I recently changed the oil, tranny fluid and spark plugs on my car. Since then, I've noticed that if the car is parked with the engine running and the fan is on with re-circulate off, some odor is being carried into the interior from the engine area.

When changing the fluids, I tried to wipe off the stuff that spilled on the car with the initial surge when draining oil and MTF. Maybe I didn't get it all. And I sprayed some brake cleaner around the parts where oil spilled, but never washed it off (should I have?).

If the fumes are from the hot components burning off the fluid sitting on the components, how long does that usually take to go away? What else could it be?

 

They should burn off within 15 minutes after it gets hot, hard to say with out seeing what you dumped and where..

 

Hmmm must be something else then. I've put on a few hundred miles since doing the oil, MTF and spark plugs. As far as what spilled, just used motor oil and used MTF - the stuff hit some parts when it first started flowing out (dunno the names of the parts hit, but it's the stuff right in the path of the oil and tranny drain plugs. Then I hit that general area with brake cleaner.

 

What kinda fumes then? They'd def be burned off by then what you said spilled for sure..

 

I'm hard pressed to describe it. I'll have to focus on it next time. Funny thing is I only noticed it when parking the car if I left the engine running while gathering stuff from the car. I didn't notice it when stopped at lights.

I also bent back the front splash guard. But it wasn't touching any metal components, and the smell didn't seem like burning plastic.

Maybe it's unrelated to the work I did on the car, but the timing makes me think it is connected.

 

I'm having this same problem in my Mazda6 can't quite pinpoint it