i have all new belts on my truck from when i rebuilt it about 10 months ago, i should proally go back and re tighten them all i guess.

 

bump

wondering if you figured out what the burning smell was texas. it was freezing this morning when i went into work and i let it warm up for 10 minutes beforehand. right when i got out the smell was as worse as its ever been, getting a little nervous

 

snug your belts up.. cold belts and cold pullys.. the pullys slipping inside the belt... burning it.. then it warms up and the pullys warm up.. and its gone.. new belts will stretch out to a certain point then slow to a crawl. old belts have really stretched and if you havenet adjusted them in a while you will olso get the burning smell.. smells kinda like clutch?

 

We get a funny smell off our vehicles here in the winters. It is the combination of road salt, MagChloride and other road slop on the hot undercarrage parts.

 

LOL, i have been so busy i have not actually had time to fix it BUT i did look at it carfully and smeeled around when it was happening and i am 95% sure it is the belts. The smell is coming fromt he front of the engine bay for sure. You can smeel it up there and the fan will blow it to you.

Yep, that is the smell. I think you are right on this one. I just have not had time (or felt like freezing my tail off) to tighten thm. I might try it today if i get time actually.

Well none of that here, we actually use sand when and if we get some ice.

 

Ok, I figured this out! Just never got around to updating this.

Well i tightened my belts a little while back and though it kinda helped with the smell it didn't get rid of it. It did seem ot make the engine run smoother though. After i tightened the belts the smell changed to more of just a buring smell.

Well while i was doing the belts i started poking around and found that although my truck doesn't leak any oil and it doesn't lose any oil on the dip stick that at the very back of the engine there was some oil.

So after poking around some more i figured out where the smell was coming from. The vavle cover gasket seems to have a VERY slight leak at the very back of the engine. RIGHT ABOVE the exahust manofold. So it cooks the oils as it comes out and after sniffing it that is where the smell comes from.

I went to the toyota dealer the other day to get some Zmax (they have the best price for it, go figure) i bumped into the one tech there that knows something. I told him and he took a look and said, yep, your valve cover is leaking. This is a fairly common problem on high miles 3.4l.

He said that it doesn't hurt anything other than the smell, it rarely gets to the point where it will even really drip from it.

But at last i know what the smell is! I figure when i get the SC i will change the gaskets out but until then i am no longer worried. Thought i would pass this on.

 

Looks like I will be checking for the same thing tonight... I have started smelling that about a month ago. Thanks for coming back with the info.

 

I figured someone would like to know what i found. Just check the back side of the engine, you can barely see it in my case, unless you are really looking for it.

 

Yea, mine leaks a bit in the back also, above the exhaust manifold, and that has been the exact smell I've been smelling, good to know it is nothing too serious. Thanks

 

Holy thread bump batman!

Funny the threads we forget we even made years ago. I really need to get back into the 4runner game and get some things done on mine i have been putting off.

 

yea, sorry bout that, I realized how old your thread was about two seconds after I posted my reply.

 

Funny this should come up, because I just started smelling some burning as well, except cold for me is between -20 and -30 celsius. Never noticed it until the temps really dropped.

 

Ive had the slight burning oil smell must be a tiny valve cover leak on mine to.I have no spots at all under my Runner and the engine bay is spotless.It only uses oil at a half quart at a time on 600 mile road trips,uses no oil in months of city driving.

 

LOL, no problem. i could care less, it is just fun to be able to say batman in a post.

Bet it could be the same issue as me, i know i have not had the smell again in over a year since doing the valve cover.

 

Yeah Im sure thats what it is, but I imagine mine will be waiting until spring.

 

old thread, but thank you. i started smelling something kinda like burnt rubber. iv had two valve gasket leaks that got fixed and now im currently leaking again. anyways, its good to know that the smell isnt something that i need to take it to the shop for. i thought i was running low on coolant or something!!

i am glad i dont have to fix this and hope my 3.0 lasts till march to drop that 3.4 in!

 

I'm experiencing a similar problem, and I'm going to check for the oil leak when I get home. See, the search function is your friend.

 

This problem has actually came back to me in the last few months, not sure if it is the valve cover again or not, have not been able to track down exactly where it is coming from yet. It is in the same area though.

 

I'm glad this got bumped. I've been having this issue for a while now. Yotatech to the rescue!