One of the most nerve-wracking situations that occur is driving along and you smell the burnt rubber smell from your car. Your brain immediately goes into panic mode and you begin searching for a safe place to pull off the road.
When it comes to the “burnt rubber smell car” alarm, it can mean a plethora of problems, some of them costly and time-consuming. From a simple blown fuse to overheated drive belts, smelling a burnt rubber smell from your car could be nearly anything, and we’ve compiled a list of seven of the most common reasons your car could smell like burnt rubber after driving.
7 Causes of Car Smelling Like Burnt Rubber After Driving
If you’re still driving, the first thing to do is pull your vehicle off the road and park in a safe location. Once the car has had a chance to cool down, you should give the vehicle a cursory inspection, starting at the engine block. Look for obvious issues such as oil or other fluids leaking from any portion of the engine. See if there are worn belts, and check for busted or loose hoses.
If none of those reasons seem to be the issue, check the exhaust system next. Also, try to ascertain if the smell is coming from the inside or outside of the car. Is there any smoke coming from any part of the car? Do you see any puddles of fluid underneath the car?
It’s important to check for signs of oil or fluid leaks because if the vehicle is throwing oil, you will need to be towed. Oil leaks can result in a loss of pressure that can crack your block, or blow your head gasket.
1. Is the engine burning or throwing oil?
If you don’t see any oil puddling underneath your car, you’ll need to visually inspect the engine block checking for any oil that has blown through the seal. If you don’t see any evidence of oil on the surface of your engine, it’s probably not an oil leak.
When your car has a seal or gasket that fails, the oil will slip out while the engine is running and be blown all over the engine block. Oil will also leak into the exhaust system, be rapidly burnt off, and cause a smell similar to burning rubber.
Never drive your car if you see evidence of oil leaking anywhere in your engine. Oil leaks cause a loss of pressure in the engine, which will result in catastrophic failure, even if you only drive a short distance.
Typically the gasket between the engine cylinder and engine block fails, so check that gasket for damage and evidence of leaking oil. This is a scenario that requires a certified technician to diagnose and repair, so give your mechanic a call and arrange a tow for your car.
2. Do you see any worn, loose, or torn hoses?
The heat from a running engine can lead to severe wear on hoses, resulting in failure or damage. In addition, vibration from a running engine can cause hose fittings to loosen, allowing hose ends to come free.
Although a busted or loose hose is a quick and cheap fix in most cases, you shouldn’t attempt to drive your vehicle anywhere after discovering the hose failure. Doing so will cause your vehicle fluids to leak or spray all over, and you could overheat the engine or damage electrical systems in your car.
If you’re capable of changing the hose yourself, it should be a simple task that doesn’t take long to complete. If you aren’t sure, give your mechanic a call and you will be back on the road in a short time.
3. Is there evidence of excessive wear on any of the belts? What is the condition of your drive belt?
When you smell a burnt rubber smell coming from your engine, a likely culprit could be a badly worn or damaged belt. One sure sign that you’re going to incur belt damage is when other components fail on your car, components like your AC and power steering pump.
Because your drive belt runs through a system of pulleys that cause it to constantly rotate, once any of the other components on the drive belt circuit of pulleys locks up or fails, there will be extreme friction on your belt as it struggles to run through pulleys that are no longer operational.
If you haven’t lost your power steering or AC, and you don’t see any damage from a visual inspection of your belts, this probably isn’t the issue that’s causing the burnt rubber smell emanating from your car. If it does turn out to be your drive belt that is damaged, you want to first determine what other component is damaged and caused the belt to fail before you replace the belt.
If you replace the drive belt before you repair the other broken part you’ll just end up replacing the drive belt again. Until all of the parts are running correctly and allowing your drive belt to rotate freely, your drive belt will continue to be damaged by friction and ultimately fail.
4. Do you drive a car with a manual transmission? Was your clutch loose, grinding gears, or slipping out of gear?
If you drive a standard, you may be smelling your clutch burning. It is a smell that is commonly mistaken for the smell of burning rubber. While you were driving, did you have a problem getting your car in gear? Were you hearing the gears grind when you shifted? Did your car pop out of gear as you were driving?
All of these are symptoms of a failing clutch. The majority of the time it’s due to the driver shifting incorrectly, grinding, and wearing out the gears. Once they’re excessively worn, the clutch will need to be replaced or the car won’t go into gear at all.
Be sure that you aren’t using the clutch too hard as you’re shifting because pressing heavily on the clutch causes friction on the other components of the clutch, which will wear the gears down. Replacing a clutch is tricky, so if you’re not handy with car maintenance, this will require your mechanic’s help.
