This phenomenon can be very noticeable when driving up large hills as your exhaust will get very hot.
Car smells of burnt rubber.
You may not notice the burning smell when in the car but it is very noticeable when you get out of the car.
The answer to why you may sense a burning rubber smell in your car and not some other type of smell is because there are lots of rubber components rubber hoses and other things made out of hard rubber which may be coming into contact with extreme heat which is why your car may smell like burning rubber.
Electrical fault a fault in the electrical system of your car or truck can often present as a sudden burning rubber smell.
A drive belt may melt from engine components that are too hot or a seized pulley.
You cannot take this lightly at all because it could start a fire in the car.
Additionally your engine belt may have slipped overheating the rubber thus causing the burning smell.
If you experience something like this then pop the hood and inspect the fuses.
Clutch can be one of the reason why burning smell from car happens.
It happens whenever you shift gears and the smell is usually similar to that of a burning newspaper or the burning rubber smell from car.
A leak in the head gasket may mean the whole component requires replacement although you may be lucky enough just to need the seal replaced.
The odor drifts through the ac ducts to drift to your nose.
If there s an oil leak in the vehicle and it drops on a hot part of the engine it can produce a burning smell which can be easily mistaken for burning rubber.
The smell of a burnt fuse doesn t last long as the fuse burns quickly.
From a loose rubber hose or head gasket leak to an electrical fault.
When an accessory pulley has seized it creates a large amount of friction against the drive belt heating it up.
A melting drive belt also called a serpentine or accessory belt smells like burning rubber and is often accompanied by a shrill squealing noise.
A fault in the electrical system can cause the smell of burning rubber.
So you can recognize this quite easy.
The odor itself will typically drift in through the ac ducts and it may not last for too long as the burnt fuse doesn t make a continuous smells like some of the other problems on this list.