ZJ: my baby smells bad

[TOOLman]

When I come home at night and park in my garage, I often notice a bad smell from my ZJ. It smells like burnt oil, or overheated brakes or something.

When I come home, I usually first stop by my mailbox to check for mail. While I do this I put the tranny in Park, but do not use the e-brake since it's perfectly flat ground. I then drive about 100 yards, slowly, up a slight incline to my garage, where I again put it in Park - and apply the e-brake - while I unlock the garage door. I'm not sure, but I think it's this standing still in Park that causes the smell. The question is why.

I had the 60,000 mile service done last August. I don't have the service booklet available right now (besides, it's in German, so I don't understand it anyway), but doesn't this service include new tranny and diff oil? I was thinking that maybe it's the diffs. The mechanics I hired for the service don't seem to be all that knowledgeable, so I don't know what they did, i.e. if they put in synthetic oils or not. Now the 75,000 mile service is coming up, and I was thinking about doing it myself. I don't trust those jokers anymore, since they couldn't figure out how to install the Kolak exhaust - or even the Turbo City air tube! That took me all of 5 minutes one Saturday morning :rolleyes:.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Lou Corrado]

If you're getting an oil burning smell, look to see if you have any oil seepage or leaking onto any part of the exhaust system or even from around the valve cover gasket on the 4.0, since that could seem down to the exhaust manifold and cause that smell.
Want to laugh--a few years my wife and I are driving her old Toyota Camry, and we're getting the smell of chestnuts roasing on an open fire--what it was --some mice had hidden some acorns in the recesses of the exhaust manifold, hence the roasted nuts smell!!! That was a new one for me, normally I can differentiate motor oil, auto trans oil, gear oil (stinks the most!!) and antifreeze by smell.
Also, check for overfilling of the above f,uids since this can cause leaks and /or spillage.

HTH,

Lou C