Smell of Burned Rubber
 

Driving my P car yesterday evening I noticed an unusual smell of burned rubber coming from the right rear wheel (course that's where the engine is located). But, I had no engine lights, temp was normal, I was not burning rubber, the evening was cool (below 50 degrees). Engine seemed to be running fine--

Any tips/advice what caused this?

Is yours an S?
They are notorious for eating CV boots. Mine kinda stank as you describe when they went bad.
Crawl under and take a look.

+1 for CV boots. Do them all and move on!

Yes it is an S. I had the boots replaced this summer; I'll check though

They are new...
Mine did that stinky stink after the boots were replaced too... took months for it to go away.

This is the first time I've smelled it since May when I got the boots replace. But I did go on vacation and didn't drive it till a month ago; once!

So new boots! That's new info! Perhaps you were smelling left over grease that was slung out onto your exhaust that had'd burned off yet.

It's still worth getting eyeballs on the boots. It's possible that a clamp has slipped or become loose.

"Left over grease that was slung out..." Not sure what that means. At any rate, I went on a 2 hour drive in heavy traffic and the smells was still there. I am beginning to believe it is with the CV boots and am inspecting them as I go along; no tears in new boots. I used the heater for the first time in 2 years thinking maybe that is a variable, but not sure. The inputs related to new CVs has narrowed my search.

That rubber burning smell was, for me, the belt going. Pullies had seized or where not spinning well, and the belt eventually broke.

That was my first thought, but I replaced the belt in June (this summer) @39K miles

Check the....
 

.....idler pulleys on the serpentine belt.

Mine was bad after only 25,000 miles on my 2004 S.

I have seen multiple fires caused by a seized idler pulley setting the serpentine belt on fire on these machines.

How do I check the idler pulleys?

Simple...
 

....remove the serpentine belt and then grab the pulleys and try to wiggle them and then spin them by hand. They should not wobble and should spin freely with no noise. If they wobble, or go crunch crunch, replace them.

Thanks! I will check that; if they are fine what is the next potential item to check?

What I was referring to is that when boots crack, your axles spinning will cause the grease in the boot to end up all over the underside of your car.

they spin freely with no noise