Leaky car and burnt plastic smell
 

Hey guys, got the car(2008) about a week ago and have its 90k service coming up in 3 days however i just got out of it after a ~20 minute drive and noticed the strong smell of burnt plastic getting even stronger closer to the rear of the car, i checked under it and noticed a leak that was not there yesterday. Thought it could be ELF issue first as it hasn't been done on this car but the leak looks a bit far back under the car and it doesn't explain the stronger smell towards the rear, Ive attached a pic of leaks location could it possibly be coolant? Car got up to 3 bars temp fairly quick today i thought though it never went over even after several pulls from 20-80~

Thanks for responses curious if anyone else has had this or if anyone has ideas to what it is/severity of it.

http://imgur.com/eAkuCWO
(only sitting for about 30 seconds when pic was taken)

Is it possible that is water from the exhaust and the heat coming from those leaks are burning the plastic that surrounds it?

I know a few members who have dropped the axle back who have melted their bumpers or other associated plastic pieces under the car.

could explain why it got stronger near the rear.. will go feel along the rear bumper see if it is hot

negative on the bumper, all 4 sides of the car had normal temp. burnt smell has mostly dissipated but the leak is still there

Check the oil and coolant levels and see if any is missing fluid.

Any readings on the coolant temp gauge, is it running hot or normal? Usually when a car starts loosing massive amounts of coolant, the temp gauge will start reading hot, and that's about the time to pull over and shut off the engine.

I am not saying that's necessarily the case here, but check the fluids.

not allowed to do so in my apartment garage(they can kick me out and already did kick someone else out) or i would have already, neither was running hotter than normal but i didn't drive it long - 10-15 minutes or so driving to get to 3 bars seems about normal for 95 degree weather and florida 1000% humidity

in past cars, ive had a plastic bag melt to my exhaust and caused a burning plastic smell.

I'll second this, the smell is awful and you freak out until you find the bag.

Check for bags

i didn't specifically get in there and check for bags although i did not see anything hanging from the car and it would not explain the leak that is new as of today, i will go check anyways thank you

shined a light up in there, didn't physically climb under the car to look but i wasn't able to find any bags.. was hoping to find that easy fix

you wont necessarily see an entire bag. generally what happens is the bag hits the exhaust. parts of the plastic melts onto the exhaust and the rest rips off but the plastic residue continues to melt to the exhaust and smells. I had burning plastic smell, assumed it was a bag and I looked but didnt see anything. recently looking under the car to jack up from the diff i saw where the bag used to be with some tiny melted plastic spots from where it hit but it doesnt smell anymore.

I spent a half hour with a wire brush and scraper to clean the cat on the wife's Scion tC for this exact problem. And it was not possible to see the plastic until the car was up in the air.

if it is a plastic bag I'm not concerned one bit however i don't think it explains the leaking.. huge coincidence if both these things are unrelated

My car pisses all over the ground when it is humid and I run the A/C. You're in Florida. You've never noticed condensation coming from your car when you park it before?

Well i feel like a complete idiot now that I'm realizing that this is probably exactly what it is, noticed it in my 04 LS430 also a couple years ago. Would bet you're right since you usually are on these forums, goes in for a service on thursday anyways