Need help, burning smell from front PS wheel well. (1 Viewer)

[MikePL]

And now my story. I also had this funny smell from the passenger side wheel well. In my case it was indeed the exhaust pipe which made this smell. The more I worked on the truck, the more it smelled simply because I would touch the exhaust pipes with greasy hands or spill some oil accidentally. Now it's winter so I had to give up wrenching and there is no smell. Mud also caused all sorts of smells on the exhaust.

 

[bpenn1980]

And now my story. I also had this funny smell from the passenger side wheel well. In my case it was indeed the exhaust pipe which made this smell. The more I worked on the truck, the more it smelled simply because I would touch the exhaust pipes with greasy hands or spill some oil accidentally. Now it's winter so I had to give up wrenching and there is no smell. Mud also caused all sorts of smells on the exhaust.

Good point. Touching the exhaust with oil/greasy hands will make smells.

Unfortunately for me, replacing the o2 sensors is the extent I've touched my exhaust and there was no grease/oil to get on there.

I'm thinking slow leak from somewhere is slowly getting oil on there. Most likely valve cover, I'll look this weekend.

For reference, I also have a rear main/oil pan arch leak, so that could be something to think about as well.

 

[BOZ]

PS side oil smell

There seem to be alot of ideas so far but nothing firm.

Not an expert by any means, but anyone who has owned or worked on cars for a while can kinda tell the type of smell.

Burning anti-freeze, brake fluid, engine oil, exuast, and tranny fluid and burning wires and burining bearings and stray cats have thier own smells.

I have been through atleast one of each with various cars/trucks.

I think many of us seem to think its engine oil.

For me the smell really seems like burning engine oil on the manifold. Its just enough to make your curious and yet no major signs. Even after putting UV dye, no luck. I am more in the habbit of trying to fix the problem before it gets bad. I have no clue on this one. For me, I can drive 300 miles and still have the smell, so that would normally rule out oill hand prints or sloppy oil change residue. The source is replenished.

It would stand to reason the smell comes from the PS because of the location of the manifold. If it were combustion burn off escaping from the pcv valve or hoses it still may exit on the ps side due to the heat generated on that side of the engine. (ie. heat rises and fresh air is pulled from the DS and exits on PS)

Keep the comments rolling, I have a trouble shooting process tree working on this one.

Boz

 

[Beowulf]

You'll also get a burning grease smell on the PS following a LOF when they grease the unis and the slip joints. Grease slings right on the muffler.
-B-

 

[AdventureBuddies]

i just applied an engine degreaser and cleaned up the seapage from my valve cover gasket as well as most of my steering fluid leakage and will now look for the mystery smell. If i don't smell it then I figure it's safe to assume that the smell is burning residue from one of my leaks.

Just a quick follow up - I cleaned my chassis and engine area with a degreaser and there is no more burning oil smell. I think maybe we smell it more at the PS wheel well because the Y downpipe exits through there, so engine smells can escape through the space around the downpipe.

 

[debushau]

I get this too - a sort of "hot rubber" smell as if something was rubbing on the exhaust. I am pulling and replacing the Y-pipe (because the cat is holed) and did not notice anything but I guess I'll see if the new pipe makes a difference.

 

[FirstToy]

i identified it on mine. It is the charcoal canister. I took it off and tried to clean it a bit, a lot of silt-like stuff came out of the bottom. It no longer smells but the canister is not "rebuildable" so I will eventually get a new one or jig something up.

 

[BOZ]

Ok, I have found where the smell is coming from on mine. It is the y pipe from the manifold. I pulled off the road after a climb of about 2500 ft. The passengers noticed the smell right off.

I looked for oil leaks under the hood and found nothing. I then looked at the PS wheel well and saw smoke comimg from the pipe. It smells of burning oil as if it was dripped on the exhaust. The smoke was coming from inside of the sleeve. It is from the lower part and not coming from the headers.

I still can not locate the source. I get this on many start ups as well.

Does anyone know if there is an undercoating from the factory on or near the pipe. I would think afetr 11 years it would have burned off.

This is driving me nuts

 

[Tennesseestorm]

I know its a totally different car, but when I first bought my Lexus LS400 I kept smelling a hot plastic smell from under the hood. I finally tracked it down to being a slight valve cover gasket leak. I never thought it was that, because it did not really smell like oil burning, but the smell was so faint, it had a "plasticy" smell. I am guessing this is not your problem since the VC is on the center and you can only smell it on the passenger side.

I was also told to check for a plastic bag on the muffler, before I found out it was the oil leak from the passenger side valve cover.