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Old senior tech at DAL taught me to trust my nose
Back when I was a new guy at the hangar in Atlanta, there was this old timer named Hank who barely talked. One day we had a MD-80 with a weird intermittent smell in the cockpit. Everyone was chasing wiring diagrams for hours. Hank walked up, sniffed the overhead panel, and pointed at a specific circuit breaker. That breaker had a tiny hairline crack heating up. Fixed it in 10 minutes. He just said 'your nose knows oxidation before your meters do.' Has anyone else had a weird smell save them time troubleshooting?
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casey3429h ago
Smelled a burning plastic smell on a rental car once saved me from a bad brake line.
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laura_wilson2h ago
Three years ago I had a Toyota Camry rental in Phoenix and that exact burning plastic smell hit me when I hit the first big hill. I told myself it was just the desert heat or maybe the air conditioner acting up. But @casey342 is absolutely right because I ignored it for two days and the brake pedal started feeling soft and spongy on day three. Turned out the brake line was weeping fluid and the plastic smell was the reservoir cap melting from the heat. The rental place actually thanked me because I caught it before the line blew completely on the highway.
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alex8207h ago
Right? My last rental smelled like burnt toast and I thought someone was making breakfast in the glovebox. Turns out it was the alternator trying to weld itself to the engine block. Saved me a few hundred bucks in towing fees at least, but man did the rental guy look at me like I was crazy when I pointed it out.
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