Burning rubber smell coming from 97 Subaru Legacy?

[nyalex09]

My wife and I have a great little Subaru Legacy we recently purchase from a family member. We gave it it's first tune up (expensive job, but I guess boxer engines are expensive to upkeep). It runs really sweet now. My question is, we noticed a smell of burning rubber coming from the heater vents when we stopped after driving 10-15 or more minutes on the hightway before the tune up. We asked the mechanic to check it out when we got the tune up and he reported that he ran it for an hour but never smelled anything. Now it's happening again! The mechanic did say that he had a problem getting some rubber caps off the spark plug heads or something since they had not been changed in many years. Could that be the answer to the smell problem? Could there be some residue of rubber still burning from them?

[bigspif2003]

YES, it could be theose caps or the spak plug wirs which have a rubber coating on them as well.  It coiuld also be a belt that is too tight or worn, especially the fan belt.  Replace your belts BEFORE they are worn, not after they break and leave you stranded.

[crawler]

Most likely problem is that you have a "spun" bearing on one of your pulleys sometimes they will free up and sometimes they will seize producing a burnt rubber smell. That is something to consider and get checked out because if you do not you will break the belt and be stranded.

[JR]

It has nothing to do with what your mechanic did.  Are you sure it is not an antifreeze smell?  You could have a small leak in your heater core.  Also, was the vent open to outside air?  Could it be another car you are smelling?



If it makes the smell every time, time a trip to arrive at the mechanic's shop about the time the smell would appear.  Call him ahead of time and let him know you are coming in.  Let him smell what you do.  Running the car in the shop may not cause the same problems as running it on the highway.

[Gooddeedsgetnoticed]

That is more than likely the problem I used to see this alot as a service adviser. People would leave the same plug in for years and they where difficult to change.  When they where changed after a couple of weeks people would complain about a burner rubber smell. The plugs should be check every couple of years even if they are platinum, this keeps the threading from welding themseves into the sockets.  Make sure the timing belt is checked regularly.

[ozy]

Do you have any oil leaks?It is common for the oil to leak from valve covers,oil pan and rear oil seperator cover.It may get on your ehaust and cause a burning smell.