Funny Smell When Driving At Speed

[Cyker]

I was doing a long overtake past several lorries on the M25 today in my Yaris D4D and noticed a strange chemical smell which was getting stronger until I lifted off and dropped back to 60-ish.

Smelled a bit like epoxy resin while it's curing which has made me slightly paranoid something may have overheated and melted slightly or something

Has anyone ever experienced this?? Or maybe has some idea of where it's coming from??

[sisaven]

I was doing a long overtake past several lorries on the M25 today in my Yaris D4D and noticed a strange chemical smell which was getting stronger until I lifted off and dropped back to 60-ish.

Smelled a bit like epoxy resin while it's curing which has made me slightly paranoid something may have overheated and melted slightly or something

Has anyone ever experienced this?? Or maybe has some idea of where it's coming from??

“Smelled a bit like epoxy resin while it's curing” = Clutch Slipping on your car? = Clutch overheating smell from the Lorries you were overtaking? = Plastic Bag rapped around your exhaust?

Have you had this Smell since then, on hills, or pulling away rapidly , or was it just this once.

I have experienced the “Burn’t Friction Material Smell” while overtaking large lorries (with overheated Clutch assemblies) on slight gradients several times over the years, the smell tends to linger inside the interior of your car for a mile or so after overtaking.

[Cyker]

The smell did linger in the car for quite a while, which was why I was getting a bit worried!

I didn't notice it this morning, but since it happened while I was overtaking several lorries up a gradient, your theory about the clutch sounds very plausible!

The clutch feels okay tho', so I'm hoping it was the lorries' clutches :P

I'll see if I can get the garage to check it during the next service just in case tho'...

Thanks :)

[alfiejts]

Usually, any smell you get on the motorway whilst driving at speed or past other traffic is from the outside rather than from your own car.

You only tend to smell your own car at lower speeds or when stationary, when any smell has time to rise towards the heater air intake....

If you can't smell it again and if you can't smell anything similar when you open the bonnet with a warm engine, then I wouldn't worry.

I don't know if the Yaris has a particulate filter, but the latest Audis have various emissions devices that stay closed at low speeds gathering up crap and then open at high speeds and flush the crap through the engine burning it off. It helps keep the emissions (and hence tax) down, but it doesn't half create some strange smells and some issues for people who never drive their car fast enough to burn it off. The tanks fill up and then the car performance suffers...

Some modern cars even have "urea injection" (yes really - google it if you don;t know what urea is...) to cut down emissions and that must make some strange smells...

As you haven't left the handbrake on, then there's probably nothing to worry about....

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435691

[Richard Davies]

My first thought was a slipping clutch, my Dad once parked in a field in France, & nearly burnt out the clutch trying to get it out, thanks to some dewy grass. The smell of slipping clutch wasn't at all plesent.

Once or twice I've smelt something odd while driving & wondered if something was wrong with the car.

I've been surprised how much smoke some diesels give off when they throttle is suddenly opended.

[Jan&tone]

I've been surprised how much smoke some diesels give off when they throttle is suddenly opended.

yeah - and they're supposed to be clean!!!!!!

[alfiejts]

the diesel smoke is just soot - inert carbon. Although you can see it and it looks unpleasant, its not dangerous to health or the atmosphere - unlike the lead that used to be in pre-unleaded petrol or the CO2 that's pumped out of all cars that you just can't see - or the other poisonous gases that came out of petrol cars, pre-catalytic converters....

[Cyker]

Only clean compared to old diesels!

Diesel exhaust is still loads more toxic than petrol exhaust. :(

A good petrol engine produces basically CO2 (Good for trees! Bad for the greenhouse effect) and water; Diesels make all sorts of crap (soot (aesthma!), benzine (cancer!), NOx's (asthma! acid rain!)...)

That said, common rail diesels like the D4D produce a lot less.

The D4D is quite a nice engine; If you look after it, it is very hard to make it smoke.

(Unfortunately, my low-rpm hypermiling ways mean I do get a bit of a cloud if I suddenly floor it, but that's why I take it on a motorway run now and then :D )

You can usually tell if a given diesel engine is common rail or not by how much it smokes ;)

Anyway, been driving it around all day and no epoxy chemical smell so I reckon sisaven was spot on with his overheating truck clutches theory

That's a bit scary tho'; Them trucks must have been really frying those clutches!

[stantheman1]

Binding trailer brakes are another cause of wierd smells, very similar to that of slipping clutches and talking of being paranoid what about strange sounds like squeaky brakes, noisey valves/tappets and bearings etc that seem to emanate from your car when in actual fact come from a much newer car travelling close behind you, this normally happens when in slow moving traffic. There have been times when stood in traffic that I've actually turned the engine off just to see if it's our car or not and thankfully (touching wood) always turns out to be someone elses car, just goes to show how good the Yaris really is if maintained correctly!