Burning Rubber Smell
 

Well let me first say i just picked up the car about 2 weeks ago, and i love it, its my first M/T car. Yesterday while driving i redlined it, 10rpm, and shifted, nothing really happened, as i did this before, i then went into a parking lot with a friend practiced a hill for a couple minutes with little to no problem, after turning around, i had the car reversing, put it into first, and spun the backtires a tiny tiny bit, and a couple seconds later i smelt a pretty strong burning rubber smell, idk what it would be, i drove it today to work and it was fine, i revved it out a little bit to like 7 today to see, and i got a tiny smell that lasted a few seconds, but not much, the car only has 52,000 miles on it, im wondering if it hasnt been broken in yet? and another thing is when i put the heat on it smells like a burning smell, kinda weird in my opinion.

After aggressive driving a "burning" smell would be somewhat normal as the rotary engine naturally puts out a significantly higher amount of emissions. I would check underneath the car to make sure that there is nothing stuck to your cat that could be burning up.

A burning smell if you drive normally when turning the heater on could be the alternator. On your practice day it could also be the clutch. Drive the car like you stole it but don't slam your shifts. Also look into redline for tranny and diff.

Your description of the event sounds ENTIRELY like burning clutch. Burning clutch smells very similar to burning rubber, only slightly more sulfurous.

A burning smell from the heater under normal conditions is probably unrelated, and possibly anything from the heater core to the cabin air filter (not engine air filter) to something dripped or got dropped into the heater vent and is slowly cooking when you have the heat on.

ok, thats what im going with, im nearly petrified to burn my clutch, ill check under the car to see if anything got stuck, is there anyway it can be the a/c belt? cause my heat wont even come on.

Your A/C has nothing to do with generating heat. Heat is pulled via fan off the heater core, which just pulls heat from the hot coolant. A/C only lowers air temperature.


But yes, belt slipping can cause a burning smell, but that's easy to check (turn on the heat and pop the hood, walk over and see if it's smoking or slipping, if it's worn or damaged while the engine is off), though usually a slipping belt make a hellacious squeal, and you haven't mentioned that.

yea well scratch that, heat and everything is fine, only thing i noticed on the side of the car was a piece of rubber kinda dangling by the wheel behind it i guess are a protector or something but im kinda reachin on this, if it is my clutch which i assume it probably is, what am i in store for? or should i take caution? i just dont wanna burn it out.

Burning smell = burning away friction material on the clutch. No burn is good, but then again, it doesn't mean instant clutch replacement. You likely still have enough left. Eventually you run out, and you need to replace, but if it still grabs fine, then you are fine. Once it starts slipping without your foot on the pedal, it's time (or past time) to replace. They slowly wear down anyway, you just accelerated a chunk of it's lifetime wear.

Just make sure that you don't have partial clutch engagement if the rpm and wheel speeds (for that gear) don't match close enough (within a thousand RPM or so) Slipping the clutch to get moving, especially on a hill, is GOING to happen. When you smell the clutch, it's been slipped too much, and has overheated and is burning off the material. When you for acceleration, rev match and make sure you are full on/full off the pedal, and not shifting while slipping. Especially high RPM, as it will just burn it faster if you slip.

Crisp, but smooth, is what you want.

I slip all the time when I have a passenger, avoid having them get slammed about by changing Gs, but solo I prioritize no-slipping.

alright man ill take your word for it. thanks.

Oh....Oh....

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This!

I also believe that the smell was probably the clutch. Are you just learning how do drive M/T? In your original post you said the RX-8 is your first M/T car. Not sure if you meant to say this is your first time driving a M/T before, or that you simply didn't own a car with M/T.

Unless the previous owner really abused the clutch, it would take more than what you described to completely burn a clutch out on a stock car from a single isolated instance. I wouldn't worry about it too much - unless you are not very comfortable yet with the M/T. If that's the case, then the worse thing that can happen - I believe - is that your clutch will wear faster than normal.

yes this is my first manual tranmission car, i have been driving since that day with no problems at all, no smells or anything prob just burned it a tad, idk how cause i didnt grind or slip it, but thats besides the point, i am comfortable with it, i picked up quick.

it is definitely burning clutch. Youre either shifting wrong or just really over doing it. This was my first car, which turned out to also be my first m/t car, and i had the same issue for the first week until i learned had to drive properly.
Burning clutch smells exactly like burning rubber, they are all correct.