Burning paper smell, exhaust smoke when engine is off

[Jim Oaks]

Vanessa has a 2005 Mitsubishi Galant. I noticed a couple times going to get her from work in the mornings that it had a burning smell. It smelled like paper burning. I actually first thought a mouse got in under the hood and started making a nest.

Anyways, this morning when I went to get her it seemed like the car had more white smoke in the morning than it should. When we got home and got out of the car I noticed there was still a small amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust when the engine was off.

My initial fear was that it was steam from a blown head gasket. The car runs fine though and hasn't tripped the check engine light.

I figured I'd ask for some feedback to see if there is anything else that could be the culpret other than the head gasket.

I have to admit the burning paper smell throughs me.

 

[bobbywalter]

kinda like rice paper?


















































probably some leakage of the ac/heating lines

 

[Jim Oaks]

probably some leakage of the ac/heating lines

Causing the smell, or smoke?

 

[RatDog8o8]

Is the smell more inside or outside the car?

 

[Jim Oaks]

Inside. Thought maybe the heater was pulling it from the engine compartment.

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

might want to check the blower motor resistor if its easy access. i've removed a couple pounds of dry pine needles from blower cases before that were causing a burning smell.

other than that all i can think of is leaves/pine needles dropped into the exhaust heat shield.

if the engine was sucking coolant into the cylinders it would most likely be overheating pretty bad and the coolant would smell like exhaust

 

[bobbywalter]

the smell i was referring too. the resistor itself can do this with age and usually you lose blower settings from there.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Have you ever seen white smoke lightly coming out of the tailpipe after the engine was off?

I'll take a look at the oil and coolant tomorrow.

 

[bobbywalter]

in the winter i do.


well on the gassers.

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

in the winter i do.


well on the gassers.

same here.

 

[shane96ranger]

the smell i was referring too. the resistor itself can do this with age and usually you lose blower settings from there.

I agree, blower motor resistor would be my guess for the smell.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Turned out to be the a mouse. I had dog food sitting in the garage. Mice were getting in to find the dog food and then going up in to Vanessa's engine bay and chewing on the insulation on her firewall. The smell was from the burning insulation.

Dealership told us to put a pan with moth balls under the car and it will keep the mice away.

 

[TheTopher]

Dealership told us to put a pan with moth balls under the car and it will keep the mice away.

You can give it a shot, but in my experience that doesn't work as well as you may think.

 

[Mark_88]

Mice...hmmmm...

If you don't have any cats or dogs, leave a small dish of anti-freeze inside the garage...they lap it up and it kills them dead...

My Dad had a boat and the mice used to crawl into the exhaust and build nests...he tried stuffing the pipe with styrofoam but they ate through that...think he ended up stuffing thick plastic coasters into the pipes when storing it in the winter...not a good thing if you're going to be driving every day....