Burning rubber smell then violent shaking when braking

ducatirider · Sat Mar 07, 2015 11:23 pm

I've had my Kizashi for about 5 months and put over 7k on it,(it had 60k when i bought it from a dealer) with no issues. Today I ran it very hard up a curvy hill for about a mile with the car tacking pretty high. I began to smell rubber burning and assumed it was the CVT belt, but when I drew brakes the car shook violently. By the time I got home about 10 miles away the shaking from drawing brakes was gone, so I know its not the rotors because of no previous trouble and it stopped by the time I got home. Could the continuous hard pull have stretched the belt out and the drawing brakes with the belt not retracting all the way caused the vibration, but as the belt cooled and shrank caused it to go away? Thanks for any insight.

Sun Mar 08, 2015 2:42 am

Still sounds like you were warping rotors to me. How much where you on the breaks?

ducatirider · Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:09 am

Drew brakes to make right turn and no trouble. Run the car uphill hard drawing no brakes, first down hill curve needing to draw brakes car was instantly shaking. There is no way rotors got hot and I hand torque wheels with no previous problems and by the time I got home the vibration from drawing brakes was gone. ITS NOT THE ROTORS!

Sun Mar 08, 2015 6:53 pm

CVT 'belt' is made of metal, not rubber.

Mon Mar 09, 2015 12:55 am

Not too sure then. I think you are the first person to ever have a problem with the symptoms you are describing.

ducatirider · Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:45 am

Drove the car again last night and no problems, I just want run it that hard again.

bdleonard · Mon Mar 09, 2015 4:08 am

Is a brake pad sticking in its groove, and not releasing / engaging evenly?

Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:24 am

The smell of burning rubber and the brakes shaking is a weird combo. Just an idea, but did you check to see if the wheel wells were clear? I've seen wheel well liners get damaged by the tires even when they are the correct size. You might want to check just in case.

The only time I smelled a rubber burning-like smell after driving spiritedly (in another car) was when my front differential dipstick was lifting up and spilling a bit of oil in my former AWD vehicle. The dipstick would occasionally get a bit loose and spill a bit of gear oil onto the exhaust which then created a rubber burning-like smell. I have no idea if this applies to the Kizashi (mine is a manual FWD), but you may want to check all fluids and make sure nothing was spilling and cooking off.

Lastly, check your CV boots. At 60K miles, they may be susceptible to being torn. If so, they may explain the vibrations and the burning smell (if the boot got torn and spewed grease onto exhaust components).

ducatirider · Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:28 am

I have not checked brake pads to see if there sticking, I don't think that's the problem but I will check them. Cv boots are good, tires are not hitting inner fenders and both dip sticks were down and no signs of leaks. I will crawl under the car this weekend and see what I can find.

DAgreatbranch · Sun Dec 27, 2015 5:59 pm

I've had the same with mine. I've only had the car for a few months and it's got about 54k on it. Some times I will smell a word burning smell, other times the car will seem to be vibrating a lot more than it should and then I will occasionally get the same shaking your taliking about when breaking. It's weird though because it's not constant ito just random. I would love to know what it is because that's the only thing that I have had "go wrong" on my kizashi so far because otherwise I love it, so keep us updated if you find anything! !