OK 2002 3.0 x-type AWD: after driving the car smells like wires are melting. can't locate source of smell, but it is happening. can not find any "hot" areas and am at a loss. (oh the front speakers went out) Thanks for any tips in advance

Ken

 

Kravchak, when you smell the burning wires, can it be tied to any one thing running in the car (only happens when I run the dash heater, or when I run the seat heaters, or when ....)? For you to get the "Hot" smell, you are looking at some decent current or a bad wire. With that being said, are there any circuits in your car that you have upped the fuses on because they kept blowing the fuses? I would start there first. After that, I would start with where you recently did maintenance. It may be possible that if you just recently had an oil change done, what you are smelling is the oil burning off of the exhaust header and getting sucked in the ventilation.

If you have no hints at this point, I would start with turning everything electrical off in your car possible (radio, wipers, headlights, etc). Run the car with pretty much only the ECU getting power. Do you have the smell now? If yes, then you have something bad between the battery and the fuse box or one of the constant power wires. This is where spending lots of time looking around and looking at everything with a fine tooth comb is going to be the only way to find this problem. Granted, keep in mind that it could be something non-wiring.

If you are not smelling it with the minimal electrical, start turning things on one at a time and see when the smell comes back. I would first start with the high current items (rear defroster, seat heaters, dash blower) and see if those are what is leading to your issue. IT may be possible that you have a ground wire that is starting to go and it will only show its ugly head when you have lots of stuff running. Been there, seen that. Keep turning stuff on until you smell it again. Then the last thing that you turned on will be your culprit.

Let me know what you find and we can take things from there.

 

Also, can you smell it just inside the car or when you open the door can you smell it outside the car as well. Can you maybe localize it, like the smell is stranger under the hood or near the bottom of the rear passenger seat, for example? Did the smell start first and then the speakers went out? Vice versa? Notice anything else changing, performance of the engine, smell is becoming stronger, other electrical accessories acting funny or stop working?

I know this is probably an extreme long shot, but did you look under the car that maybe as you were driving something plastic did not get caught under the car and is burning off on the exhaust?

 

Thanks I am looking and will update everybody. But I notice it when I get out of the car and park it. I never smell it inside and everything runs great. Only the front speakers went out. It's going to rain here for the next few days so it's going to just sit in the garage until we get nice weather. I will update hopefully this weekend

 

I had a similar experience, and I pretty much narrowed it down to the electric demist function on the front windscreen. I pulled the fuses to make sure I didn't activate the button by mistake, as no one seemed to know just where the connections to the windscreen could be accessed for a visual check.

 

I've also had part of a plastic bag catch on the exhaust and melt with a similar outcome.

I've also had the light bulb in the drivers footwell slip slightly in its holder causing the plastic to melt when the door is open for a while. Just normal in and out doesn't cause the bulb to heat enough, but if the door was open for a couple of minutes, then I got the smell.

Rgds

Rob