Burning rubber smell

I smell burning rubber when I drive my Riv. When I park it, I can see very thin misty smoke that smells like burning rubber coming from the engine bay. Apparently I have some belts that are slipping or something. Has anybody experienced the same thing?

The next time you see the smoke, open the hood and you should see where it's coming from. If it's the belts, I'd imagine the would be chirping or squealing.

I've opened the hood. The smoke is too thin to trace the source. I can only see it in the glare of the headlights. There is no squeeking or chirping from the belts. When I'm driving, I usually smell it only when I'm idling at a light. Maybe that is a clue.

Are you sure it's burning rubber, does it smell sweet like maple syrup at the same time? Check out your cooling system, especially hoses. Make a signature with some basic info on your Riv so we have an idea what you're dealing with.

I would tilt my educated guess at leaky valve cover gaskets here. trace amounts of oil is kind of like a burnt rubbery smell.

I was just thinking, when rubber burns it makes really thick smoke. The valve cover gasket is another good place to look.

FWIW, I had a similar experience with the smell of burning rubber, (or so I thought) and seemed to be coming from under the car. After taking temp measurements with an IR thermometer I found it to be actually coming from the left rear wheel. Rotor temp was about 400* F. Prior to looking for the problem it would only happen occasionally then progressed to every drive. Had sticking caliper, replaced both rears with Reman units, checked runout of nearly new EBC rotor and all was good.
If I had cheap Chinese rotors on it I'll bet it would have been trashed.
Anyway, you probably don't have same problem if your seeing smoke, though. Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

I am not sure it is burning rubber, but I am sure it is coming from under the hood. I like the leaking gasket idea and will check that out.. Thanks for the feedback everyone. It is very appreciated.

P.S. I created a signature for myself, but it never shows up for some reason.

^ you have to check the box that says "show signature"

vendetta wrote:

^ you have to check the box that says "show signature"

Thanks. Hopefully my Riv issue will be just as easy.