Recently revived my 05 s2k after a 2 year sleep in a storage unit. Noticed that when driving for about 30 minutes or so I'll start to smell what seems to be a burnt plastic or brake smell.

Checked under the car for any plastic bags, found nothing. It also drives straight as an arrow and stops evenly under heavy braking. I laser heat gunned the rotors and they all seem to be about the same temp, within about 10*F of each other. I plan to change all the fluids this weekend as well.

Anything in particular I should take a look at?

 

Dust collecting on the header and exhaust components will produce a smell like that for a bit sometimes. I would check closely though just to be sure no fire hazard!

 

Will check around, doesn't seem too dusty and I've been poking and prodding around under the hood, but maybe a pressure wash is in order.

 

after 2 years, rodents could have made their way into the exhaust a ways ... so you may be .... barbequing! lol

 

Haha hopefully not, the exhaust had steel wool in it and it was undisturbed, so hopefully nothing in the internals

 

just drive the shit out of it 'til the smell goes away!

 

Possible clutch burning? Similar smell to brake linings.

No reason it would suffer from sitting, and if it did, it would more likely to be difficulty fully disengaging (cruncy shifts) vs engaging (slipping). So puzzling.

Unless you got rusty not driving stick for 2 years!

 

Hopefully not! Drives and shifts very similar to how it did prior to storage. Now that I think about it, I had the car shipped to my new home and met the truck driver in a parking lot to take delivery. When I arrived the car was already running, not sure how long, but when I started to drive it off, I could smell the same smell. No clue if the guy burnt the hell out of the clutch getting it off the truck, but perhaps it has more to do with the car getting to operating temp. IIRC a burnt clutch has a very distinctive smell, which I don't think this is.

 

Yep, my guess is he had trouble getting it off ramp. How many people even have manual experience these days, or if they do recent experience?

Plus getting off truck involves driving up over bump stop, from dead stop, without stalling, while being hyper careful not to back into side walls. Concentration overload.

 

It is honestly pretty sad how few people seem to know how to drive a manual. But when you work for a shipping company, and do the actual loading and deliver of said vehicles, you should have to prove you know how to drive them. Is that too much to ask?