i haven't messed with any wiring on this 4dr 91 dx civic i have, but just this past week it started warming up outside and when the car warms up i can smell some fumes, smells like plastic melting.

the only things i can think of that would cause this would be maybe exhaust that is rubbing on something?

can anyone think of anything else that could be causing this?

i dont see any smoke i just smell a hint of burning plastic, doesnt get any stronger under the hood, i can't smell any plastic under the hood, only inside the car.

and if it was electrical i would expect to blow a fuse.

 

I ran over a plastic bag and it stuck on my hot catalytic convertor once.
Did exactly what you are describing for about a week until the plastic finally burned off.

 

Yeah ive done that, good answer.

 

as have i

 

Here is something that happened to me, my ignition wires melted and it smelt like burning plastic and it was the wires haha. Just something that is easy to check and is easy. I replaced it and all is well minus the fact that the car almost caught fire luckily it didnt YAAAA. haha.

 

not true, just to let you know. A guy around where I live was driving and his cars electrical burnt up and his car burned to the ground sucked for him, he just installed a B18C5 and well aparently did something extremely wrong haha sucks.

 

Same exact thing happened to me. The smell lasted for over a month with me.

And the same thing happened to my cousin, he had to swap out his catalytic converter because the plastic got on there real good.

Did you look under your car and check to see if your piping caught onto any plastic? The fact that you're not seeing any smoke rising from your motor should be somewhat of a good sign.

 

also check you engine harness, sometimes the harness can over time break down or if the car is starting to heat up its possiable the engine or something is running warmer causing the harness plastic to melt. just an idea

 

I had a car burn up due to a rusty battery pan that gave in a hard turn, the terminals hit the frame and burned up ALL my wiring and both my frount struts. When I say burn I mean fire comming out of the engine bay. Dont worry it wasnt a honda just an old cutlas

just dont rule out wiring !

 

check your headlight wires. i had a 4d catch a blaze on me because of a short somewhere in the headlight wiring. didnt know about the short till the fire but... worth a glance!

 

I call those pesky plastic bags urban tumbleweeds.

 

OMG. LOL i will now have to call them "Urban Tumbleweeds" as well

 

lol. that is funny ^^. but, yeah, why not crawl down there and have a look-see for yourself? better safe than sorry.

 

i think its actually starting to go away already, went for a drive tonite and didnt smell much of anything burning.

its my beater/parts runner so if it does catch fire, no real loss

thanks for the quick answers, i think it was right on the mark

 

glad you car didnt burn down on you though.

 

i had a melting plastic smell a few months ago, it went away... and i've since noticed my light switch makes a crusty sound when i turn the lights on. im still rolling with it no problems yet.