So yesterday I was driving around in my sisters car 2011 G37X AT doing some spirited driving.. floored it maybe 6 times over the course of an hour, pushing the car to accelerate pretty quick. I noticed about 30 minutes in a like hot engine smell almost like burning rubber that made its way into the cabin. No i was not abusing the car at all.

It was not rubber, its an X and i did not lose traction at all. It was not the smell of hot brakes.. The oil temperature gauge did not leave the middle. This is proboblly the first time the car has been driven like this.

It has 7,8XX Miles and was in a pretty rough accident (frontal) in November at around 5,XXX miles. Is this normal? For the engine to smell this hot and like burning ish, like hot rubber or plastic or something?

Just curious, because I'm wondering if an inspection would reveal a Sh*tty repair from when it was in an accident since it went to a body shop, not really a mechanic to look at the engine..

Thanks everyone!

 

it is normal if the car is usually not driven that way then it will happen

 

I get that anytime I step into higher RPMs, but my car has only 600mi. Try not to go over 4000rpm till engine is broken in...
Weird it's doing it at 8000miles though.

 

yeah my sister has a 7 year old son they're not flooring it anywhere. So i guess that's the explanation for this. Even though it has 7,XXX miles, its not "roughly" broken in.

 

i hope you've also changed the oil since the accident?

 

I would say if the smell doesnt persist it should be ok. I have noticed this happen to other cars that are not Infiniti's as well, especially ones driven as commuter cars or low RPM's.
After one or two times the smell disappears, but faint rattles or creaks also start to develop after a few spirited runs.

 

yep smell did not persist at all, the car is exactly as you described often kept at low RPMS, i mean they go 85 every now and then on the highway but with a 7AT, that's not "up" in the RPMS.

Thank you!

 

It may be coming from the preservatives used on the radiator coolant hoses. I noticed this on all three of my cars after any high-rpm or high-ambient-temperature driving. I had the hoses changed on our older (2001) Miata in conjunction with a timing belt change a while back and the mechanic used after-market hoses which gave off a heavy burning-rubber smell in the garage after shutting down the car. I thought at first that he had installed the timing belt incorrectly and took it back a couple of times while he disassembled and checked the belt installation. After putting up with the smell in the garage for a month, he changed the after-market hoses out for OEM ones. This reduced the smell and eventually it went away. My other cars (the G37 and a Subaru Outback) do this occasionally after some higher-than-normal ambient temperature operations, which are common out here in the Phoenix area. It seems to take some time for the preservatives to cure/boil off/disappear/whatever they do and seems to be triggered by higher than normal operating temps.

 

How long ago was the accident causing front end damage?
When I had an X, it had a torn inner CVJ boot and I'll tell you, when the lube begins to spray a little over hot engine parts, it smells a lot like burning rubber.
That being said, it would smell almost every time you drive the car until the lube is gone and at that point your CVJ will start to wear out.

 

Sounds like you performed an Italian tune up for her.

 

my 09 RWD does this all the time... im at 10k miles, and it does it whenever i drive spiritedly, checked everything i could see and nothing is wrong with it, it just makes that hot plastic smell for like 20 seconds when u ride her hard. i just try to calm it down when i start smelling it lol

 

hahah possible.


yeah I don't think its anything serious like that, the car runs smooth always.


exactly what I did, the smell entered the cabin, so I rolled down the windows and was like wtf! So yep, I calmed down.. My friend had an old G35 2005, 75k miles and I feel like he would drive SO hard but it would never get this smell, I really think it has to do with breaking the car in and such.

 

The car has never been driven hard that's why. Mine hits redline at least 10 times a day and it never smells.

 

I get the smell once in a while...makes me paranoid but I usually just open the windows XD
What DOES worry me, is how my car sounds like a diesel engine once I push her around a bit and get to a stop. Sounds like the throwout bearing is going nuts.
Of course, stealership says its normal. "dual-mass flywheel rattles occasionally"....-.-
Thankfully no burning smell when I hear it...

 

Mine does this, My wife does this, Both out cars we can smell anti freeze and what we think is tranny fluid too.. Always on a warm/hot day.. Yes mine did it before the SC install and still does it after.? Dealer did say NCF. :/