Burning smell from vents

[DragonDesign]

So I finally finished up the wiring for my AVN5435 tonight. I think I got everything working (and I'll keep everyone as to whether or not my VSS solution worked). It took me forever to get the unit back into the dash with all that spaghetti-mess of wiring in behind it.... so anyway back to my problem. I took it for a test drive tonight, and when I stopped to air up my tires I noticed a burning smell coming from my vents. My first thought was that it was burning wiring from something getting shorted out with the stereo (it smells sort of like electrical) but there is no smell from the unit, just the vents. The smell is stronger from the middle vents, but the others all smell similar. When I'm driving it the smell goes away but comes back when I'm stopped. When I turn the climate controls off the smell goes away, but comes back when I turn them on. I opened the hood and gave a good sniff around but everything seems ok there.

Any thoughts as to what this could be? Smells kind of like electrical, but not overly strong. It wasn't there when I parked the car a couple days ago to work on the stereo, and its there now. I really dont want to take this head unit out again.....

 

[Frogman]

A lot of brand new electronic gear will give off a "burning" smell for a bit. some stronger than others. If I were you, I'd recheck everything, pull the unit out and smell it.

But if the smell is coming from the actual vents, you might have other problems unrelated to the stereo install, like a heater motor that might be going out.

 

[2001LS8Sport]

Oh man...I hate it when that happens! Seriously. You don't know if there's a wiring problem or like Frogman said...it's just the new unit. Either way, it's very unnerving. If nothing else, carry the tools you need to disconnect the battery and a fire extinguisher until you're certain you're ok.

 

[DragonDesign]

Well I dont know if my nose is playing tricks on me now or what. Sometimes it smells electrical, sometimes I think burning rubber, sometimes maybe oil. I'm going to check when the sun comes up and try to narrow it down. This will be my process: if the smell is coming from the stereo wiring then if I turn the equipment on for a while, then the vents but dont start the engine and smell burning, then its something electrical. If, on the other hand, I turn off the deck and let the engine warm up and I get the smell I know its something mechanical. I know if I get out of the car when its warm I can smell the burning coming through the vent where the windshield wipers are, so I'm thinking engine. Could I have spontaniously gotten an oil leak at coincidentally the same time as I did this work?

The only other thing I can think of as a cause was that when I finished working on the car, tested everything, and went to start the car it wouldnt turn over. There was intermittent clicking (slower than a typical dead battery), absolutely no attempt to turn the engine over, and all the guages went to top end, then back down. Finally the alarm went off (but I may have accidentally bumped the button on the fob in frustration) I tried this twice, then charged the battery a bit and it was just fine. Everything runs perfectly fine except for a wobble in the front end where my improperly ballanced winter tires are behaving poorly.

Any other thoughts on testing this problem?