04 Dakota Quad cab, mysterious burning smell
 

In the past month, I have noticed a smell, like burning rubber, but cannot tell where it is eminating from. I pop the hood and see nothing smell nothing. Can really seem to find a pattern either, ie when braking, idling, etc...There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. However yesterday, I started the truck on my lunch brake and drove about 2 blocks to a red light. When stopped at the light I noticed the smell and looked around to see what I could see. There was thick white smoke coming from the exhaust. It went away as soon as I took off and did not return. There seems to be a slow leak with the coolant and am thinking it has something to do with that, it also seems to be using more oil that it used to and I seem to have lost some power. About 2 years ago I had a stopped up oil pickup screen and the autotecs refused to believe that was the problem, (I'm a girl and I look alot dumber than I am.) So they replaced all sorts of electronic components like o2 sensor, oil switch and relay...etc....before they finally checked the screen after the 4th tow. That fixed that for free bc they were so embarassed to have not listened to me. I knew exactly what was wrong bc of this forum and I would like to appear knowledgeable again, if anyone can please help. Thanks!!!

well, as for smells. anything that burns your eyes or nose is oil. and sweet smelling would be coolant. wipe the block down and inspect it really well and see if you see an oil leak or coolant. with that being said, are you running low in oil inbetween oil changes or keep having to add to the radiator? thick white smoke from the tail pipe is usually a sign of a blown head gasket with coolant getting into the cylinder.