I have a 2009 G37X sedan with roughly 60,000 miles on it. It’s been cold and snowy here in Chicago for roughly the last month. My wife was driving the car last week while it was snowing and when she pulled into a parking garage, she noticed “smoke” coming out of the front grill. I told her it was probably just snow melting and was condensation. Ever since I have been keeping tabs on it.

I have noticed a faint burning smell coming from the engine bay (my wife can even smell it). I can’t seem to track it down and it’s not gotten worse. I did a quick search on here and it seems like other people have ran into this issue, but there has been no resolution posted. Has anyone brought their car into the dealer and actually tracked down the issue? I am sure my dealer will claim that they “can’t replicate”. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

As you know there's another thread discussing this issue. Instead of going back-n-forth between threads please keep it to just the one. As for the smoke coming out from the grill it's normal when there's any sort of precipitation or wetness...the water lands on the radiator while driving and evaporates. But that doesn't seem to be related to "The Burning Smell."

 

My car does the exact same thing.

An old 2008 Benz ML SUV also had the exact same issue. Nothing ever went wrong even after years.

 

check under the car from the cats all the way to the muffler, see if there something stuck onto it, like a plastic bag or whatever. my pipes caught a plastic bag and over the past months it is still on there and it smells like plastic when i drive it for a while.
haha

 

Just had some of that smell today. I drove on the highway for about an hour and then stopped to get coffee. There was lots of steam evaporating from the radiator (it's a moist -3*C day today) and the burning smell was very noticeable outside. However it went away in 2-3 minutes on its own.

I popped the hood and there was nothing going on.

 

Same here

 

Ditto.. Weird just occurred today after a light snow. Thought I was overheating, but temp was normal and couldn't smell anti-freeze, but the smoke/steam was coming out of the grill which at first was concerning. Was just hoping it wasn't a leak etc...