burnt plastic smell
 

After driving yesterday, I smelled this burning plastic smell coming out of the engine bay. I started it again and all seems normal, no error lights and no message on the dash and the temp is normal.

there was no sign of smoke and i crawled under the car and didn't find any debris that could cause the smell.

I read about cosmoline but I just happened yesterday so I'm not sure.

Any of you guys had experience this?

Im taking it for an oil change on thursday so I may ask the service tech, or should i take it ASAP.

Cosmoline has indeed a very distinctive smell, but I would not say that it smells like burnt plastic. The only time I smelt burnt plastic in my 997 was when a plastic shopping bag got stuck under my car and melted on the exhaust. Although I removed the bag within minutes, the burnt plastic smell lastest for a week or so (it would come back everytime the exhaust warmed up).

Check to make sure that you don't have any wires touching any hot areas - specifically the O2 sensor wires (four of them) have a nylon type covering and these are close to exhaust pipes. There are a lot of plastic parts on newer P cars so anything is possible. As I understand it, cosmoline is a moisture protection material - wax like in appearance (brown/gold) that was meant for shipping the car when new and was applied to mainly the engine. If any of it was missed by the dealer, it should have long burned off. If you do find any - WD-40 is the best product to clean it off.

thanks guys