Burning smell at higher rpm

In my 04 ls hatchback with 64k, when I am either passing someone or going up a hill at over 3500 rpm, I get a horrific smell. It smells sort of like burning oil or metal or rubber or something. I have had this problem since I got the car in October. When I first got it, the oil was kinda high. So I figured it was just that. But I have since changed my oil and it is still stinking. I just have no idea what the smell is coming from since nothing looks to be burned under the hood. Is this something I need to be worrying about? What is making the stench?

Burning oil, rubber and metal all have completely different smells. If you could elaborate more on the smell we may be able to help

Also, auto or manual trans?

It is an automatic. The smell is difficult to describe. I can't really associate or with anything I have previously smelled.
another person told me it smells like a burning fluid of some sort.

check your exhast system to see if anything is rubbing or close to rubbing.

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Originally Posted by kevin7898

check your exhast system to see if anything is rubbing or close to rubbing.

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start here^^
Also, constantly be on the lookout for any amounts of fluid under the car

Why smell? Because racecar. :rolleyes:

There has never been any fluid of any sort leaking from the car. What exactly should I be checking in regards to the exhaust? Where should I start, what should I be looking for, etc?

bad smell can be associated with a cat going bad, however without knowing the car, it could be anything from a minor brakes and exhaust issue, to burning oil and cat.

I would suggest checking for oil on the spark plug wires as well.

I checked to the best of my ability but didn't see anything rubbing. There was a little oil on he spark plugs when I was replacing the timing belt, but I thought replacing the gasket fixed that.

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Originally Posted by paudashlake

In my 04 ls hatchback with 64k, when I am either passing someone or going up a hill at over 3500 rpm, I get a horrific smell. It smells sort of like burning oil or metal or rubber or something. I have had this problem since I got the car in October. When I first got it, the oil was kinda high. So I figured it was just that. But I have since changed my oil and it is still stinking. I just have no idea what the smell is coming from since nothing looks to be burned under the hood. Is this something I need to be worrying about? What is making the stench?

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I owned a 2012 Sonic Aveo, and have the same problem. I went to the GM and they couldnt figure out the problem. They thought it was the air conditioning system. But I found out the problem. It was a design flaw on the power steering lubrication mechanism. Aveo is using electronic power steering system, it uses power steering oil instead of power steering fluid for hydraulics. There is a leakage on the power steering cable, i replace it twice, the leaking still happend. And it drenched the fan belt underneath it, So when you go high RPM it was actually burning the oil on the belt. Hence the smell, and it goes in from the air conditioning system.