burning smell?

[CanonLaw]

2000 Legacy GT wagon - 5speed

Hey, I have never had a subaru before, and it just recently snowed alot
here, and so I have been driving around, and the AWD works great.
However, I just noticed the other day when I am reversing, I smell a
burned rubber smell. It only is there if the cabin is set to fresh
outside air. When I drive for a while it goes away, but then when I
reverse it comes back.

I think it first started doing it the other day when I was backing into
my parking spot and I didn't give the car enough gas to get through the
snow and it stalled rather hard. Could I have messed something up?

 

[Edward Hayes]

You might want to check the front inner CV boots. If there is a tear
then grease is thrown onto the exhaust and you get the smell. Just a
thought. Ed

 

[Chicobiker]

2000 Legacy GT wagon - 5speed

I think it first started doing it the other day when I was backing into
my parking spot and I didn't give the car enough gas to get through the
snow and it stalled rather hard. Could I have messed something up?

Mine smells of burning something or other everytime I do any serious
spinning in the snow. I have gotten used to it and attribute it to the
differential doing its thing. I think the diff works by heating up the
fluid due to speed differences until the fluid gets thicker. It might
be the clutch too, because I think I smell it when I ride the clutch
too much.

The Subaru needs a bit more gas than you might be used to on 2-wheel
drive cars. Don't worry, it'll crawl through just about anything!

Chicobiker
2003 Outback Sport - 5spd

 

[CanonLaw]

the front axles are brand new....

 

[frank.logullo]

the front axles are brand new....

I had same type odor problem and it was leaky seal. Easy for me to see when
I drove up on ramps I use for oil change and looked over top of exhaust
system. Does not take much of a leak to get a lot of odor.
Frank

 

[Dave Botsch]

it went away eventually. A couple of winters later, I was stuck in the
snow and spun the wheels trying to get traction as we put salt under the
wheels to melt the ice. The smell was then back for a month or two, tho
not as bad as it was those first few months. Hasn't been back again in the
past year.

 

[Frank]

I cannot name the seal but it was not a cv joint. Dealer fixed under
drive train warranty otherwise it would have cost less than $100.
Smell was transient and I could not pin it down, since it smelled
"burnt" and did not appear to be in engine compartment, that's when I
put Forester on ramps and looked underneath. Seal was not leaking much
but drips on exhaust were evident.

Frank

 

[B A R R Y]

Mine smells of burning something or other everytime I do any serious
spinning in the snow. I have gotten used to it and attribute it to the
differential doing its thing.

How would a smell get out of a sealed device? I've never smelled a
differential working on any of the other vehicles I've owned. Some
automatic tranny Subies have friction clutches for the rear drive, those
can stink just like any other clutch. Maybe this is your smell?

Since the OP has a stick shift...

I had a burning smell from my manual shift '01 OBW twice, both times it
was the clutch slipping. Both times it was under low speed, high load,
high traction conditions, pulling a 1200 pound trailer up a steep
incline. On the second occasion, the car filled with smoke, just like
the TeeVee drag races.

The clutch burning smell is similar to a "burning rubber / burning
brake" smell. My clutch was a frequent complaint, slipping on cold
mornings from 7k on (before I towed anything or loaded the car beyond
two people!), and completely turned me off from my local dealer network.
Once, I had a service manager in the car while the RPMs shot up during
an interstate highway hill climb at a steady ground speed. He claimed
not to understand what I meant!

FWIW, If the OBW had a low range in the gears, I think the clutch would
not have slipped, but since the wheels couldn't...

i sold the car 2 years ago, with 39k, so I don't know how long the
clutch will last.