"Sweet" Burning Smell from my '93 3VZE
 

I have '93 3VZE with about 140,000 miles. I've owned this truck for about a year and a half and have driven it about 6000 miles in that time. Other than replacing the exhaust I have had no problems with this truck, and have performed two oil changes. I check the oil and fluids frequently all seems normal.

But early this summer I noticed that the AC was no longer blowing as cold as it used to. In fact, even when recirculating the air it barely feels any cooler than the ambient air.

Even more recently (in the past couple of weeks) I've noticed a strong "sweet" smell coming through the vents that start after 5-10 minutes of driving. Sometimes the scent goes away, but sometimes it gets worse and starts to smell like burning rubber. I've checked under the hood a number of times to see if I have a belt rubbing or slipping, but all visible belts appear normal.

Timing belt and water pump were changed at about 100,000. Anyone have any suggestions as to what could be causing the smell?

your heater core could be leaking coolant into the cab...there should be a drain under the truck on the passanger side where water(condesation sp) can drain...see if coolant is leaking from there...

My guess would be the heater core, also.

yup... coolant... in my work van, I started smelling a "kettle corn" smell and new instantly it was coolant.

x3...

try this... when you get home or to work, or whereever...pop the hood and open the coolant resevoir (NOT RADIATOR) if it smells the same.. bingo..

Also fell around your carpet on the pass side up under the dash, it is probally wet and/or sticky.

Thanks for the replies. I'm in agreement that the smell is coolant. But I'm getting this smell all the time, regardless of whether the heater is on or not. In fact, today I really didn't smell it much at all and I turned the heater on full blast and still didn't smell anything. So while I'm sure I'm smelling burning coolant I don't think it's coming from the heater coil. I have found no evidence of coolant in the cab of the truck either.

So my next question, what are some other likely places that coolant could be leaking? Is it possible its dripping on an exhaust component somewhere, explaining why it smells like its burning? Would an engine block get hot enough to "cook" coolant? I'm also wondering if maybe its leaking from around the water pump and possibly getting "cooked" off of my timing belt.

Check the water pump first, then I'd try the hoses behind the plenum next to the firewall. There is one in particular the looks like a hairpin curve, about 6 inches long. It may have a pinhole leak that sprays water onto the intake manifold under pressure.