Burning rubber smell from rear or Vehicle when in charge setting.

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Rudy65

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Joined
Jan 13, 2023
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1
Hi Thanks for the add,
I am from the UK and purchased my 2021 Outlander PHEV I have had this car form 7 months now and noticed when driving in charge mode there is a smell of burning rubber from the rear of the car. I would like to know if any one has experienced this with their own car, is this a common fault, the car is still under warranty. I am going to contact the dealer but would like to find out first from other Outlander owners.
 
The only info offered there is about tyre material being burned off the exhaust.

And hand waving away the people who say: "That's not it, it only happens when the vehicle is on charge."
 
Shortly after purchasing my 2018 US PHEV (GT trim level) new, I too noticed the burning rubber smell after I drove on the I-5 freeway at 60 to 70 mph with 4WD Lock on, in Charge mode, with braking regen strength B5, attempting to quickly charge the battery pack.

Soon thereafter I needed to replace my rear electric motor’s rubber motor mount (motor mounts? I don’t know if there’s more than one). The mount(s?) were entirely missing. I presume they shriveled so much from being burnt that the carbonized remnant(s?) simply fell out. The absence of the rubber mount(s?) made the rear end go “clunk” when starting off from a standstill.

Now, please realize, I do not know for certain that the rubber rear motor mount(s) was/were the source of the burning rubber smell. Maybe something inside the battery case or elsewhere was overheating. The motor mount(s) is/are just my best guess.

So, from then til now, on the freeway I either keep it in D (= regen strength B2) or else, on long downhill stretches with little traffic and the drive battery well charged, I put it in EV mode and select regen strength B0 to mostly coast and thus boost my MPG figure.

On the freeway, it’s okay in D (Drive) mode to use Charge or Save or “none” mode, that is, I don’t get the burning rubber smell in any mode, not even with 4WD Lock on. But if I did get the smell, maybe this might happen in a hot climate, I would first try keeping it out of Charge mode and if the smell persisted then keep it out of 4WD Lock.

Usually when on the freeway I put it in Charge mode when going either uphill or downhill and Save mode on level stretches, unless my battery is over 80% of full charge in which case I choose “none” mode and let the battery drain to about 60% to pick up some MPG.

The only time I use B5 is below 40 mph, in either Save or Charge mode, when I’m alone in the car, to build up battery charge (but, shifting to “none” mode at stoplights and stop signs, to cause the gasoline engine to shut off and thus save gasoline). B5 makes the ride too jerky to be acceptable when I have passengers, so with passengers I just keep it in D and Charge mode (“none” mode when stopped) unless the battery is over 80% full in which case Save unless absolutely full in which case “none” mode.

When I pick up and drop off passengers I do so in EV mode.

The only time I use B1, B3, or B4 is when coasting downhill in EV mode, with no other traffic, to apply braking action appropriate to the steepness of the downhill grade.

I use ECO mode only with zero other traffic in broad daylight, visibility unlimited, on wide open road, just so I don’t lose sudden acceleration capability, purely for safety reasons.

And there you have it: the driving regimen I have found gives me maximum gas mileage, with a minimum of settings-fiddling, and without smelling burning rubber or doing any other apparent damage to the car, during the past five years when I have used my PHEV as my fulltime Uber vehicle in Seattle.
 
The rear motor mounts are a known weak spot, and many people have had them replaced without any reports of a burning smell. The only time I have smelt burning is after a long climb with the engine revving in Series mode, which tallies with the opinion that it is rubber burning off the hot exhaust, and disagrees with your theory that it's regen melting the mountings.

The 'B' settings have little to no effect on how swiftly the car charges. They only affect how fast the car slows down when you lift your foot off the accelerator. The car can achieve maximum regen in any 'B' setting by simply pressing harder on the brake pedal. And you can of course coast in any 'B' setting. That's why I go everywhere in B5, coast when I want and mostly try use only the accelerator pedal to control my speed as much as I need.

4WD Lock tries to send the same torque to both axles, so the rear motor might actually use more electricity when the ICE is powering the fronts than simply leaving it normal and I can't see why it would charge the car any faster.

So I'm not quite sure what you're trying to achieve by playing around with the settings.
 
I honestly did not know this was a known issue. I always attributed the hot smell to the fact the exhaust pipe was placed in the road spray zone from the front right wheel. I would notice it the most after driving on wet roads.
 
The burning rubber smell is due to the non-optimal exhaust placement and usually happens when you run for a long time in charge mode.

What happens is the right-back tire throws up road debris and rubber onto the exhaust.
 
Here is a picture of the new exhaust pipe. I think it is more flush with the bottom now and more out of the way from tire road spray.
 

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As said, it's usually road crud on the exhaust, but they are not without faults such as seized brake calipers which are worth checking too.
 
Really? Mine ALWAYS smells of burning rubber when driven in charge mode, always has. I am pretty sure its not rubber from the tyre hitting the exhaust, we are not driving F1 cars. It must be something else.
 
sipaldi said:
Really? Mine ALWAYS smells of burning rubber when driven in charge mode, always has. I am pretty sure its not rubber from the tyre hitting the exhaust, we are not driving F1 cars. It must be something else.

I've always suspected the torque limiter to be the cause of the smell. It is definitely not the exhaust as all rubber would have burned off after a journey of 1000 miles. At the end of the journey the smell was still there....
 
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