Burning smell from rear wheel

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I have a burning like smell coming from the right rear wheel on my 2005 Honda Accord. It's a LX so it has rear drum brakes. It's a faint smell and probably wouldn't be noticable to the average person. The left rear doesn't smell.

The car has 194k miles and I am pretty sure the drums and shoes are original. I pulled the drum off and everything looked good as far as I could tell. The shoes don't have a lot of material left but there is enough. The drums look decent.

I jacked up the rear of the car and spun both rear wheels. They both spin with minimal resistance and feel the same. The brakes don't make any noise and the wheel/lug nuts aren't warm after a 25+ mile drive.

Any ideas what could be causing it?
 
Maybe its intermittently sticking? I'd probably have it apart for an inspection.. if its in good shape you might be looking at the wrong culprit.

Then again with 15 year old brakes you can sometimes have strange issues such as hoses, leaking wheel cylinders, etc.
 
What is the smell? Hot brake, hot metal or hot rubber? My car has an intermittent hot (almost burning) rubber smell, and I assume it's just a hot exhaust hanger or the like.

Now a hot brake, that'd be an indication of problems.
 
Touch your rear wheels after a drive and see if it is warmer on one side than the other. Gas mileage lower than normal?
 
Originally Posted by vwmaniaman
Touch your rear wheels after a drive and see if it is warmer on one side than the other. Gas mileage lower than normal?

Agreed.
If one wheel rim is warmer than the other, likely a stuck or seizing parking brake mechanism or wonky wheel cylinder.
Take it apart and service the brakes.
Check and adjust for proper functionality.

Visually inspect exhaust system for a plastic bag or tarp type material that was run over and now melted to the exhaust pipe or muffler. Maybe bound up between heat shield and exhaust pipe???

Or a chunk of underbody rustproofing that came loose and is wedged to the exhaust???

Look around and you'll likely find something....
 
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A few weeks ago I jacked it up and removed the wheel after a drive and the smell quickly went away. Couldn't tell where it came from. Nothing was hot. Maybe there is some plastic burning on the exhaust? It is on that side.
 
I'd keep poking around, but I'm telling you, I've had that come and go for a few years and on more than one vehicle.
 
Dumb questions:

How old are the tires?
Properly inflated? 2010 has TPMS, so that should let you know when any tires is ~ 27#.
 
Originally Posted by 2010Civic
A few weeks ago I jacked it up and removed the wheel after a drive and the smell quickly went away. Couldn't tell where it came from. Nothing was hot. Maybe there is some plastic burning on the exhaust? It is on that side.

One time I ran over a plastic bag and it stuck to the exhaust. It smelled like something was hot. Even though only plastic residue remained on the exhaust, it smelled for several weeks afterward.

FWIW,

Scott
 
Originally Posted by 2010Civic
I'd say it smells like hot rubber or brakes? Hard to tell.

Burning rubber has a pretty distinctive smell. I don't think you'd confuse it with the smell that comes off of brakes.
 
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