When an accessory pulley has seized it creates a large amount of friction against the drive belt heating it up.
Car smells of burnt rubber.
So you can recognize this quite easy.
Additionally your engine belt may have slipped overheating the rubber thus causing the burning smell.
A fault in the electrical system can cause the smell of burning rubber.
The odor drifts through the ac ducts to drift to your nose.
You cannot take this lightly at all because it could start a fire in the car.
It tends to be more noticeable when you re out of the car or when the windows are down.
A drive belt may melt from engine components that are too hot or a seized pulley.
From a loose rubber hose or head gasket leak to an electrical fault.
Electrical fault a fault in the electrical system of your car or truck can often present as a sudden burning rubber smell.
You may not notice the burning smell when in the car but it is very noticeable when you get out of the car.
If you experience something like this then pop the hood and inspect the fuses.
This phenomenon can be very noticeable when driving up large hills as your exhaust will get very hot.
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 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.
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.
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.
The smell of a burnt fuse doesn t last long as the fuse burns quickly.
Many times burning smell from car may come from the clutch problem.
Clutch can be one of the reason why burning smell from car happens.