burning smell in car

dieselherb

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Location
Bowling Green Va.
TDI
96 passat black
Tonight while driving with my wife, she noticed a burning smell(she was driving) I noticed it after awhile. I checked under the hood, nothing leaking. When we got home I checked around the dash. The strongest smell was coming from the steering column. Has anyone had these happen?
Thanks
 

rdkern

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 21, 2004
Location
Humboldt Co CA
TDI
Passat 1997 silver (sold after 11 years), Jetta 2000 atlantic blue
This is a 96 B4 (per your profile). I'd guess the ignition switch, but how are the turn signals working? Could this be from the light switch? German electrics, in this generation car, are somewhat.... underpowered for what they expect them to do. Get the sniff-meter around these areas, or replace what seems really hot after a trip. Light switch comes out easily, so determining it's heat shouldn't be hard. Which reduces the likely candidate to the ignition switch.

ps, I had to get my wife an A4TDI so I could drive my B4 instead of her VR6 A3. You might start looking for some such if you want your B4 back.
 

dieselherb

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Location
Bowling Green Va.
TDI
96 passat black
The light switch didn't feel warm(I had the light switch go bad in my GM pickup, it would get hot) But I tried it this morning no smell but lights not on. I have 3 B4s and a A3 but can only drive them if I swap my truck(only a few hours) with wife or children.
 

dweisel

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Location
Wheeling, West Virginia
TDI
dweisel isn't diesel anymore!
smoke from steering column

dieselherb, about 5 or 6 months ago I ran into the exact same thing on my 96 tdi Passat Wagon. On two different occasions I had small wisp of smoke emanating from the steering column. I asked here on the tdi forum if anyone had a suggestion as to the source. Really didn't get a firm answer. Anyway I removed all the plastic trim on the steering column and cleaned the area really well. The coulmn wasn't that dirty other than a small amount of lint. I even went as far as to pull the air bag and steering wheel. I did not find any wiring that looked liked it had shorted or was burnt. I ran the car for over a month with the trim pieces off the column so that if it started to smoke again I would be able to see where it was coming from. It's never happened again other than the two original instances. I was never able to pin point or diagnose what was the problem. It seemed though when it did do the smoking that the lights and windshield wipers were both on. Sorry I can't clue you in on what it might be, because I never found out what it was myself.

Sincerely, Dweisel
 

needshave

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Location
Galena, Ohio
TDI
1998 Vw Jetta TDI
Burning smell

My wife has a 98 jetta TDI. Some time ago, my wife called me with a similar problem. She was the only one in the car at the time and said she had a burning smell in the car, but uncertain where it might be coming from.

Once home I found that the blower motor apparently was starting to drag, and the switch in the control module had got so warm that it had actually deformed a part of the swtich control knob. Once the vehicle and the blower motor were turned off, the blower motor would not restart.

I have a new blower motor in now, still looking for a control module.

Good luck!
 

jck66

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 4, 2001
Location
Greenwich, CT, USA
TDI
12 Passat SE / 14 BMW 535d
I know it's not a solution, but my car gives off funny smells too from time to time. It never seems to affect the running and driving of the car. So I excuse it because it's a 10-year-old diesel with 200k+ on it. Kind of like when your dog gets older it occasionally smells funny.
 
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