my car smells like a hot wax ski shop?!
 

Lately, when I park my car in the garage, I get a strong smell that is just like the hot wax smell in a ski shop. No, I didn't just wax my car and get some on the pipes. Anybody else smell anything like that? Don't get me wrong, I like the smell, but it's never done that, and I find it a bit odd.

Tbone

i've never smelled hot wax at a ski shop. have you just recently purchased your 8? could be some protectants burning off? did you run over anything? check to see if something is stuck underneath causing the burning smell.

check your coolant level and under the car. Hope your car isn't ingesting the anti-freeze.

thanks
 

Dead mouse, doubtful. but I will check the coolant. It is that kind of sickening sweet smell that propylene glycol would produce.

Tbone

Look for plastic bag remnants on the exhaust system>

found it
 

I looked under there yesterday evening, and found a highly melted plastic bag on my CAT. I don't remember driving over one, but it may have blown under after driving somewhere, too. Yikes. It really smells when it gets hot. Could be worse. could be melted skunk!

Tbone

yes~! my diagnosis was correct~!

can sombody please discribe what hot wax in a ski shop smells like??i live in FL..i don't get to smell hot wax on skis...hot wax on surf boards smells good though..lol

Apparently if you wrap a plastic bag around your cat and go for a spirited drive or two you will have your answer.

I love the smell of hot wax on skis in the morning.....

Having worked in a ski shop, what you're usually smelling is less the hot wax (although that does have a "funk" of it's own) but instead the P-Tex polyethelene repair "candles" burning. The plastic on the bottom of your skis (at least back in my day, it was "P-Tex" - don't know what they call it now) was repairable using these candles of plastic that you lit and then dripped hot molten plastic into the gouges in your skibottoms. Then you scraped it flat and sanded it to make it smooth. And that shit smelled for all the world like burning plastic bags on a catalytic converter.

The hot wax is less plastic smelling and more "hot and greasy" smelling - like the smell of a candle after you blow it out.

It's funny how smells or even the thought of smells brings back memories. I had a blast that year - I graduated from college in December (rather than May) and headed to Colorado where I got a job tuning skis every night and skiing all day. My "work day" started at 4:00 and went until 1 or 2 in the morning, doing ski bottom tuning - P-Texing, hotwax, flat grinding, edge sharpening, etc. I'd have a couple of beers, then crash about 3 AM, then be up at 8:30 AM and up on the mountain skiing all day until 2:30, when I'd shoot home, shower up, and head to work. This was spring of 1985. Then April 1 I headed home to Des Moines IA (where I grew up) and got a job selling Mazda's and Porsches for a year!

What a great 3 months that ski shop job was. Thanks for reminding me with your "smell" story.

Best,

Stew

How long have you had your car? My garage now has a smell from my 8, which I have had for three months. I think the tires, the undercoating, and any oil in or on the exhaust contribute. Can't say it smells like burnt ski wax, but it actually smells good.