Mysterious burning smell from truck

Ok I’m starting to get a strange smell from my truck... it just began maybe a few wks ago. I can’t pin point it but I will say that one day sitting in a parking lot waiting for my girlfriend to show up I was sitting in my truck cleaning my interior along with my shifter console... I put the shifter in 1 kept foot on brake and cleaned the console cover section that come out when in 1st gear ... keeping it in gear and holding the brake while forgetting about placing it back in park...
After about :20m or 1/2 hour I began to smell like a burning smell.. so I placed it back in park immediately after noticing the smell.
Could I have possibly damaged any thing for there to become a continuing smell when the last 8mths it was not this smell..?

Please help.. what can I do to search for issues.

Thanks TacoWorld

 

Does your brake pedal feel hard when trying to stop during normal driving?

 

No..not really but I’ll pay attention in a little bit bout to go somewhere. Thanks

 

Also there are no warnings or alerts on my dash..‍♂️

 

Was the truck running that whole time?

 

I don’t think you did anything to damage the truck. I would replace the cabin and air filter first. One of those might reveal a nest which could lead to a frayed wire in the engine bay. If those check out fine get under the truck and look for grease that may have got slung up. Did you have an oil change in this time?

 

There may not be. Just wondering if you boiled your brake fluid. Could have over heat the transmission too. You can't check the fluid yourself, but it may be burnt. That's all I can think of.

 

Don’t ignore burning smells......

 

Roof rack still looks good.

 

I'll take it!

 

Let me set the record straight because your story is a little confusing. You had the truck in drive with the e-brake on and noticed a burning smell after 20-30 minutes?

 

Truck was in first gear while holding brake pedal down while cleaning the shifter cover on the shifter console you know what I’m talking about I’m sure the plastic that moves when shifting your gear knob in gear

 

Thanks guess I should talk to a technician at Toyota

 

It was all just an innocent action while wiping my interior with protectant wipes and forgot it was in 1st with the brake pedal pressed not thinking to place it back in park

 

Automatic or manual?

 

theres different kinds of burned smells...burnt wires/plastic, burning engine oil, burning trans oil, hot/burned brake pads/ clutch if applicable, radiator fluid hitting something will have a sweet smell to it, burned brake fluid and finally one of the worst is gear oil.

 

Automatic

 

Goodness.. a good handful of options to try to figure out here but thanks for the info and feedback. I just had it’s oil change at 35kmi I’m at 38kmi now... I don’t see how this could be though .. uhhh frustration setting in

 

Your trans probably got fairly hot with the torque converter slipping that whole time. Oil gets hot when submitted to shearing forces inside a torque converter. A transmission oil change is probably in order.