Burning smell - HELP!
 

Recently, my RX300 has been giving off a burning smell. I can't tell if it's a burnt tranny fluid fragrance, a burnt brake fluid stench or an oil burning smell. It seems to be a combination thereof. The smell is coming thru' the vents (mainly the center vents). The smell is worse when the A/C button is not lit up. I thought maybe it was some spilled oil from my last oil change.

I bought some Gunk Citrus Engine Bright hoping that this would solve the problem. I sprayed that stuff on there just today and followed the instructions to the letter. Nope...the Gunk stuff made it smell even worse now. Cuz now I have the Gunk chemical smell invading the RX's cabin. And the burnt smell is now combined with the Gunk chemical smell. :mad:

The smell is very noticeable when starting the car. It is noticeable when sitting idle in traffic too. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help. :(

Check all of your fluids and smell them too. See if any of them smell burned. If you can't find the source of the problem, then have it checked out.

Brake dust makes a bad smell on my vehicle (but I need really good brakes here).

Enzo, when was your oil change and what year car do you have? Notice any oil drips?

I only ever noticed an odor on the '99 when they left oil all over the place, it can take days even a week or more to go away; other oil changes were perfect - no drips and no smell - go figure. I figure if there is a mess of oil all over then at least I know they remembered to change the filter.

I'd have it checked out.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

I sniffed the brake fluid, the power steering fluid, the oil dipstick (I didn't sniff the tranny fluid...don't know where it is in the engine bay). Nothing smells burned. I had the brake fluid replaced at my 24 month service at the Lexus dealer.

I have a 2001 RX300 Silversport. It has about 26,000 miles on it. I changed the oil myself with Mobil 1 5W30 in August. No fresh oil drips on my garage floor either. I just started noticing the smell about 2 weeks ago.

I believe the RX is still under warranty...I just hope the dealer doesn't charge me a $100 (or however much it is) diagnostic fee just to tell me that I have a leak somewhere. Hopefully this will not cost me a penny and the warranty will cover everything. Maybe I will also get them to shampoo the engine too while they are at it.

Thanks again everyone for your comments.