there has been a strong odor like my car is running hot and it kinda smells like hose's burning but not as much of a rubber smell to it..I cant really put my finger on what the odor is but it does have me worried...I also noticed that my fans are never running unless i put on the a/c.......someone told me to drive it the next few days with my air on the whole time and see if the smell goes away...then it might be that the fans are not kicking on when it gets hot...the temp gauge it not showing any over heating ....so could it still be overheating?.....I do noticewhen I pop the hood after driving a short distance everything is real hot hose's.. etc... and I dont know if this means anything but ichecked into the coolant overflow and it was a bitsteamy...and also a couple of months ago the thermostat was replaced and a radiator hose replaced...well before I take it in to get checked out....does anyone has any suggestions????

 

I have the same burning smell on my 02 Focus ZX-5 and it is driving me crazy. I can't find the source. The smell is particularly pronounced after I slow down from 15 minutes or more of highway driving.

Did you have any luck finding out what is causing your smell?

Mike

 

To answer your question Mike , No I still have no idea what the smell is but i am taking my car in on friday to have a recall done so I am going to ask them about it.. I hope they might be able to pin point the odor or atleast give me some kind of idea where it could be coming from..but yeah I have to agree its driving me crazy too...and oh there is one thing I have noticed is, "I think" to be some oil over spill and that is burning off so I am getting a little bit of smoking coming from under the oil cap area of the engine..and well crapI hope thats all that issue is and not something more serious.. but who knows cause when you go to the dealer they will find everthing wrong with your car just to hike up the cost..im not really sure what they are going to tell me causeI cant pay for any kind of inspection right now so i can just hope that since they will be under the hood they just might take a peek for me.....im kinda pissed off about the whole situation cause I just bought this car and I already have found out that I need a new cv boot its the front passanger side it has a little bit of play in it so its making noise but only on bumps and pot holes itsounds fine when Im turning so who freaking know....well if you find out anything let me know and I will do the same.....thanx..Gregory

 

Gregory,

Thanks for replying so promptly.

Regarding the oil around the oil cap area, I had that same problem. I noticed som oil seaping out of the seal between the valve cover (what the oil cap attaches to) and the engine block. I stopped the oil from seaping by tightening down the valve cover. I tightened all the bolts (10 mm I think) in a criss cross manner tightening the inside bolts first then then tightening the outside bolts. I turned the ratchet on each bolt until it was snug, being careful not to overtighten. It was amazing how loose each bolt was. That stopped the oil from seaping and dripping on the rest of the engine.

The smell I have now is not an oil-burning smell but more of a rubber-burning smell. The odor gets stronger as the car gets hotter. I really smell it after slowing down or stopping.

For what it is worth, based on my experience with bad CV boots and CV joints (believe me, I have had plenty), if the CV joint is bad, it doesn't make any sense to put on a new boot over a CV joint that will eventually need replacing. Either you replace both the CV joint and boot or you can wait until the CV joint is constantly clicking and then replace both the boot and joint at the same time. On the other hand, if only the boot is bad, it makes sense to replace the boot as to save the joint. A good mechanic will check your CV joint while he is changing the boot. If the joint is bad, replace it. It will save you from paying the same labor cost again later. Or you can check the CV joint yourself. Find a parking lot or open space where you can turn your steering wheel all the way to one direction. Keep turning as fast as you can without the situation being dangerous. Turn the steering wheel the other direction and perform a constant radius turn. If you hear a consistent clicking sound, your CV joint is bad. If you don't hear a clicking sound, it is likely that just your boot is bad and it makes sense to replace it so dirt doesn't get into the CV joint.

I hope I didn't insult your automotive intelligence but I am just trying to help a fellow Focus owner out by sharing my own experiences. Us suckers who bought a Focus need all the help we can get.

Keep me posted on what you find out regarding that smell. Hopefully the dealer will be honest and tell you what is really going on.

Mike

 

hey MikeI see what you are saying and thanks for the input regarding the cv issues..I have done the turning test and it sounds ok the only thing I notice about the cv joint is that the bar has a little bit of play (back and fourth) like there is a gap about 1/2 inch or so from where the joint connects to the tire or bearings or whatever..(yeah I dont really know much about these front wheel drive cars)anyway and yeah its making a banging click noise everytime I come across anything bumpy like that bar is banging toward the tire clink clink metal on metal...the boots look good,,,i was meaning cv joint issues (not the boot)..sorry. and as far as the smell yes it is kinda rubbery smelling like hoses are to hot or something and mine does get worse smelling douring longer drive times...its so bad that I cant park it in the garage...stinks up my whole place....but I will let you know tomorrow what they say about it........Gregory

 

