Hi Guys, I recently had maintanance on my Fit and I noticed when driving up a local mountain with pedal to the medal that after a while I started to notice a burning smell. I took the car to my local Honda dealer and they said they could not find anything wrong. I'm wondering if the small engine of the Fit could not handle the extra load of driving uphill with 2 people in the car or might it be the transmission. Thank you. appreciate any help with this at all.

Cheers
Colin

 

since you mentioned you had maintenance done recently, it could be motor oil burning off the bottom of your oil pan.

i would inspect the tightness for oil filter and drain plug. check for any oil on your oil pan. use brake cleaner and wipe off.


also check if you have anything like plastic bags that mightve gotten stuck to the exhaust system. those stink like hell until you scrape it off with a razor or it all burns through.

 

You did the service yourself or the dealership?

If dealership someone probably spilled oil while filling or like ken said didn't clean up the spillage from changing filters well. If there's oil residue left on the block it will smell a bit when it gets hot (like when pulling up a grade), unless it's degreased when it's cleaned, there will be residue.

Is your warranty still active? If not, they probably would have sold you something if something was actually wrong

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the response. I took the car back to the dealer mechanics and they looked for oil and anything else that may have caused the smell and could not find anything. Like I said it actually didn't start to smell until I had driven quite a ways up the mountain under load which is why I was wondering if it could be the engine itself, although the hot temperature light did not come on. Thanks again for you replies.

Cheers
Colin

 

were there cars in front of you by chance? maybe you were smelling their exhaust/burnt oil?

i would check the oil level and keep a log. measure it tonight while engine is cold, and then again after you smell it (after engine is cold to get accurate reading).

 

btw, im sure you know, but if you don't know how to measure oil level, just pull up the orange dipstick just forward of the engine. if the engine is cold you wont even need to pull it out all the way or even wipe the dip stick to get the reading.

if you do need to wipe it, pull it out, wipe, dip it back into the engine all the way, count to 5, and then pull out the dipstick. best to do it on a cold engine so that all the oil drips back down into the pan.

 

Thanks again for your replies, I did check the oil level yesterday and they checked it again at the dealer and it was fine. I'll try checking it again with the engine cold to see if there is a difference. As to the cars in front of me that was my thinking as well because it happened a few days before driving up another hill and I thought it must be someone else. But when I drove up the mountain and smelled it again I knew it was me. another thought occurred to me which was maybe the brakes were dragging somehow but then I would think I would smell it all the time. thanks again.

Cheers
Colin

 

Probably that is smell from your converter working harder than normal going up hill with a big load.