Occasionally (say <10% of the time), I get the smell of burning rubber in the cabin of my car when I back up, slowly, about 50 ft (preparing to pull into my garage). My car is a 2001 540iA with 102k miles. I have not replaced anything under the hood recently but all of the "normal" stuff has been done on my car within the past few years (valve cover gaskets, power steering lines, radiator, water pump, etc, etc.). I can't seem to reproduce the burning rubber smell, but when it happens, it's bad enough that even my non-car enthusiast wife will comment, "What's that smell? Is that YOUR car?" I did see one post on another site that mentioned head gasket failure, but my symptom is sporadic AND I'm not using any oil AND there is no smoke under the hood. Separately, I am getting ready to do the dreaded valley pan gasket job this weekend. (And no, the smell is not coolant.) I would like to see if anyone has any suggestions on my burning rubber smell so I know if I need to grab any more parts to replace while I have everything torn apart for the valley pan gasket. Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Me personally, I think you have a small oil leak somewhere. That same smell, happened too me twice, and each time it was a leak. Once from the valve cover, and I forgot where the other leak came from. The leak hit the manifold and never made it too the pavement so I would never see that my car was leaking. But since it was landing on the manifold it was burning and the smell would come through the vents when I had the heat on. Just a thought, hope it helps.
Thanks for your thoughts. I am watching all fluids closely. I'll pay extra attention to the oil level to see if it is dropping.
