Burning smell through vents after 20 min drive

urbanate

I've got about 12k miles on my z. Bought it new. It sits a lot and when I would drive it I was always getting a burning smell. At first I thought it was just because it was new and after that I chalked it up to not driving it enough. It goes to the dealer every 3 months for oil changes and no one has said a thing until this last time. When the dude went to check the car in he immediately said it was burning oil from the smell. They investigated it and sure enough passenger side head gasket? Valve cover? (forget what it was) was leaking from underneath. Not enough to drip any oil on the floor but enough to drip on the exhaust. Dealer put in a new one and no more smell.

Makes me wonder as they told me my steering rack was leaking after an inspection a while back. The leak was on the passenger side. It was replaced under warranty but I'm wondering if the rack itself was really the culprit.

PaulNYz

This sounds very similar to mine.. Can you describe the smell you had? Was it more of a burning rubber smell?

urbanate

Yeah kind of rubber like. It wasn't super strong and no fluids on the floor. Smell was a lot stronger when the hood was lifted though. I honestly was just thinking it was a characteristic of the car as I've had it since day one, it's not a daily driver so low miles and it's got a gold service plan so it's at the dealer every three months for oil changes / inspections regardless of milage. It was making that smell pretty much from day one.

I'm out of my bumper to bumper warranty but this was covered under the power train warranty.

If you can get under the car take a look up there. Or have them scope it out when if you take it in for any service.