Scary smell on steep hills! Help!

[Sprinterx29]

I'm not saying to change it every 4k, they just gave me a coupon for my very first one plus a checkup and whatnot after 4k so I figured why not! I have a feeling the "issue" might be more just the effort of the car and some bad habits, I think my clutch is okay! I'm not thaaaat bad of a driver! You're right about the shifter though, I think a lot of us have a bad habit of resting on it, including me.

[Eggman]

I'm not saying to change it every 4k, they just gave me a coupon for my very first one plus a checkup and whatnot after 4k so I figured why not!

Bring it up during your visit and see what your shop has to say. Try to avoid diagnosing it yourself while discussing it with the service desk, just to see what they suggest might be happening. Do try to offer as much detail as to what is happening when you notice the smell.

I'm sure they'll take care of you.

[Eggman]

Well, how's it going? Do you think your clutch is slipping?

[Sprinterx29]

I have not confirmed or denied! Fluids and engine looked and smelled fine after driving home last night, and I was able to hook her up to a code reader with no results. So those might be good signs! Still have had the smell though a couple times. I do think it's a little better now that I'm not worried about staying in a lower gear to tackle the hills, but I don't think that's solved it.

I've been thinking about my RPMs and clutch movement as people suggested, and I haven't noticed anything weird. I'm gonna guess that it might very well be the clutch, but early on? I will be traveling this weekend and she will stay home, I'll be taking her to Mitsu next week!

[adrew]

I still maintain it is not the clutch and that the dealer is not going to be able to reproduce the problem. Are you getting whiffs of a smell while driving? Or is there a strong, pungent smell that lingers after you park the car (that would be the clutch). If you floor it in 4th gear while going up a hill, do you get any slippage (RPMs rising out of sync with MPH)?

All cars emit a smell when under a heavy load, like climbing a steep hill or towing. I will get whiffs of it in my Yaris in that situation if I have the A/C on recirculate - switching it to "fresh" briefly resolves it.

[Sprinterx29]

I am inclined to agree with you...

The smell is very brief and fleeting (I always have the windows open, I avoid the AC when I can) It does smell like burning a bit, but not in the "pull over, this is an emergency" kind of way. I have never noticed it lingering while the car is parked or once I'm home; it's just during or immediately after those periods of a steep climb and then gone. I have been told that "clutch smell" is rather strong and distinctive. So I'm hoping it isn't that!

I have not noticed anything weird with RPMs not matching up or adjusting irregularly. I am hoping someone can just take a look at my clutch, say "this looks fine!" and then I can accept that TB just smells like that sometimes!

[cinder]

The smell is likely the plastic intake manifold . Yaris we had and Hondas did / do it occasionally .

[Sprinterx29]

The smell is likely the plastic intake manifold . Yaris we had and Hondas do this on occasion .

So is this an issue, or just something that happens sometimes? Anything I can do to prevent?

[adrew]

Do what now? The intake manifold doesn't give off an odor just because it is plastic. Unless it is cracked or broken and is letting vapors from the PCV system escape, it would not have any way to give off a smell at all.

The smell to which I am referring (kind of a sulfur-y burnt hair smell) is common to the exhaust of every car I've owned when running it hard, regardless of make (I have had Hondas, Toyotas, a Mazda, a Subaru and a Ford) or intake manifold material (plastic or metal). The thing about the Mirage is that it has modest power -- while it can get out of its own way, you might have to put the accelerator to the floor to merge into fast traffic where a Civic in the same situation might only require 50%. My Civic Si would definitely smell if I ran it out to 7000+ RPM at WOT in gears 1-3.

When you floor it, it runs rich/goes into open loop and dumps in a ton of fuel.

[MightyMirageMpg]

Extremely doubtful your clutch is the culprit. It would likely have glazed and lost its grippyness from slipping up a mountain lmao!! (IE: you would need a tow truck)

What's a plastic intake smelll like, and why do they smell?


Edit; thanks Adrew, posted my answer as I posted my question