Intermittent CEL + hot plastic smell... (1 Viewer)

[Toyote]

Haven't looked too far into this, but wondered if this was maybe something familiar to the 60-series crowd... I've noticed this especially when my engine is under load, I'll get a "something's hot/melting" smell and immediately the CEL pops on. Engine seems to run fine, and nothing is overtly smoking under the hood, but something smells hot inside.

Let the engine cool down (overnight, etc) and there's no CEL, no smell. It will happen again though as soon as I drive into the mountains...

FWIW thermostat and associated gaskets/hoses are all new and installed correctly (this also happened when my t-stat was toast. They seem unrelated.)

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

check the harness plug under the column for a burning terminal- my headlight circuit was overheating due to resistance in the circuit and caused the terminal in the steering column connector to burn. check your grounds, check your fusible links, check the battery and cables. I also added a separate headlight harness which aleviated the load from the factory circuit...of course, your issue could be something different, but that's where I'd start...EDIT...pull the codes from the ECU and post them here; clear stored codes and then dig into wiring issues...Use the FAQs to figure out which questions to ask. There is a diagnostics box on the passenger side engine firewall- 2 terminals in that box jump via bent paperclip to put the ecu into diagnostics mode. turn key to on with engine off and count the flashes of the CEL. be aware, there are short and long spaces inbetween the CEL pulses which indicate end of code(long pause) or next code digit(for 2 digit codes; indicated by short pause). Multiple codes can be stored and flashed, so count the sequence several times and write down the patterns...find a downloadable FSM to key the codes to actual areas of investigation...HTH

 

[Toyote]

Excellent; thanks will do that. Not going to be as easy as plugging in the Ultragauge, is it?

I have @slcfj62 's harness installed, too; this symptom was happening before that, and hasnt changed.

Will look into the flashing codes in the next day or so and try to decipher those. Stay tuned.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

what's that? A modern paperclip? these rigs are perfect for guys my age- caught between analog and digital...