P500 Went Riding in deep snow, now have some funny smells

[MI-Trailblazer]

Let me start with I have not looked into this closely yet, so I do not know the entire story on my machine, but I was hoping to get some input from you guys that run your P5's in the snow regularly so I don't off on a wild goose chase.

We got about 9" ~ 12" of snow Monday night here in southern lower Michigan. Last night after plowing driveways with the tractor, I hopped in the P5 to go to the horse barn to feed. Also at this point it is 2-degrees F outside. I head across the yard to the field I cross to get to the horse barn. The Bear Claws are turning pretty good, trying to find traction. The entire machine starts that hopping up and down from it digging through the snow and I start getting the rotten egg smell. OK I know that is the catalytic converter, for its cold out, engine is running rich, I'm high rpm (well not really high but higher than I normally twist it) I get that. But when I make it to the barn and stop, I get this hot rubber or plastic like smell. I do a quick walk-around nose check and cannot really pin-point where the odor is coming from. When the horses finish eating, I return to the P5 and do not smell it anymore. Drive the P5 back to the house through the snow and I get the rotten egg smell and this hot rubber/ plastic smell again. I grab a light in the shop and take a quick look but I do not see anything laying on the exhaust or engine that looks melted, nor any signs of smoke from whatever is making the smell.

So before I go tearing my P5 apart looking for this, have any of you run into a smell after running in deep snow?

Oh, my P5 is a 2018 with just the 26-inch Bear Claws on stock wheels. No suspension or engine mods.

Thanks

 

[DG Rider]

My 2015, bought used with 4** miles, would produce a hot rubber smell on long climbs (not much snow in this part of AZ). Seems like this went away with milage. I always thought it was the cat, but not sure...

 

[Keebler]

I have heard others talk about snow packing around the radiator and causing the engine to run hot. I know it was really cold but running through snow could be a heavy load, did you notice the engine temp?

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

I thought of that Keebler, but no, I had the dash set on the fuel gauge / speedometer setting and did not think to switch to the engine temp. Since I need to make the same drive with it again tonight, I'll switch it to the temp gauge and see. Thanks

 

[Gold-digger]

Let me start with I have not looked into this closely yet, so I do not know the entire story on my machine, but I was hoping to get some input from you guys that run your P5's in the snow regularly so I don't off on a wild goose chase.

We got about 9" ~ 12" of snow Monday night here in southern lower Michigan. Last night after plowing driveways with the tractor, I hopped in the P5 to go to the horse barn to feed. Also at this point it is 2-degrees F outside. I head across the yard to the field I cross to get to the horse barn. The Bear Claws are turning pretty good, trying to find traction. The entire machine starts that hopping up and down from it digging through the snow and I start getting the rotten egg smell. OK I know that is the catalytic converter, for its cold out, engine is running rich, I'm high rpm (well not really high but higher than I normally twist it) I get that. But when I make it to the barn and stop, I get this hot rubber or plastic like smell. I do a quick walk-around nose check and cannot really pin-point where the odor is coming from. When the horses finish eating, I return to the P5 and do not smell it anymore. Drive the P5 back to the house through the snow and I get the rotten egg smell and this hot rubber/ plastic smell again. I grab a light in the shop and take a quick look but I do not see anything laying on the exhaust or engine that looks melted, nor any signs of smoke from whatever is making the smell.

So before I go tearing my P5 apart looking for this, have any of you run into a smell after running in deep snow?

Oh, my P5 is a 2018 with just the 26-inch Bear Claws on stock wheels. No suspension or engine mods.

Thanks

You probably packed snow into everything underneath and now the oil you have on top of your skid plate is being mixed with the snow and being melted by the heat , give it a good pressure washing and I bet it goes away

 

[Splorin]

May stay at two 'bars' but your definitely using it harder snowrunnin. A long mudrun without the cleanup. I wonder if your cat may be sorta cleaning itself or the rig even running rich to compensate for the 'chill' in the air????

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Good thought Gold-digger, but the machine is only 2 years old with 180 miles on it. Been fully serviced once by the Honda mechanic I bought it from. No leaks anywhere on it. So I am thinking not that. Wish I had a place to pressure wash it anyway, but too cold for that still.

Splorin - yep, working hard at going nowhere will heat things up quickly. Likewise, I believe the 2-degree temp had the ECM stuck in open loop, waiting on the engine temp sensor to get up to temp to go to closed loop. Not sure if it made it or not in my 6 minute ride. I'm sure the cat was not happy with all that fuel going into it.

Keep the idea's coming guys. Maybe this week-end I can mess with it more and see if I can locate the origin of the smell.

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

OK, over the week end it warmed up above freezing. The sun load melted the snow some to have a hard crust on the top as well as shrink it down about 3 inches. So gone was the 12-inches of powder that I ran my P5 through and got the funny smells. So for now, no repeatable conditions to test.

I did look the machine over good - there was snow packed into the belly of it really good. Not enough to get to the radiator, but maybe that night to the bottom of the radiator. Nothing touching the exhaust area, but it definitely surrounded the bottom couple inches of the engine. Guess I'll have to let this one slide to the mystery condition - dependent on how deep of snow I run it in?

 

[trigger]

Mine and others mystery condition is the whiff of antifreeze smell every so often. I only get it when I'm plowing and never in the warmer months. Machine doesn't get overly hot or anything either but it never fails, I get it at least once every winter. 🤷‍♂️

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

My wife's old 1998 Dodge Truck she had did that same kind of thing. You would drive somewhere, get out, walk towards the front of the truck and get a whiff of hot anti-freeze. I spent hours searching for a leak, doing pressure tests and removing parts to get clear view of the radiator and heater core but never found a leak.

Unfortunately, I get this same thing on my TRX250R every few years, but that always results in a coolant leak and the need to replace the water pump seal.