Loic, does your smell, smell kinda like mine, radiator fluid?

 

No, it does not. Cooling fluid/Radiator smell is pretty unique and easy to identify.
Mine is definitely a clutch disk smell....or something similar...

 

I only get the noise or clutch chatter as I call it when the gear is engaging and only in first and sometimes second gear.

As for a smell that would be so bad to make you get out of the car. The ONLY thing I can think of is a burnt clutch. Happened to me once when I lauched kinda hard and accidentally slipped it out to much.

If there is a smell that bad that is not the clutch being burnt, I'd deffinitly have it looked at ASAP.

 

normal.

i got that smell with the automatic Lexus ES300

 

Not bad enough to get out of the car. But annoying and somewhat worrisome.

 

I'll guess I'll go to the dealer and try to explain the issue....
Not too easy to explain....

 

Loic, I know exactly what you're talking about. When I first got the car, I smelled the oil burning off the engine like everyone else is talking about, that's NOT the same smell as when the clutch slips (and says SLIP on the dash) and a HORRIFIC burning plastic rubber smell floods into the cabin. Fortunately I have the roadster so it airs out pretty quick. The dealer did my first oil change a few weeks again and said nothing was wrong with my clutch. However, the slips happened a lot less after they "did nothing" to it, as I've only burned it twice since then. For me, it happens mostly when I nurse the clutch. Take 5 seconds to let it out fully and I risk a burn. I've noticed noticable change in my clutch as I burn it more, which really sucks. The dealer did tell me it's warrantied if it does break, so I'm kind of hoping ot does break and I get a new one as it seems this is a pretty rare problem, and probably a defect on some clutches. Trust me people, this isn't radiator fluid or engine oils burning off, it's the type of smell you would have to pull over and air out if it got bad enough as mentioned earlier by someone else.

 

I brought the car to my dealer, and evidently they were not able to reproduce the smell....
Although nothing was done, my clutch feels better now and I haven't experienced this nasty smell for sometimes...
We'll see, right now I'm just enjoying the ride in my roadster...hopefully the warranty will take care of any upcoming issues.

 

This is exactly what I was experiencing. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled this burnt rubber smell. It seemed to be coming from the rear, definately not the engine.

After two weeks I faintly smelled it in the cabin. Now, it's completely gone. Weird.

 

Someone on this thread said that the smell of a burned clutch is unmistakable.
How is it unmistakable?

I get this horrible smell in my car after using it in reverse.
The smell is like an old gym bag or sour socks or a bad fish/ocean smell.

I took it in to my dealer yesterday and the service clerk took a ride with me and smelled the problem.
He made the comment to the Service Manager that involved the word "asbestos".
We scheduled an official appointment today to have a technician look at the car.
For warrantee reasons, the technician will not crack open the clutch until *HE* determines there is a problem.
Surprise, he says there is no problem...
...and he charges me $84 to let him drive my car!
The Service Manager says he also took the car out for a drive and can get it to smell, but only when he "slips the clutch".
He says this smell during a clutch slip does not count as warrantee work.

I have had my Z since 5/2003, and I only started smelling this in the last month or two.
I cannot drive my car in reverse without it smelling like dead fish.
I wonder if I can have him drive any other Z on the lot and repro this smell or not.
I am also not too keen on the thought of inhaling burned asbestos fumes!

Does anyone know if there are any asbestos parts in the clutch?

Needless to say, I am not a happy camper!

Pv

 

i kow some time has passed sicne this thread has last been replied to but did nayone ever figure out what the burning smell was? any major issues they can tell us about? anyhting the dealer covered under warrenty?

thanx,
-justin

 

If its a "skunky" smell (ya know like a lighter smelling version of a real skunk), then its normal...becuase mine did that on and off WITHOUT driving hard and now with 3,300 miles it has not returned. Now, if its a burning rubber smell, I think you may be experiencing either factory coating on the headers that are burning off, or thin films on intake manifold that is melting and evaporating due to heat....which is also normal. The clutch only makes one type of smell....and you'll know it when it happens.

 

I used to smell that burnt plastics smell but when i got my borla exhaust installed, the guy said there was some plastic still on my cats and that he would burn it off for me. Since then, the only burning i smelled was my tires

 

I'm confused: are we talking about hygiene or the car? Sorry, I couldn't resist

 

its pretty powerful, could possibly be a slight skunky smell. almost like burning oil. really reminds of the smell i had when my turbo seals were going on my 300zxtt, very similar. i have 29k miles on my z now so i dont think its any factory coatings wearing off. my kinetix v4 plenum & kinetix resonated testpipes bothhave less than 1k miles on them, think somthing is burning off of them? i smell it even when im not getting on it every time i drive the car! im even considering selling off the testpipes to get some highflow cats. mabey my open exhaust is allowing extremely harsh smells to come through.......

-justin

 

with 29k miles on your Z, you should not have any "smells" of any kind....except maybe clutch if beating on it. Could possibly be your new mods...look around the new equipment you installed, and see if any wiring or rubber lines are touching the manifold, headers, etc... Lemme know what u find!!!

 

im going to check around the exhaust areas to see if somthing is touching. it seems if it were somthing burning on the exhaust that it would be coming from inside the resonators as i believe the smell comes out from the exhaust tips. ive had 2 instances where somone has said they smell somthing burning from behind my car.
ill have a look around to see if i could possibly be melting/burning somthing lying on the exhaust system.......i doubt it as over the past couple months somthing would have severely burned by now, but its worth it to check!

-justin

 

yeah i have had 2 smells

one where i drive hard, smells like oil a bit

once when i got the car, i completly screwed the clutch trying to overtake a truck on a steep hill,
i was riding the clutch in 2nd....................

clutch got stuck and smelt the next hour windowns down and all

hasnt happened again, but when i drive hard i get a bit of an oily type of smell
no where near as bad as the burning of the clutch....

 

arent you worries about the oil smell? i know what a burnt clutch smells like & its deffinately not that.....but this burning oil smell has me a tad concerned........

-justin

 

not to worry as i dont drive at 6700rpm too often

i dont think there is need for concern