Yep got the smell on a road trip to Texas from Phoenix. Pulled over to check, thought I was leaking fluids on the manifold. Could not find the source. Came and went during the trip, very strange.

 

Any chance you splashed anything up near the block. Ive smelled that before when taking truck on the beach or thru a muddy puddle.
It occurs on moderate temperature (45-55*F), dry day's after 30 minutes of driving. No smell when it rain's.

Check to see if you have a brake caliper stuck. It's usually quite similar to an electrical smell.
Nothing appears to be dragging. It is not a brake or clutch smell. It actually smell's like rubber from a tire.

 

Same smell issue on my '11 XLT SCrew EB less than 2K mi, thought it might be turbo break-in, but now I'm wondering if it's affecting other non EB's

 

Same here also.

 

I had another thought. Is there anything that burns off in the exhaust for emissions like on a diesel?

 

My EB had the same smell for about 2500 miles. It will go away. I'm pretty sure it's the turbos.

 

Has anyone figured this out. I smelled it on my 2010 xlt 5.4 this morning and found this thread when I started searching. I only have 60k on the truck. It smells like burnt plastic but I can't find anything either.

 

Ok I smelled it again and started to dig in after a small road trip. To me it seemed to be coming off of the heat shield above the cat below the passenger seat. Seem likely to anyone?

 

I've had this smell on my last two Plats. In both cases it went away and at one point I did find a piece of the harness tape had fallen down next the exhaust. Check to make sure none of the factory harness tape has fallen down there. To clarify, I'm not talking about the permanent tape that wraps the electrical system, but the tape you see as a left over of the manufacturing process, it must be what holds the wire looms together as they are building the truck. You'll find it everywhere, under the seats in the interior, hanging off the wiring system throughout the truck, etc.

 

I had a similar smell once, couldn't find it looked forever, turned out to be my left front caliper, bad piston wasn't releasing all the way. One new caliper later, smell was gone...

 

OK, here is the smell source....It is the plastic tubes connected to the turbos on the EB. They go through a final "seasoning" when heat cycled. mine had this for the first 5-6000 miles. Just use the turbos real hard until the plastic "sets", then it will go away. the hotter you get them the sooner they will cure.

 

mine did it also up to about 1500 miles.. Then i ran the HELL out of it for a hour and i havent smelled it since

 

Hi FALLENF96! I have the same problem, is there a way to fix the caliper instead replace it? What make's the caliper to back to it's home position?

 

*HEADS-UP* Old thread alert.

A sticky caliper could be that the slides need to be lub'ed | the piston is pitted, corroded, etc., or the seals are cracked, leaking, etc.. If it's the piston | the seal, the caliper would need to be replaced.

Reduction in brake fluid pressure causes the seals to back-off the pads. i.e. taking your foot off the brake pedal.
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