[04Mazda3Sport]

Hey everyone. A while back my friend noticed a really hot smell coming from my exhaust (not a new exhaust I might add), and last night I got into it pretty good and my friend happened to be behind me and although by the time I was about a good 2000 feet from her (having started a hundred or so), she could smell it until she came to a stop with me at the next stop sign. She said that the smell was so bad that she wanted to gag. I stopped later and smelled it, and it is definitely a hot (possibly burning) smell. Well, I got home and shut the car off for about 15 minutes or so, and when I came back out there was a small puddle under my exhaust tip. The liquid is unknown until it gets light out, but after I started it, I bent down to smell the exhaust, and having only taken not even a half a second sniff of it, it completely took my breath away. This smell I smelled, is DEFINITELY NOT normal. I can smell a mixture of what I think is tranny fluid/engine oil coming from the engine. At my last oil change, I was a quart low, and I'm running Royal Purple. I think I have a head gasket leak, although I'm not too sure. I started throwing a second code last night as well, U0155 , on top of my usual P2187, being the system too lean at intake idle. Any help here guys would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[cali_axela]

New code is "Lost Communication with Instrument Cluster" -- done any mods lately which required messing around with wiring behind the dash or anything like that?

 

[04Mazda3Sport]

Indy fogs would be it. That's it. I checked all of the connectors, and theyre all in perfect. My biggest concern is the smell. Oh, and the instrument cluster works just fine, so I don't see where the communications malfunction is coming from.

 

[cali_axela]

Yeah, that doesn't sound too good, but not sure what else to tell ya. What powertrain mods do you have, if any? A shop can check if it's your head gasket pretty easily by doing a chemical test on the coolant, and performing some other checks. Have you noticed a decrease in power, rough idle, or anything like that?

 

[04Mazda3Sport]

I noticed a small decrease in power, but only intermittently. I only have an intake, Weapon-R Dragon intake to be exact. I also have rough idle, but that is more than likely from my bad Purge Canister. This last big big snow we had here in Indiana, I went out and ended up spinning the tires ungodly too much, and that's when the tranny fluid smell started, and it's only gotten worse from there. I was running summer tires at that time, and needed to go out, so I'm pretty sure I F'd up the tranny in that sense.

 

[04Mazda3Sport]

Well, I took it to the stealership today and they told me that my P2187 code is one of the O2 sensors, and that, that is what the smell I'm smelling is. They said they couldn't smell the hot smell or the chemical smell that I smelled (wow, using smell a lot), and that they ordered my O2 sensor and that it will be here in 3 days. I highly doubt that part is what the smell and code is from, but I'll hope for the best. I checked Identifix and it is stated that the purge canister is the identified fix. It very well could be the problem, granted my car has 96K on it lol.

 

[cjre1]

[quote author=04Mazda3Sport link=topic=138003.msg2974942#msg2974942 date=1236156523]
Hey everyone. A while back my friend noticed a really hot smell coming from my exhaust (not a new exhaust I might add), and last night I got into it pretty good and my friend happened to be behind me and although by the time I was about a good 2000 feet from her (having started a hundred or so), she could smell it until she came to a stop with me at the next stop sign. She said that the smell was so bad that she wanted to gag. I stopped later and smelled it, and it is definitely a hot (possibly burning) smell. Well, I got home and shut the car off for about 15 minutes or so, and when I came back out there was a small puddle under my exhaust tip. The liquid is unknown until it gets light out, but after I started it, I bent down to smell the exhaust, and having only taken not even a half a second sniff of it, it completely took my breath away. This smell I smelled, is DEFINITELY NOT normal. I can smell a mixture of what I think is tranny fluid/engine oil coming from the engine. At my last oil change, I was a quart low, and I'm running Royal Purple. I think I have a head gasket leak, although I'm not too sure. I started throwing a second code last night as well, U0155 , on top of my usual P2187, being the system too lean at intake idle. Any help here guys would be much appreciated, thanks!
[/quote]

I had this exact same thing happen to me and found out that it was my battery.

 

[04Mazda3Sport]

I'm pretty sure it's not my battery, although I wish it was something that simple. I bought a new battery about 7 months ago or so, so I'm pretty sure it's not that. Genuine Mazda battery for free from a closing dealership.

 

[cjre1]

[quote author=04Mazda3Sport link=topic=138003.msg2978047#msg2978047 date=1236285240]
I'm pretty sure it's not my battery, although I wish it was something that simple. I bought a new battery about 7 months ago or so, so I'm pretty sure it's not that. Genuine Mazda battery for free from a closing dealership.
[/quote]

Ah ok, I wish you luck. I dont know where to point you. Good job on getting a free battery.

 

[04Mazda3Sport]

Thanks for your help, and thank you for the compliment. It's always nice to get something for your car for free