Bad New Car Smell / Other New Owner Questions

[DavidSB]

I'm a new Viper owner and could use some advice. I just bought my 1st Viper - a Silver '05 - a few weeks ago and have enjoyed every one of my 1st 450 miles. For those who know the Santa Barbara area, I've been breaking it in with breakfast runs through the Santa Ynez valley wine country or to Ojai: Hard to imagine better "Viper Country". Since day one its had a persistent "burnt grease" smell (not the fiberglass odor). I've bought a number of new cars over the years and a few have smelled for the 1st 50-100 miles until undercoating or parts preservative cooks off, but this doesn't get better and is pretty foul. I've learned from searching the archives that these cars have their quirks but haven't found mention of this one. I don't know if it's related, but there are quite a few black "Permatex-looking" spots on the right exhaust manafold stainless heat shield that are now baked on. Looks kinda like someone got careless with the valve cover gasket sealer (but no cover leaks). Other than that, no visible leaks anywhere. Anyone else had this problem? Does it go away? Any ideas?

I'd also appreciate some help with a few other questions:
There don't appear to be any tow hooks - removable or fixed. If you ever need a flatbed tow, where do you hookup the winch cable so as not to damage the front or rear bumpers?

Sometimes after a hot engine restart, the vent blows hot air, even with the heat control at full cold. Moving the temp control raises the temperature but at full cold it's still pretty hot. I can cool the air flow with the A/C, but it goes warm (hot?) as soon as I turn the A/C off. All this happens with outside air at about 70 deg. F. I understand cockpit heat is a Viper fact of life, but this seems unusual. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[vincent_esq]

Same as mine for all of the above. With 5000 miles, same smell. I understand with another viper owner here in Northern CA that it's the "viper" smell. ) get use to it. The AC should always be on unless it is at least in the low 60's. Today in Northern CA was rainy and in the high 60's, I drove with the top up and the AC on because if I turn the AC off, hot air goes in. The only alternative is to turn OFF the vent. There has actually been many thread mentioning this. The brown spots on manifold are on mine also.

 

[Viperdriver]

Call Archerracing @ archerracing.com and ask for John. My SRT/10 was cooking it's pretty plastic. He has a new insulation setup that absolutely kills cabin heat (e.i. no AC required at 75F, haven't tried it hotter) and will stop the smell.

 

[blonzz]

I had the burt oil smell on my 05 after purchase but it "cooked off" within 100 miles as you mentioned.

 

[Herc]

Went away as soon as I changed the cats and exhaust.

Herc

 

[Eagle]

Mine smells as well with 375 miles. Entire garage smells until the next day.

 

[WANTED]

Mine smells

this could be the problem

 

[scottcot]

My 2004 puts out some strong stink when I pull into the garage after a good drive. At 2200 miles now, I -think- the smell has decreased but not by much and it was so bad that I installed 500 CFM of exhaust fans in the exterior garage wall to (1) create negative pressure and prevent the fumes from entering the house and (2) slowly evacuate the garage (it's a big volume). That reminds me, I need to install a timer switch since I left the fans on a couple hours ago...

 

[DavidSB]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I'll be off-line for a few days and will check back for other ideas/advice later in the week. 480 miles so far. I'll hit 500 next weekend, will change the oil and let the real fun begin - I've been reminded to be cautious at first.

 

[Viper 24]

Chris, i live north of SB and spend some time cruising Santa Ynez - send me a private email if you want to hook up at Los Olivos cafe or something. I can share what i've learned thus far with the SRT10.

[email protected]