2008 JK 2 door - 3.8L - 155K
wife reports 2X now that she smells "a rubber burning smell" when she is driving. first time I opened up hood and did not really smell anything, though my nose is not as good as hers, and the jeep had not been overheating or anything. Brakes seem fine, not pulling or dragging. no evidence of electrical insulation smell in the cabin. I had re-insulated the wires around the throttle body on top of the engine - added new loom covers and used electrical tape - maybe getting too hot? I pulled the throttle body -wow, so dirty - so cleaned that but noticed gasket was pinched so flipped around and reused and ordered a new one for next time - and replaced vinyl tape with cloth friction tape on the wire loom, but no evidence that any rubber was burning up so that is not it, but good that I got the TB cleaned anyway. hmmm...well, keep an eye on it...
today, same thing - burning smell soon after she started driving on the highway... but this time she calls from the road to tell me what is going on. After a few minutes she said it was getting better on her way to the appt, then on the way home, no worries. Car runs and drives great, etc.
to me, this maybe points to a small valve cover oil leak dripping on the exhaust when the engine is hot, then burning off so the smell goes away?
what other jeep specific problem am I overlooking here? I am thinking though that at 155K I might just want to change the valve cover gaskets if I pull them off to inspect, no matter what.
any advice appreciated.
JIM in NH
wife reports 2X now that she smells "a rubber burning smell" when she is driving. first time I opened up hood and did not really smell anything, though my nose is not as good as hers, and the jeep had not been overheating or anything. Brakes seem fine, not pulling or dragging. no evidence of electrical insulation smell in the cabin. I had re-insulated the wires around the throttle body on top of the engine - added new loom covers and used electrical tape - maybe getting too hot? I pulled the throttle body -wow, so dirty - so cleaned that but noticed gasket was pinched so flipped around and reused and ordered a new one for next time - and replaced vinyl tape with cloth friction tape on the wire loom, but no evidence that any rubber was burning up so that is not it, but good that I got the TB cleaned anyway. hmmm...well, keep an eye on it...
today, same thing - burning smell soon after she started driving on the highway... but this time she calls from the road to tell me what is going on. After a few minutes she said it was getting better on her way to the appt, then on the way home, no worries. Car runs and drives great, etc.
to me, this maybe points to a small valve cover oil leak dripping on the exhaust when the engine is hot, then burning off so the smell goes away?
what other jeep specific problem am I overlooking here? I am thinking though that at 155K I might just want to change the valve cover gaskets if I pull them off to inspect, no matter what.
any advice appreciated.
JIM in NH
