bloodvette

05 Lariat 4x4 5.4L everything stock. was ice fishing yesterday, and noticed a buddy stuck with his 2wd so i headed over and almost got stuck myself, spinning and getting out of ruts and what not. and I noticed at that point I smelled something burning like clutch or brake lining. only when your standing outside the truck. again noticed the smell after I pulled him out. it was a windy day so I could not really identify which wheel or if it was transmission related. I can't imagine an automatic tranny would eminate a burning clutch smell would it?

what could cause this? what areas should I look at? obviously I'll try get a better idea of what's causing the smell next time I smell it.

Keep in mind I did have the ABS or Traction control or whataver activate a few times. After spinning and not moving, I'd apply the brake to stop the wheels from spinning and felt the vibrating brake pedal. this happened 2 or 3 times.

amount of time for all this to happen was less than 5 minutes.

Thanks,
John

S0uthernrebel78

i had the same issue also this weekend at my hunting club in 2 hours i had to pull 7 trucks out of the snow, and after a few times of going through deep snow i would smell that buring smell i checked out everything but could not locate the smell either, but i do have to say i'm glad i have my leveling kit with 33" nitto terra grapplers as i was the only truck that didnt get stuck(had 2 f250s both 4x4 stuck)

Ghostman 04

You could have got your clutch hot if it is a manual. If not and everything checks out now it may have just been mud or dirt burning off the exhaust or manifold. Hard to say without knowing what it smelled like. That is hard to do on a CP.

csx5197

I'm going to go with the possibility of the smell was your brakes. It also could be some tire smell. You also were really "working" your truck and didn't have much airflow while this was going on. Could also be from the snow/ice you were throwing up hitting hot engine and drive train parts.

camstng66

Was the parking brake on??? Sounds dumb, but check...

thump

If you were spinning tires a fair amount then it was the smell of cooking tire rubber. It's sounds funny considering you're on snow/ice, but it's really easy to burn up quite a bit of tread spinning that way.

During one of our really bad winters up here my wife nearly wore out a new set of ATs on her Xterra in just one season.

bloodvette

you know what, the more i think about it, the more I agree, i was spinning a lot and it did cross my mind "maybe the rubber actually got hot enough to smell" so yea, I'll keep an eye on it... and I'll keep a nose on it. The weather was just below freezing so hot tire temps certainly achievable.

I did verify the ebrake was not on.

loneacre

x2 on hot tires

F150_Feste

I hate to bust your bubble on this, but it wasn't your tires or your brakes it was your tranny. I know because I have had this happen multiple times on many different trucks, all happening when spinning the tires and oddly enough all in the snow/ice. If you had a temp gauge on your tranny you would have seen it rise above the tolerable 200 degree level...after that it breaks down very rapidly and causes that "burnt clutch" smell that you are referring to. If you haven't already, you should take a quick inspection of your tranny fluid and replace before the thinned fluid no longer lubricates and functions properly...which will inevitably lead to tranny failure. I experienced this the hard way once and never again. The cost to replace the fluid is far less than having the shop replace your transmission. That type of longer than average spinning really heats up a tranny and will cause a lot of trouble for you if you don't take care of it.

Ghostman 04

I agree with you my dad had to replace his after trying to pull someone out in the snow. Check your fluid it will probably smell burnt.