Need more information on when the smell happens. Idleing, driving down the road, accellerateing, etc.

PLEASE include your LOCATION in your PROFILE.
Thank You
Willie

 

I'm in Florida and the smell appears to be growing on me. It seems it is only at night ?!?!? For same reason day time I can't smell it. Usually at night on my way home after 30 to 50 min drive just before I get home it smell really bad. At acceleration it dissipate a little, driving down the road I can smell it clearly same at idling, very weird. I can't pin point if it's engine, cluster or HV battery compartment. Any ideas?

 

Just a wild guess, but maybe it's an oil leak - slight drip, gets blown onto the exhaust pipe at certain speeds/conditions but not at others...

 

That is a very good point. I looked at the engine and it's very clean, so do the transmission. Or could it be the water coming from the A/C?

 

Among fluids that could be dripping and blowing as I described - it could be any of them. Burning oil smell is rather distinct, I'd think you'd be able to tell if it were oil. Anti freeze has that kind of fishy smell... Brake/clutch fluid - only problem there is I can't picture how it'd be getting to the hot exhaust pipes and burning... Not sure what AC stuff smells like. Except for the oil that's mixed in, it's a gas as far as I know... Look at the exhaust pipe just below and behind the engine and see if you see any signs of uneven discoloration... The main reason I mentioned oil is because there's a pretty common oil leak at or around the crank seal, passenger side of the engine. Seems like that could get to the exhaust pipe fairly easily and burn. It'd probably be less likely if you have the engine undertray installed; it'd drip on the tray...

 

There is a recall on the headlight switch. Do you know if your cars has been replaced? I think that the light switch would melt down when it failed.

 

Your close, it was the connector behind the dash for the lights that would melt. Iirc it was pin #6 that melts from being to small gauge wire. I fixed mine and like a week later I got the recall letter. Lol. Go figure!

 

I had a rear main seal go out and that caused the smell on my 01 5-speed. It tripped out of the drain plate on the bottom of the bell housing and then blew onto the exhaust. You can find oil on the rear motor mounts.
Make sure you keep checking your oil. Mine was over a quart low before I realized it. My oil light never turned on even being over a quart low.