5. Is there any foreign material or item in your engine or undercarriage area?
As simple as it sounds, the reason you smell burning rubber is that there could actually be rubber or plastic laying somewhere burning. It is quite common for grocery sacks and trash bags to be sucked up into the engine compartment, or stuck to hot exhaust parts as they’re driven over.
Check your car from front to back for foreign material or plastic debris, and remove any trash you find. That should eliminate the burning rubber smell pretty quickly, and nothing else needs to be done. If the smell of burning rubber persists after you’ve removed the foreign material, you can use an engine cleaner spray on your engine to rid it of the residue that is still scorching when your engine heats up.
Be careful, though, engine cleaner is a highly corrosive caustic that will burn your skin, eyes, and lungs if you don’t use it in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines. One engine cleaner cycle, then a rinse of your engine and you should be rid of the foul smell of burning rubber.
6. Have you had any electrical issues? Are all electronics, like the radio and lights, working properly?
Electrical shorts and blown fuses are often the problems behind the burning rubber smell. If your electric systems seemed to be working perfectly, inspect your wires for damage or excessive wear. Check your fuse box for blown fuses, because they will cause a burning smell when they blow.
If it is your wiring, that’s a relatively simple fix that won’t take long to repair. Be wary if it’s a blown fuse, and check to make sure it doesn’t blow again. A fuse that blows again when you replace it is a sign that whatever that fuse powers are in need of repair.
7. Were your brakes acting touchy or making noise? Do you brake excessively while driving in traffic?
It’s easy to find out if your brakes are hot because you’ll just need to touch the wheel to know for sure. Hot brakes wear out the brake pad excessively and unevenly. Friction between the pad and discs is what slows your car down. Sticking brake calipers cause a smell like burning rubber, and typically creates squealing noises.
Sticking brake pads can be a symptom of brake system malfunction or brake system failure. If you replace the brake pads on your car and still experience a burnt rubber smell, either alone or with squealing brakes, it’s a larger problem with your brake system so you’ll need to call your mechanic and have him troubleshoot your brake system components.
Solutions for Car Smelling Like Burnt Rubber After Driving- The Fix
After you’ve determined if the burnt rubber smell is caused by one of these seven reasons, you should have the necessary repairs performed as quickly as possible. The smell is one of the fastest ways we recognize a problem with our car, and every warning smell a car emits is sharp and penetrating, something that’s nearly impossible to ignore.
By putting off a necessary repair, you’re likely creating new repair tasks for your car by allowing the damage to travel from one component to another.
If it isn’t one of these reasons, the smell of burnt rubber is fairly easy to pinpoint when performing a vehicle inspection. Follow your nose and find where the smell is the strongest for a general idea of what the exact problem is. If you aren’t familiar with car repair, you’ll most likely need to hire a reputable mechanic to fix the issue before you’ll be able to drive your car again.
If the problem turns out to be an oil leak, your drive belt needs to be replaced, or your clutch needs to be replaced, these are repair jobs that require in-depth mechanical knowledge to perform repairs.
💡 Because of the nature of these problems and the likelihood they could cause catastrophic failure, it's best to leave these repairs to a professional who can troubleshoot, provide an estimate, and perform a quality repair.
Electrical shorts, brake pad replacements, and engine cleaning are tasks that most laymen can perform without encountering major issues with tear down or rebuild. Hose replacement is a simple repair that can be done with one or two tools once you have the proper hose to replace it with.
These aren’t issues that will result in damage to major components if you drive to the auto parts store, so you should have a short timeframe that continuing to drive isn’t a hazard to you or your vehicle. However, these repairs should still be made in the shortest possible period so no further damage is sustained.
The Conclusion
If your car smells like burnt rubber after driving, the easiest way to pinpoint the cause is to analyze your car’s performance. If you lost pressure, overheated, or your car wouldn’t go into gear, you should be aware of a major mechanical problem with your car.
Your mechanic should be able to tow your vehicle in and perform necessary repairs to prevent further damage to your car by driving it into catastrophic failure.
The burnt rubber car smell can be indicative of a few minor issues also. Wiring and fuses, trash in the engine compartment, hose failure, and brake pad failure can smell just like a serious mechanical issue, but in reality, require very little to repair.
If you’re mechanically inclined, you should have a little problem performing these simple repairs, and eliminating the burnt rubber smell after you drive your car.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. We want to help you figure out why your car smells like burnt rubber after you drive it and we’re always ready to hear your tips and troubleshooting stories.