Hi, I'm Hasan and I'm new to car owning and maintaining. Some help would be greatly appreciated!

I own a 1996 Honda Accord Lx Sedan. It has a V6 engine, and the transmission is automatic. Lately I have noticed a burning smell coming from under the hood during and after driving. Also, when I turn on the vents, the smell comes through. I recently got my oil changed and oil filter replaced. I do know that I have a minor oil leak. I was wondering if that could be the cause of the smell. Others have told me that it could be the air filter. An expert opinion would be nice! Thank you.

 

Oil leak could be source of smell, particularly if oil is draining onto the exhaust pipes.

Make sure you're not losing coolant.

good luck

 

Can you describe what it smells like? A lot of times, its jsut a plastic bag that gets stuck on the exhaust pipe and it smells like *** until you get under it and scrap it off. Its happened to me twice because whenever someone uses my car, they end up running over plastic bags.

 

Probably oil leak. check under the car where the oil pan is. Look around the edges. If theres a leak, usually theres a lot of build up, looking like smudge or mud. Also look at the filter. It might be leaking there too.

 

Prolly upper and lower valve cover gaskets.

The 2.7l V6 has 2 covers per head and they are prone to leaking.

 

my car has the same problem. but mine is 96 4 cyl and it smells like oil burning or something. it didnt do this when it was cold but now that its getting hot again i can smell it. and its only when i stop at a red light or pull in somewhere where the air isnt moving under the hood. its not pleasant smelling. but my quick fix is to just put the air on recirculation. hahaha any permeant fixes?

 

Try to figure out where it's coming from. Only then can we think about how to fix it.

Is the engine generally oily or clean? Oil leaks anywhere? I imagine if the engine is generally grimy & oil-covered, you'll have to clean it up real good so you can see where it's actually coming from.

 

well i guess its cuz on the top of my engine itself its kinda oily and idk what the problem is. im not really a car person. haha so if i new what it was id fix it. but iv put engine cleaner on it and it cleaned it up a little bit but its coming back. my friend said its a seal thing but we havent talked in a long time so idk

 

Well, if you clean the engine up real good, then maybe you can see where it's coming from. Describe or take a picture of where it's leaking - THEN we can help you decide if it's a do-it-yourself job.