Burning Electrical Smell, Help!
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AudiWorld Newcomer
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Burning Electrical Smell, Help!
2013 Audi A7 Prestige... Burning electrical or plastic or electrical/plasticy melting smell coming from the engine compartment. Takes about an hour to an hour and a half of hard or highway driving for the smell to build up, but once it does it is almost unbearable. I cannot use the air conditioner or heater because the air blowing into the cabin is so caustic. No lights or codes on the dash of the car, no other indications that anything is wrong. Already replaced the valve gasket cover, and nothing is leaking from the top side or underside of the car having it up on a lift. The mechanic can barely smell it, and he doesn't know where to start. Any help or similar experience would be much appreciated!!
AudiWorld Newcomer
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 4
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From: North Texas
I am having the exact same issue with my '13 Q7 TDI Prestige. A couple weeks ago we had a considerable cold front (for north Texas) and started the Q7 to warm it up. When we all piled in, there was a noticeable cloud of smoke with a burning electrical kind of smell. Again this morning while driving to work it came back. This time it took a good half hour to start smelling bad. I turned the temp way down to effectively turn off the heater and gradually the smell went away. I'm leaning toward the electrical aux-heater being the culprit. If it were the heater core failing/leaking, I would think the smell would be sweeter like coolant. Going to try using the VAG-COM tonight and see if I can turn off the aux-heater. I'll let you know how it goes.
AudiWorld Newcomer
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 4
Likes: 1
From: North Texas
Well I got into the A/C settings in the MMI and changed the aux heating from "Auto" to "Off". Drove it like this over the weekend and to work this morning, using the heater most of the time. No burning smell or smoke yet. I did not connect the VAG-COM yet, just wanted to try this first. So far so good. Will update if anything changes. This seems like an easy "fix", but I would like to get the aux heating repaired, as it takes much longer to get heat without it.
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