Alzonie

About a week ago I started noticing a strange smell coming from the engine compartment when I'd stop, after the engine was hot. I couldn't figure out what it was to save myself. Nothing was leaking, all the fluid levels were fine, and it didn't smell of gas or coolant. It just smelled like something was overheating. I lived with it for a few days but the smell persisted. I finally took it into the dealers yesterday and the first thing the guy did was get on his hands and knees and looked under the car. Seems that a plastic bag had snagged onto the exhaust pipe somehow and was wrapped around it and melting. I felt like a jerk, but I never gave such a thing a thought. I guess it happens often enough for him to find the cause in 5 minutes!

ChevyMgr

This is a fairly common occurance. Plastic bags can take out pinion seals on rear wheel drive vehicles too. Another reason to go paper instead of plastic at the store

Wodinator

I hit a dead skunk (with my old 78 Camaro) going 75 mph- I KNEW what the smell was....and it was not good.

an08HHR

Ya, you crapped your pants also

Chizzer

Haha wow, that would do it.

tim_tenn

I had the same problem back in '99. I started noticing the smell as my car warmed up, but could not figure out what it was. Nothing wrong under the hood, all fluids OK, etc. The smell continued and got unbearably bad one day after it rained. I took it in to the dealership for an ongoing electrical problem, and asked my service writer to take a whiff. He had one of his service techs take a look after telling me "you can't drive this car with that smell!" What they found was a stash of dog food. They took me back to show me. Yes, there was a fairly large stash of dog food (the kind I fed my dogs) in a cubby hole behind the front strut tower and close to the manifold. They cleaned it out, and it tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. A little hidden camera work gave me the answer -- a squirrel was coming into my garage through the doggie door, was stuffing his mouth full of dog food, then was climbing up into my car and storing it for winter!

RUDEINC

A very similar thing happend to me at work....I had a beater Pontiac 6000 that I was driving to work for a while, and when ever I would pop the hood to check fluids I used to find all sorts of food remains. Then another day I found a huge mound of dog food piled on top of the heater box...I just figured that some of my co-workers were messing with me, I didn't care cause we do stuff like that all the time to each other. Then one day I was walking out to my car and watched this "animal" climb down from the wheel well area of the car. Well it turns out that animal was a big ass rat....Then I finally put 2 and 2 together and figured it out.....What they would do is, when it is cold out, they will climb up into the engine compartment to keep warm and they were doing this all winter...Needless to say, I stopped parking by the dog food where our guard dogs eat and haven't had a problem since...lol...

DavidF

My '78 Camaro (back in the 80's, don't still have it...) had that problem. I got a black plastic bag wrapped around something in the rear, and when the bag melted, so did a seal...that sucked!

Anyway, ever since then, whenever it looks like I drive over something like that, I always look in the rear view mirror to make sure it comes back out, or I pull over and look for it. Paranoid I realize, but fool me once...

Z-Man

You had a Pontiac, No Way Dude

Z

Z-Man

No Way, Why did you hit it. Thats sucks P-U that must of really smelled.

Z