When you’re driving your Pontiac around Newtown Square, it’s not entirely uncommon to suddenly smell a strange smell coming from your car. A strange or bad odor coming from your car generally means you’ve got a service problem, and should have your car checked out as soon as possible.

Here are some of the kinds of smells that can come from your car, as well as what they can mean:

• Sulphur or Rotten Eggs. This awful smell coming from your car usually indicates a problem with your catalytic converter. It could also signal a problem with your heater core or fuel injection.
• Burnt Sugar. Usually a sweet, burnt smell indicates leaking coolant. In some cases, it could also mean a heater core that’s gone bad. Regardless of the cause, you want to get this looked at right away.
• Gasoline. This isn’t a good sign. Typically, the smell of gas indicates that you’ve got a gas leak. It could be in the tank, hose, or somewhere else. Be careful not to panic here, though; if you’ve just filled your car up, you might just have some gas on your hands.
• Burning Oil. This usually means an oil leak. IN some cases, it could mean a leaky seal. If you’ve got an oil leak, you’ll be able to see a pool under your vehicle when it’s parked.
• Exhaust fumes. Exhaust fumes generally indicate a problem with your exhaust system. These can be dangerous, as the fumes can cause a number of reactions from headache to nausea.
• Burnt Rubber. The smell of burnt rubber usually indicates that a belt or a hose has either come loose and is resting on the engine, or that it’s about to break.

If you have any of these smells coming from your vehicle, call to get it serviced today.