For the last two days we've had a strong burning smell in our HCHII. It's like the smell of a soldering iron. When I lifted the hood it seemed to come from the engine compartment.

Has anyone experienced something like that? Any clues?

 

I seemed to notice something too that went away. I'm sure nothing to be too concerned about. Just keep a fire extinguisher handy

 

Our car is seven months old and has almost 10,000 miles. How many miles did yours have when you smelled it?

 

My car only had slight burning smells in the first 200 miles... all the dirt, grease and corrosion resistant coatings burning off the new exhaust system! Nothing since.

 

Sometimes when you get the oil and filter changed, the mechanic will spill oil on the exhaust pipe and then forget to wipe it off. It will smell for a couple of days until it all burns off. Or maybe there was a sticky label left on one of the exhaust pipes from the mfg'r. Or, could be a defective/overheating cat converter.

Not like back in the day when I tried to fix my first car's exhaust pipe with duct tape (forgive me I was only 17 at the time and didn't know any better)......took a very long time for that to burn off.

 

I want to say just under a few thousand. I didn't pay much attention at the time.

 

Actually, this is pretty normal. My car had exactly that smell that lasted for the first 200-300 miles. Even my wife was concerned about riding the car while the "burning" smell lasted.

Also, the dealership had alerted me to the possibility of the smell when I purchased the vehicle - this was obviously very common of the 06 HCH's they sold.

MSantos

 

Unless you had the oil changed VERY recently, I'd at least call the Honda service dept. A new, significant burning smell is NOT NORMAL at 10,000 miles.
The first few hundred, yes, but at 10,000, definitely not.

If you had the oil changed or other fluids topped up somewhere, I'd suspect spillage that is burning off. You might even see smoke under the hood, if this is the case.

At any rate, I'd be leery if nobody's been under the hood lately.

 

Yes, I'm going to call the dealership. It's been more than 2000 miles since the hood was raised.

 

I went in to the Honda dealership today. Mystery solved. As soon as I told the service rep about the burning smell he looked under the car and showed me that a plastic bag had stuck to the exhaust pipe, melted and burned.

There's nothing to do other than wait for the plastic to completely burn off. The smell already isn't as bad as it was a week ago.