell a buring smell. I'm pretty sure it's the clutch and everything is ok... but it's pretty strong and everyone ask me if my car is burning. Oh, anyone got any advice or pointers for engaging the clutch.... I'm ok but I know I'm slipping it too much. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

It's your new exhaust. It will wear off in a couple of days.

Make sure you meet up with the Nashville Z owners. quite a few of them are on this forum, and they are pretty cool guys. Check out Crawford Z Car Service in da 'Ville

 

Yep, had that same smell when I first got mine. Like he said, it will go away soon.

 

I had the same thing, it was almost like a burning plastic smell.
It went away after a little while.

 

Could also be the cosmoline. Either way, it will go away.

 

i got the same question, i thought it had dat smell cuz of my nub n driving a stick.
thx for all ur answers, now i dont have to worry about it

 

I got my 06' z alittle less then 2 weeks ago and saturday night I was talking a girl for a ride and when we got off the highway the buring smell was so strong that I had lower the windows. It's hard to impress a girl with your new car when it smells like its on fire. then smell went away about a minute later but i already have about 500 miles on it and saturday it was stronger than ever....I pretty good with the clutch so I'm sure it's not that......after reading the above post is everyone in agreement that it's the exhaust?

 

lol, yep it is i remeber when i got my car and bringing up engine temp after driving hard would cause that funny smell. itll go away after awhile though, so no worries.

 

If you ever get an aftermarket exhaust, it'll do it all over again. When you first burn through the fibers and cosmoline (fancy word for industrial waste turned into grease [all you gun owners feel me on this]), it'll smoke and smell really bad. Had it happen on two cars now.

 

mine isn't comming from the exhaust, I know what that smells like, its comming from the engin bay. near the bottom. It seeps threw the vents and i smell it. I'm going to idle it today for 15 mins reving up the engin. see if its the clitch or something really burning.

 

I just installed the Nismo exhaust and I can smell it when I get out of the car, but it doesn't get to the inside at all. Only two times I ever smelled something burnt on the inside: once when I burned the clutch backing up from a stop on a steep incline and once under hard acceleration, which turned out to be my engine was 2 qts low of oil. Exhaust, clutch, oil all have very different and distinctive smells.

 

The only time this happened to me was in my Maxima and I was convinced my cat conv. needed replacement. Turned out, a plastic bag was stuck to the cat and burned whenever the engine ran

 

I still got that plastic smell..more so when I pop the engine bay. I am pretty sure its not the clutch. I've smelled this before in an AT 350Z when I test drove one a year and half ago. Can anyone in a AT confirm to convince us newbie MT users it isn't the clutch?