Burning Smell or Oil Drips on the Ground Due to Engine Oil Leak on BMW 328i. A really strong smell and I'd do like Kurt mentioned and do a careful check. But there make be external factors causing the problem. I dont know what kind of new Anti Freeze they use in an 11’ BMW these days…but the days of everyone having the usual Green Anti Freeze are LONG GONE…who knows what this type is or what it smells like when atomized in the car. The smell is or used to be a Sweet kind of smell and it would irritate your throat after time. You get some crud (rubber particles) thrown up on the exhaust cross tube that burns off the next day. I popped the hood and saw a tiny bit of smoke then upon further inspection it looked like it was smoking from the cats. My E36 318is has a smell of burning rubber in the boot if you open it after a spell of an hour or so consistently doing circa 70mph. So, Tuesday I start my car in the morning and it has an extremely rough idle, like it's running on half the cylinders. Cylinder misfire, loss of power or a loss of fuel economy may accompany any color exhaust smoke. The most common causes of why a car smells like burning rubber are engine oil leaks, coolant leaks, sticking brakes, worn clutch, or slipping serpentine belt. My 09 will smell like burning rubber the next ride after riding in the rain. Here is a more detailed list of the most common causes of why a car smells like burning rubber. They had a strong rubber smell in the beginning, so I left them outside for a couple of weeks. After that, the smell seemed to be gone. I just bought an X1 with N20 and am having the same rubber burning smell. After the work was completed i have not had the smell at all since. Hope this helps. The car may have accidentally picked up pieces of garbage like plastic packets etc. Restarting returned the car to a normal idle, but when I get to work I smell a slight plastic burning smell like a gasket is getting cooked. Apparently, however, the hot air from the ducts at the bottom of the car heated up the mats causing the smell. Contents show 1. Blue smoke comes from oil burning in the cylinders. that may heat up and release the smell of burning rubber. I checked the codes and got nothing. No SES light on, My exhaust from front to back is not rusted or have any holes in the piping. The story actually began with me buying rubber floormats at a big retail store in spring. It could be anything. I took the car into Patrick BMW in illinois and they said that the vanos like was leaking onto my headers and that my head gaskets needed to be replaced. Scotty Kilmer, auto mechanic for the last 47 years, shows how you can fix your car when it's giving off burning smells. Oil usually gets in through either a leaking intake valve seal or through worn piston rings. In conclusion, we have discussed the various Reasons for Burning Rubber Smell in Car. When start the engine the smoke comes out for several minutes and smels like oil burning after a while it's stops and it started at 60.000 miles but wasn;t that bad now at 80.000 started to be worse ... smell of burning rubber when the heater is turned on . They do have a strange smell to them early on. Try avoiding driving over garbage to avoid this scenario. I have a 2000 BMW E39 528i and had the same burning smell coming from my vents when the heat was on also. My car when running has a smell like burning rubber that comes into the car even while windows are up. It didn't smoke for a few sections then all of a sudden a small bit of smoke would billow up. My Oil Filter Housing Gasket is leaking and a lot of oil leaks out. I can smell it outside of the car as well more so near the hood of the car.