burnt rubber smell. What can it be?

[CMF_mysashimi]

Hello All,

this is my first post. I am not very technical...so I hope my question is not too basic :-/

I have a K11 1 Liter automatic Nissan March, built in 1996.
It has 98000 Km.
It intermittently smells burnt rubber..even after a 10-15 minutes drive..it can smell...then the smell goes away for sometime.

I have done some troubleshootings:

- tyre pressure = 1.4 bars for the 4 tyres.
- engine oil level is correct.I change the oil every 7500 km or 6 months.
- power steering fluid level is good.
- automatic transmission fluid level: good.
( was told that the transmission system uses rubber by a colleague -i have no idea if it is true- so was the fist thing I checked)
- front CV joints : changed last year. the smell started several months after it was changed.....so don't think it is related.
- brakes..they work ok..they squeek a bit recently...I bought the car with a mileage of 78000 Km now it is 98000...so I think I might need to change the brakes soon...especially on an automatic car the brakes are used quite intensively ...but how can the brakes smell burnt rubber if they were worn out? is there rubber in brake pads? I doubt?

thanks for your feedback!

 

[CMF_mipcar]

Welcome to the forum. Apart from the Brake noise do you hear any other rubbing sort of noises? Or any strange nosies for that matter.
Can you get the rubber smell occurring at any time or is the a pattern to it?

Mychael

 

[CMF_mysashimi]

Hi Mychael,

Thank you.
I do not hear any rubbing noise. I opened the bonnet, engine running and listened but heared nothing suspicious. There are 2 rubber belts to the left of the engine... they work fine and look fine (not burnt / black )

I cannot find a pattern to the smell...I drove for 30 minutes yesterday and it did not smell...my wife said it seems to come from the back of the car.

I had the 4 brakes checked and they are fine. The mecanic said I may have picked up something from the road that got stuck against something hot.

I also changed the oil + filter yesterday (after about 8000 Km)

Next time it smells, I will stop the car as quick as possible and find out where it comes from.

 

[CMF_evade]

have you had a look at your exhaust..if its anything burning..most likely something stuck to it somewhere.

i had some plastic burnt onto my cat and it bloody stank...took ages to scrape it all off as well.

 

[CMF_mysashimi]

It still smells occasionally. I looked at the pipes + wires under the bonnet, looking for sagging/loose pipes that could touch hot parts...nothing obvious. I will take a closer look at the exhaust pipe today. Thanks for the advise.

 

[CMF_mysashimi]

I could not see anything. It seems to smell less frequently anyway.
thanks