I had a very strong burning rubber smell coming from under my Prius tonight after climbing a moderate hill at 40kph/25mph for approximately 3 to 4 minutes. The car had been driven for about 50 minutes through regular traffic, outside temp was 7C/44F and I drove up to a scenic outlook. When i pulled into the parking lot, we put the passenger window down and the burning rubber smell was very strong. I searched all around using a small flashlight and couldn't see anything touching the exhaust, but it's difficult to see anything under a Prius with it's low ground clearance. The burning rubber smell was strongest under the car, but was getting pulled into the HVAC system when we stopped. I have smelled it before, but passed it off as other vehicles. After tonight, i'm sure its coming from my car. I drove the car home for 50 minutes through stop and go city traffic, so the engine was not always running. After parking, I checked under the car again and the smell was very light almost non-existent. I have 13000km/8000mi on the car, and I have had it for 11months. It has been driven in hills and very hot weather last summer, so I don't think this is paint burning off or the car getting hot for the first time. Any ideas?
I suggest you take it to the dealership first thing. Overheating, wiring harness or component burning, something touching exhaust or what ever is not good. As this has happened before there will be evidence and they should have no problem finding it. Best luck.
I live in the mountains of NC and the last 3 miles to my house is a climb from 2200 feet to 4100 feet. My Prius always has some smell from what seems heat. It has minimized with time from when it was new and I don't care much since it is under warranty. Additrionally, many other cars that come up to my house that had never been driven around the mtns tend to get real hot and make their owners/drivers nervous, one fellow actually thinking his transmission oil had burned up. Yes, there is more stress on an engine climbing uphill.....but most cars I suspect can handle it....But still a good idea to have the car checked out.
I have been through the mountains in in a bunch of states. I think certin parts of the car get hoter than in normal driving and bake some of the paint or coating on them. If it happens more than a few times something may be wrong. The dealer is not going to replace anything unless something is wrong. i think it may be normal. Did you car get the undercoating done? It seems alot of them do have this and i'm sure they spray it in spots that can get hot in hill climbing and make a nasty smell.
I see you're in Ashe county. What's your MPGs given your elevation? I'm in Moore county at 750 ft, but still take an MPG hit doing our small hills. My average MPG is 55 right now.
No undercoating on the car. It's very much a rubber smell, not tar. Same rubber smell as when you do a burn out in a powerful car. But the Prius is definitely not spinning it's tires on dry pavement climbing a hill. I have checked all the tires to see if they are touching any part of the wheel wells, nothing... The tires were slightly warm, but did not feel hot. The car has also been through it's first service/oil change, so I would hope the mechanic would have seen something obvious.
Could it be paint or protective coating burning off the engine or underside? After you get home, lift the hood and get one of them blue-tick hounddogs everyone in Carolina has to help you find the source. At least this way, you don't have to waste your time at the dealer. When I first got to North Carolina, I lived in Wilkesboro where it seems everyone raised blue-ticks. Good grief, they'd put up racket at night. I think that's why everyone in Wilkesboro was so goofy; nobody could sleep at night...LOL....
Could be you caught a disposable shopping bag on something hot like the catalytic converter. This has happened to me twice (but not on my Prius), and the smell eventually goes away.
Have it checked out since this is recurring. Burning rubber can mean wires are being toasted as you drive.
Dealership service/oil change was done at 8000km, i'm now at 13, 800km. Oil should be burnt off by now. Doesn't seem like anyone else has had this problem with a 2010, I guess i'll have to take it to the dealership to see what's up. Hopefully it's an obvious problem and not one of those intermittent ones. Thanks for all your input, it's appreciated!
My car did the same thing around 4-5 times climbing long hills grades, then the smell never came back, i am thinking it is coating paint burning off parts that get hotter when you work the car hard on hills. I also noticed this when going down big hills and filling the battery all the way, i think the inverter got hot and burned some coating off of it.
Actually, it's Buncombe County. Seems that simply short trips here and there around the mountains give me an average of just over 40, I guess less when it is winter but I was not here this winter. I had the Prius with me in FL and it consistently gave me in the low 50's. I do nothing special and just drive it, normal factory specs for tire air pressure. Taking it along the highway for a long trip fully packed with 2 people and a large dog, it averaged almost 48. I do not even pay attention to gas prices anymore.
So what ever happened with this burning rubber smell. Did the dealership come up with a resolution? I have a 2006 prius with 120,000 miles, and I noticed the exact same thing. I was driving up a mountain and I pulled off at an overlook and smelled the strong burning rubber smell. I was wondering if it might be coming from the cvt? I hope its not but you never know.
A couple of months ago I visited a national park and had to climb consistently for about 30 mins at 30 to 60 km/h, a climb of approx 1000 meters. When we arrived at our cabin I noticed a hot coolant smell. The coolant in the inverter seemed to have boiled. Unfortunately I had just upgraded the Scangauge and didn't have the inverter temp Xgauge set so I couldn't check actual temp. There were no DTC codes. The dealer has since checked the inverter and HV battery and found no problems. I have not noticed this phenomenon since. I was surprised the inverter got so hot. It had never been beyond 40 degrees C before. The daytime temp was about 30 degrees C.
You may not have authorized undercoating, but that's not conclusive: a lot of cars come from the factory with some undercoating. Then dealerships might try to sell you on more. There's can also be zones of the underside with a rubbery coating covered with paint. And the exhaust suspension points are typically isolated by rubber bushings. And some undercoating is "rubberized". We've had ours for 3 years now, recently went up a local ski mountain, and there was an overheated rubber aroma by the time we pulled over at a view point, about 1/2 way up. Not bad, but there. I've noticed this with any of the cars we've had, for over 3 decades now. If it's bushings it'll tend to persist. If it's undercoating it'll likely subside over time.
