Butter A3

I recently noticed a burning plastic smell in my A3. I can smell it through my air conditioner and when I get out of the car after driving it for at least 20 mins. It seems to come from the front of my car.

I have checked under the hood and found no issues. There are no warning lights going off and no sign of fluid loss.

I even took it to the dealer and they seemed to not care. I know there is an issue and I would like to know what is causing the burning plastic smell.

Can anyone help shed light on this for me?

J

fabsbsd

Is it manual or DSG?

Sometimes when you run a lot the clutch (or DSG dual clutch) gets hot as hell and it gives a funny smell...

Bezor

Loose belt, maybe AC?

Do you have a indie mechanic that can check the tension of the belts for you? Might be the AC itself?

audibmi

I suspect that gasket on valve cover is leaking oil and dripping on the one of the exposed hot metal pipes in the engine which will produce a burning plastic smell. I had this issue on my B6 A4, and under hard braking, the oil would accumulate into a drop large enough to drip.

Butter A3

It is an automatic

dgtlanrkst

My A3 just started having the same trouble. Did you find a solution?

Thanks

REL

I had this happen to me in my '06 A3. I smelled it when I was driving slowly in traffic. I pulled over and opened the hood but could not find where the smell was coming from. I checked the brakes, but none of the brakes were overheated. A couple of weeks later, one of my ignition coils went up in smoke, with a much stronger version of that same burning plastic smell. I replaced all four ignition coils. The dying coil also fried the ignition coil fuse, which is in the electronics box under the hood.

Butter A3

The smell was actually a lovely plastic bag that was stuck in between the engine and the exhaust of the A3. Audi dealers will want to charge $80.00 to clean off the bag but barter with them because they cleaned mine for FREE.