I have a '94 Nissan Pathfinder. Every time I leave the car wash, my car acts strangely, as if the tires/transmission are skipping. I rev and it vibrates and lurches a bit. This last time I noticed a strong (burnt) odor as well. The problem does seem to go away after a few days. Any thoughts?
Have you changed the spark plug wires and distributor cap lately? Those are the most likely culprits for moisture-related running issues, although they usually go away once the motor’s warmed up enough to evaporate the water. It could be you have a large amount of standing water that’s collecting somewhere and taking days to dry up. If it’s actually cracked, you could be getting a lot of water inside the distributor cap, which doesn’t get as hot as the area around the spark plugs and may take several days to dry out.
Oh, and the burning smell is probably the fuel that’s not getting ignited due to this problem going through the catalytic convertor. This will eventually ruin the convertor, which is expensive, so I’d address this problem ASAP. And you should probably stop going through car washes untill you figure it out.