A couple times now I have had a burnt smell after driving home. Today I found a little smoke rising from the front of the car. Digging found that the wisp of smoke was coming from behind the fog light or maybe the back of the oil cooler. It could be the known problem of rusted fittings, though my car has spent its entire life in south carolina. Salted roads happens but its rare here.

Anybody know any other reasons why this could be happening? My next step tomorrow will be to take the underbody panel off to look at the oil cooler back and see what I can find.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

If you had an oil leak you would know it, there would be oil. Are you sure you fender liners are not rubbing or damaged? If so, It could just be water getting on the oil coolers and steaming.

 

is it smoke or is it steam? Steam would be thin and light while smoke would be darker and thicker.

 

It is not heavy like something is on fire but the smell is definitely burnt. I agree if it was an oil line I would see a puddle under the car. It could be steam because it was raining both times i noticed it. I just have never smelled it before in the last 93,000 miles. I will hunt more today.

 

normal when its raining.

 

I had this same problem the other day when it was pouring outside... It did turn out just to be steam

 

Thanks for the conformation. I will watch and see. The smell is what bothered me more than the smoke/steam.