Ive been smelling a burning plastic type smell...

[Freebeer187]

For the past week, every time I get out of the car (after driving it) I can smell a fairly strong odor which smells like burning plastic. It is especially potent when I park it in the garage. Ive looked under the hood several times and check to see if the belt was rubbing on anything, or something to give me a clue on what this smell is coming from. I never really could pinpoint exactly what is causing it.

Today, I gave it an extra look and I noticed a little oil over the front valve cover. I really could not make out if it was new, old or whatever. I did top off the oil about a week ago, but I did use a funnel. I do not recall spilling any oil on the engine, but if any did it was a few drops that was excess from the funnel. The car does leak oil which I believe is coming from the oil pan, but im not 100% sure on this.

Any ideas what this smell could be? Would burning oil cause this type of odor? I think it may be possible that a little oil somehow is falling on the exhaust manifold... which is bad news. Im going hit up Mr. James here soon to see if he cant take a look at it.

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[PANDA]

Probably VC gaskets.

 

[bikrboy128]

check under the car. i've seen plenty of cars that had a plastic bag stick to the cat. maybe you picked one up on the road.
GM will do the front VC at no cost. it's a recall

 

[Freebeer187]

check under the car. i've seen plenty of cars that had a plastic bag stick to the cat. maybe you picked one up on the road.
GM will do the front VC at no cost. it's a recall

Thanks for the info. Ill check the plastic bag. That might be it

Also, the VC has the blue gasket rings around them. Ive been to the pontiac dealer in Elgin and im pretty sure they denied me because they were blue. Can I get it done a second time?

 

[bikrboy128]

if it's actually leaking then it wasnt done right. go back and tell them that

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

clean it off with aton of brake cleaner and keep an eye on it...you can also hit everything with baby powerder after brake cleaning and it makes "moist" area's far more noticable on the glossy black painted area's or road grime area's

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

I've had the exact same thing for awhile now. I found it was coolant burning on the exhaust.

 

[Carls2001ws6]

Yea I've spilled oil on the headers while doing an oil change before. It only smokes for like an hour or so, I've never noticed it smelling a week later.

Coolant burning has a "sweet" smell (to me anyway) Also coolant smokes like crazy when it burns.

Does there seem to be any unusual squeaky noises under the hood? I'm guessing if the valve covers are not leaking any oil a belt tension pulley bearing could be sizing and burning the rubber/plastic side covers. This is just a guess, just trying to "think outside the box"

I had a clogged cat that smelled funny, not sure if that is what it is, you would get a ses light in that scenario. A p130 code if I'm not mistaken.

 

[10sec]

If you use synthetic oil, which i'll bet you use, it will give a plastic smelling odor. More like the smell of a candle when you blow it out, kinda waxy. All depends on how your perceive it i suppose. But I could be completely wrong, and you use regular conventional oil

 

[Carls2001ws6]

^ yea your right it kind does
good sense of smell you got there :thumb:

 

[Freebeer187]

I use dinosaur oil.

Also, I changed my throttle body gasket a month or so ago. Think I could have messed it up and somehow some coolant is going where it is not supposed to?