Good morning,

Sometimes, after I drive my car moderately hard, I've noticed a slight burning smell coming from underneath. My first thought is that this might be the clutch. I don't smell it all the time, but I am a little concerned that it might be a sign of something bad, and expensive, coming down the pipe.

Is this normal? Has anyone else had a similar problem? If so, how did you fix it?

Kenny

 

depends on what kind of "hard" driving you're doing. if you're hard on the clutch, then most likely you're smelling the clutch. if you're drifting or spinning the tires alot then you'll most likely be smelling your tires. if you're overheating your engine to the point where your coolant is overflowing then you'll probably be smelling your coolant. If you just got new cats or muffler, it could be them being broken in.

It all depends. more info needed.

 

It smells like clutch? Probably just your brakes, you get lots of good smells letting you know your going fast. Your brakes/clutch smell very similar when they get hot (lets hope your not riding the clutch). Also, when you give it full throttle your EGR circuit closes and just dumps out the exhaust giving a nasty smell.

My friends G had the smell of burning wires in the winter for awhile, apparently it was all the salt on the exhaust burning... I think that was the conclusion, his car never burnt to the ground anyways.

If you smell a burning smell after just moderate driving, then you may have a problem such as a seized caliper.

 

I just recently had a weird smell as well, I found out that I have a small leak coming from my valve cover. I only smell something sometimes though when I do drive it somewhat hard. Then again I sometimes think its just an extra smell from the test pipes. See if your leaking any fluilds from underneath the car and it may be burning up on your headers.

 

is it kinda like a firecracker type smell? If so sounds like allot of carbon deposits. what I did to fix this was buy BG44k and put it in my tank, car runs great and smoothed out my idle too

 

i have the EXACT same problem. But i am blowing out black smoke and having to change my oil at 950 miles everytime as well lol. I think i might have a leak somewhere in the engine. I raced for the first time in like 2 months against my roomates 350z, and LOST????? He only has intake and exhaust, and i only lost by half a car but still something IS FUDGED UP.

 

^ what year is your z