My Astra smells like burnt plastic after I drive it

Question

I have a 2002 Vauxhall Astra 2.2 SRi. Each time I drive it for the past week, it smels strongly of burnt plastic. I know it is not the clutch. It was coming through the air vents the first couple of days but now just smells strongly outside the car. The car drives fine and there are not any problems with it apart from it needs a new front offside brake disc but the smell does not appear to be coming from this area.

Anyone know what this could be?

Cheers

Answer 1

maybe a plastic bag stuck to your exhaust.  those can haunt you for like a month.

Answer 2

yes, check for a plastic bag, also check everything you can under the hood. There is a lot of hot parts and a lot of plastic components. after the next time you drive it, pop the hood and sniff around try to follow your nose to the source, look for signs of warping in things like plastic covers and engine dressup pieces. Also check and make sure your e-brake is not on, not to insult your intelligence, but I think we've all done that at some point in our lives. check around the brakes (not just the bad one) plastic can just as easily end up sticking to a hot component around the rotors and calipers. lastly check the drive train. from the bottom of the engine down the driveshaft and to the differential (where the drive shaft connects to the rear axle) my family once picked up a plastic bag on the drive shaft and friction from spinning shaft melted it) maybe you just hit a plastic skunk on the highway. in that case soak your car in tomato juice. hehe