Exhaust/burning smell in cabin at operating temp (1 Viewer)

[Eliot]

Hey all, hoping I can get some guidance for a smell coming from my LX. ‘99, about 330k miles.

About 45-60 minutes into a long drive with AC and recirculate on I get a strong burning smell coming out of the vents. At first I thought it was a burning rubber type smell but after a few months it seemed clear it was exhaust. I can switch the air to the outside air function and it will go away for a bit and then start to smell again.

The unusual part of this is I ran the truck for 3 hours with this smell and then had it parked at the seafood place for 30 minutes with wife in the car while I got some shrimp and the smell dissipated. So it only seems to be bad when moving for a consistent period.

I’ve read a bit about the charcoal canister and possible header/catalytic failures but nothing that others have wrote matches my symptoms. Any help here is much appreciated.

-Eliot

 

[trdcorolla]

Have you lubed your zerks recently? Maybe grease is slinging off the zerk and is now on an hot exhaust pipe making it smell more.

 

[silver02accord]

Have you lubed your zerks recently? Maybe grease is slinging off the zerk and is now on an hot exhaust pipe making it smell more.

Been there!

 

[Eliot]

@trdcorolla Really appreciate you mentioning this. Makes perfect sense that it could be grease related given the symptoms. I do have an inner CV boot that's leaking...maybe that's it.

When you say Zerks, are you talking about the ones that lube the axle slip yokes? I haven't greased those in a long time so I'm thinking CV grease.

 

[ewineryd]

It could also be caused by an internal electrical problem in your air conditioner. Have it checked by an aircon technician just to be sure.

 

[Mike NXP]

@Eliot grease is slinging up for sure, crawl under the vehicle and drop the splash shield and take a look up. My smell is from grease coming off the front drive shaft on the right side of the vehicle and slinging up to the exhaust. Not a big deal but I do like to get under there and clean it up when re-greasing.

If your cvs are the culprit that should be attended to sooner than later

 

[Eliot]

@Mike NXP good call, i will take a look this evening. Appreciate the info.

@ewineryd can't rule anything out so I appreciate this as well. Since grease is an easy check I'll start there then move to the AC system.

Thanks all, will report back what I find.

 

[ewineryd]

@Mike NXP good call, i will take a look this evening. Appreciate the info.

@ewineryd can't rule anything out so I appreciate this as well. Since grease is an easy check I'll start there then move to the AC system.

Thanks all, will report back what I find.

Hope you get it fixed soon.