Hi,
I have a 2006 Focus wagon that does not have a burning smell. I used to have an Escort wagon that did however have a similar problem. What I found on that car was that under the battery were 2, 12 volt relays that worked along with 2 relays in a small fuse box next to the battery to control the 2 speed engine cooling fan. At typically well over 110 F in the summers, it can get pretty warm here in the Phx. area so cooling systems and air conditioners really get tested. Even with the AC turned off, my Escort's fan would run in its' high speed all year long except for the winter time. The high speed motor winding normally drew so much current that the under-sized relays and the wiring between them would slowly "cook" themselves until the fan wouldn't run at all. As this happened, my car would produce a burning plastic odor from under the hood. A couple of times it made lots of smoke while the over heating, under-sized wire's insulation burned as I drove. Over the 10 years that I owned the car, I had to replace the relays and some lengths of heavy gauge wire several times. The 2 relay sockets built into the fuse box were completely burned up in 5 years so I had to add relay sockets outside of the fuse box. I kept plenty of relays on my shelf and I still have some of them. I went up to 8 gauge wire and had to solder them to the relay leads rather than using crim-on connectors to minimize the situation. There was nothing wrong with the fan motor or the engine. It was the under-sized cables and relays used in the control circuit. They were rated at 30 amps but probably should've been 50 amp sizes. Of course, the summer was when the issue would rear its' ugly head... and right when it was 112 F in the shade. Other than that, I really liked my Escort.
I used to have a Taurus wagon that would over heat the engine without even turning the cooling fan on. The temp. gauge indicated a normal mid-scale temp while it was over heating. There was nothing wrong with the fan circuit except for the occasional melting of the under-sized connector where the fan plugged into the cable harness. What I found was that if that engine was not topped-off with coolant, its' temp sensor would incorrectly read the temp. to be "normal" even if it was over heating. You know, maybe this is the sort of thing Dr. Noble invented Dynamite for.

Joe.

 

I went in today for a recall and they found that the wiring was in to bad of shape to just do the basic replacement wiring or re-route,,they said that everything looks bad so they are going to rewire everthing from battery to starter etc..I now have to wait for about a week(while they order the parts) then bring my car back in,,, so it changed from a 2 hour job to a 5 to 6 hour job...ha ha well the only good thing about it is its all FREE!!!!!!!!.sooo maybe thats what Im smelling!?!?! It could be but we will see!!! and oh its kinda funny that(Joefocus) just mentioned wiring issues and thats what Im having a problem with ,,onlyI had no Idea cause as far as I can tell the car is running great besides the smell thing and a cv joint thing..So Some of this is to thank Joefocus forresponding and give Michal944 a bit of info...but Mike once again I will try to find out more soon as i get this wiring thing taken care of...oh and another thing they told me at the dealer was it would be cheaper for me to just replace the whole axel instead of just a cv joint cv at dealer cost about 450 to 500 and an axel replacement would run about 340......and at the same time that replaces both cv joints boots etc...sounds good to me what do you think???anyone?????.....................

 

Yes, that kind of makes sense. It does seem odd that my radiator fan has recently been running the whole time from engine start to shutdown. Up until the summer time, the fan would cycle on and off. I wonder if the bad smell is related to the constant running of the radiator fan??? Joe, what do you think???

Gregory, sometimes it does make more sense to replace the whole axle rather than replace each CV joint seperately, especially if the axle is the cheaper route to go. It's not that way for all cars but good to hear that it is this way for the Focus. Incidently, I stay away from buying parts from the dealer unless it is such a hard to find part that I absolutely have to. I find that many parts dealers have Ford parts at half the dealer price. If you haven't purchased the axle from the dealer yet, you may want to check what other parts dealers are selling it for, though 340 doesn't sound bad for an axle. If this includes labor, it's a great deal, I would let the dealer put it on.

Incidentlly Gregory, where did you find out about your recall? I couln't find any recalls on my 2002 ZX-5 but I feel as if there should be some. Why is the dealer doing the re-wiring for free? Is it part of the recall? Is the car still under warranty? What year is your ZX-3? I hope if the bad wiring is the issue in my Focus, the dealer will be willing to fix it for free as well.
Thanks, Mike.

 

well to start off,,iwill answer the question on recalls.. All you do is go to ford website and search under recalls and then you enter your VIN number and it will tell you if there are any recalls outstanding on your car...And as far as the other question my focus is A 2001 ZX3. Well this has been a long process..as in a two day process to get the wiring recall taken care of. they had foundeven more damage than the first time so I had to wait even longer for them to order parts,,but this time they had my car all taken apart so I have been stuck wothout it for two days..I am going in tomorrow to pick it up..I was working to late to go get it today...but yeah they said the wiring was in pretty bad shape...they were kinda suprised that i could even start the car...but Im glad this is all taken care of and at best free of charge!!...And as far as the cv Issues they took a peek at it for me and said they dont detect any issues with my cv joint they said the clinking noise is coming from a bit higher like from my right front shock tower..they also said well this will cost money for them to look further cause they have to take apart things
to check it out. .soo I just might go somewhere else to get that looked at so it will be a bit cheaper....what do you guys think??? dealer or no dealer??.....and oh I almost missed answering another question...yes it was all covered on the recall because the damage the original defective issues that the recall were for are what caused the further damage so they have to fix it all....well this is based on what they told me over the phone.....it was just a good thing that I followed up on this or it could of been a serious problem.....As far as the odor issue goes I still have no clue on that it could be related but Im not sure yet untill I get my car back...but again I will ask them if they have noticed anything that seems wrong... Gregory

 

Gregory, Definately NO dealer at this point. Dealers' labor rates are too high. If they told you where to hunt for the suspected problem, take the information they gave you and run to the nearest reliable mechanic. A good mechanic won't charge you for a diagnosis unless it is a really complicated issue and yours doesn't sound all that complicated. Based on my experience, if it is not making the 'banging click noise' all the time, chances are it is not all that serious. I just sold my 96 Taurus which also had a banging-click/popping noise all 6 years I owned it. I eventually had it looked at and I was told the same thing, something to do do with the strut tower. I just lived with the popping sound, which only occured when I was turning or hit a bump. If the sound becomes more frequent or gets louder, I would definately have it looked at. Mine never did.

Thanks again for responding so quickly. I am looking for a Ford dealer in the San Antonio area as we speak. If they don't offer to take care of the problem for free, I will give them flack about never buying another Ford again (as if they are going to care) and then move on to a local mechanic.

Mike