Since the day we brought our car home we are getting a very strong burnt oil smell . Not the typical new car smells, this is burnt oil. Smells like pouring oil on a hot exhaust manifold. I have checked the oil, checked under the car and find no evidence of leaks. Without pulling all the engine covers off I can't see much of the top side. Anyone else have this lovely smell. So far 250 miles and it still stinks.

 

not yet.

you better take the car cover off and see if it's leaking anywhere....

check the oil filter as well.

keep us update

 

I purchased a new 350 back in November. I had similar smells for the first 500-750 miles. (New Car Burn Off)... My last car was a '03 Accord, which was also purchased new. It had similar smell, but nowhere near as strong as the Lexus. I now have 4000 miles on the 350 and have had no problems. Smell went away after 700 miles or so. If you see no evidence of oil loss, I would give it another 300 miles...

 

My 04 GTO had a bad burning tar smell for the first 500 miles and it was shipped from Australia. Maybe it's some type of protective coating used on cars that are shipped from overseas.

 

Get it checked out at the dealership. Sorry to hear man.

 

Take a look under the engine covers, but most likely it's just cosmolene (protective coating) burning off.

 

I had the same thing in my IS when it was new. The smell is gone after 500 miles of driving. You should be ok..

 

I am used to the "new car burn in" smell. It's nothing like that. My 2006 Toyota Tacoma had the normal new burn smell. This is very different. I will pull the covers off tonight and have a look.

 

I got about 3000 miles now and I still get the smell, but only when I get on it. Doesnt seem too normal to me. But its under warranty, so I really dont care.

 

I had the smell. I believe it IS the Cosmolene that heffergm noted. Probably nothing to worry about. As a matter of fact I was standing next to the Service Manager when I took my car in recently and he was giving instructions to a runner to take car out and drive it for an hour or so and "bring it back quick a park it" to see if they could duplicate the smell. He mentioned to him that he suspected it was cosmolene. Good to be so observant but just try and enjoy all those new car smells; whether they're pleasant or not

 

I had the smell also. First time I smelled it was at a blockbuster, but I thought the smell came from a very old car parked next to me. Then few days later I had it again. I didn't think much of it and I haven't had it for couple hundred miles. But I never had it consistently. Only sometimes....wierd...

 

Yeah, mine smelled pretty strongly too... mostly at first. After 500-700 miles, it went down... and now, the only time I notice it is when/after I'm in aggressive driving mode... which was today... and it smelled... but yay, I had fun. :P it was nice to have some dry roads after being soaked here in Seattle area for so long!!

 

All Lexus have this burning smell when new. They treat the cars with cosmoline so they don't oxidize in shipment. The exhaust will get hot and more of a candle burning smell will be noticable for about 500 miles. If you make the catalyst hot by running high RPM's then it will be more noticable. Oil leaks are almost unheard of in a new Lexus. At a 1,000 miles if you are still smelling a burning smell then have the service dept put it on a lift and examine it. I would be surprised if you had oil consumption even at 50,000 miles but these are new engines and only time will tell.

Rock

 

The cosmoline smell I know well. All of our BMW"S, Mercedes, STi, and just about every other new vehicle we have or owned has the strong cosmo smell for the first 500 miles (+/-). This smells like dripping oil on to a hot exhaust manifold. So far I can't find any drips or see any smoke under the hood. The smell also is concentrated in the engine compartment. Can't smell it in the car at all. I didn't have time to pull the covers off and poke around last night so no new info. I hope it is just a coating Lexus/Toyota is using but I have never smelled one like this.

 

I'm just under 500 miles right now and i still get that smell, but only
when i drive it for more than 30 mins or so.. Pretty much every new car I've
owned did this for the first 500-700 miles.. Its probably nothing..