I recently bought a well-kept 2008 T&C with 105K miles on the 3.8L engine and once the engine warms up, I often a whiff of a burnt smell inside the cabin. Sometimes it smells like oil burning but most times it's just an indefinable, unpleasant aroma.

I've noticed that the engine bay seems to emit a great deal of heat after being driven for a little while (~20-60 minutes). I mounted a temperature probe (from my BBQ) near the battery and checked; with good airflow at highway speeds, the engine bay holds at around 100° F and quickly climbs to 160° when sitting still. I don't know if those temps are reasonable, but the dashboard temperature gauge is holding steady at 50% between C & H.

A forum search doesn't turn up much about bad engine smells so maybe my burned smell isn't a known/common problem, but I have seen other posts on the hot engine bay and that seems to be normal. Other posts report bad smells with heater use, but it's still warm weather here and the heater is not on.

Has anyone else experienced this? What could be the cause?

2008 Town and Country - Touring Edition
3.8L
105,000 miles