07-04-2015, 07:04 PM | #1 |
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The Smell, the Odor, the Bad MPG
A funny thing happened on the way home from work the other day. Great set up for a joke, right? No joke. I smelled burning plastic. Seemed to be coming from under the hood. I noticed this while parking in the garage. My neighbor smelled it and came over to ask what was wrong.
We looked under the hood, under the car and could find nothing. I thought that maybe a plastic grocery bag had blown under the car and attached to a hot pipe or something. We found nothing. I've never smelled that odor again, but my gas mileage has been really bad lately. Never over 15 mpg in the city. Never over 25 on the highway. Thoughts? |
07-05-2015, 12:16 AM | #3 |
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A brake caliper dragging would cause a hot metallic smell, not burning plastic. Could be EGR or charge pipe related. Maybe even the electronic actuator for the waste gate. Any symptoms other than the smell?
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07-05-2015, 04:42 PM | #4 |
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Only smell of burning plastic, just once. Has not happened again. The only weird thing is the really bad gas mileage. Can't break 15 in the city.
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07-05-2015, 07:19 PM | #5 |
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How's power production? Do you feel as though the car is sluggish? Hard 1-2 shifts? Does it still idle smoothly?
Check your EGR hoses for cracks. They're the hoses that connect to the bottom side of the intake just before the intake connects to the plenum. I suspect something burned through one of your vacuum hoses. But that usually causes a really crappy idle, or no idle.
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07-07-2015, 10:39 AM | #8 |
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yeah, I suspect 20-22 is more indicative of most drivers. Wifey gets around 18-19 in hers. But she has a pretty heavy foot (and there's a JB4 on it). Drives closer to 90 than 70.
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07-08-2015, 02:17 PM | #9 |
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It's the 4.0l. I mostly drive in the city. Mileage had been 17 to 18 mpg. Now it's just under 15 mpg. Seems to idle fine. I cannot detect any power loss either. Could be heavy use of air conditioning since it's been pretty hot here lately. IOW, bad burning smell followed by low mileage really a coincidence. Air conditioner eating 2 or 3 mpg?
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07-08-2015, 11:08 PM | #10 |
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4 cylinder you mean? Air con will eat a couple, but if you have the 28i (4 cyl), you're getting horrible mileage.
More info is needed, but if it continues and you're still under warranty, bring it in and have them look at it.
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07-08-2015, 11:55 PM | #11 |
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22 mpg here 50/50 highway/city with temperatures over 100 F. I noticed 20 mpg after i left the car sitting for two weeks thinking the gas in the tank might degraded.
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