Weird Question -- Funny Smell?

Okay, this is an odd story, so bear with me.

I have a 2005 Mustang V6 automatic with about 28,650 miles on it.

Last week, driving home from work, I noticed a funny smell, like melting plastic. It was very, very faint, sort of like the odor you'd smell from a glue gun.

Everything was working fine, so I figured I might have run over a plastic bag or something. A look under the car, however, revealed nothing. Nor did a look under the hood. Everything was fine, no smoke or anything like that, no tubing or tape rubbing up against the exhaust manifold.

Over the past few days, I've continued to notice the smell. It's stronger outside the car. Today, I walked around the car after I got to work, and the smell seemed to be coming from the driver-side rear wheelwell.

Again, it's a faint scent of melting plastic. Nothing like brakes, or even bearings that I've ever smelled. If it was in the wiring harness, I figure a fuse would have tripped. As I said, the car's running perfectly, no overheating, no indicator lights dispaying on the dash.

I still think something plastic got blown up into the exhaust somewhere, maybe the catalytic converter. But I've yet to locate the source. Weird.

Any ideas, guys?
 
  • Sponsors (?)


Well, I smell something burning everytime I get out of the car.... although with only 421 miles on it, I assume it's just the header coating/ typical break in smell.

But with almost 29k on it, you shouldn't be smelling anything other than maybe exhaust. All that I could think to check would be your rear brake lines, and your rear suspension bushings. Neither of them should be melting or even getting hot enough to smell..... but that's the first place I'd check if it's coming from that area.....

Good Luck!
 
Smell

If you haven't done so, try to get it up on a lift so you can really get a good look at things. I've only had one similiar event, it turned out to be, as you theorized, a plastic bag had melted to my head pipe. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the ideas, guys.

Yeah, I'm taking her into the shop tomorrow so they can have a look on a lift.

I've crawled all underneath the car with a flashlight, and I can't find a thing. All the wires, lines, bushings and such look clean and tight. On the driver-side rear wheel, everything looks fine. Brake caliper is normal, no scoring or anything on the rotor.

Now, I did have a new gas tank installed about 5,000 miles ago (that famous 05 problem). Maybe something went amiss during the installation, but I sure can't see anything that looks wrong.

Well, we'll see tomorrow, I guess ...
 
Odd you should say that but I noticed just such a smell after a drive the other day - almost like a fishy smell. I ignored it as I thought one of the neighbours was cooking. Now you've said that, I'll have to check mine. One thought I had was maybe it's the tires as they get quite warm.
 
I smelled the brakes on my 05 and discovered the E-Brake was sticking. I(brought it in and they replaced the e-brake cable. I guess there is a TSB on it . While there I had them Replace the A pillar clips for the dash rattle. and had them check why I have to reset the power window Auto drop and reseal when you open the door. Mine failed twice so far and I had to fully open and close the window to get it to work again