Riu

I posted a ling time ago about my car smelling.

I put those things you put in the dryer with ur clothes in there under my seats and smell cleared. 6-7 months later(4 days ago) i go in the car and the smell is back. I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. But yesterday I got in the car and it was gone. I dont get this car and its smells.

sangwl

what kind of smell?

sang

Landonk

About 3 weeks after I purchased my 06TL, my car started smelling like soured trash. After about a week my wife cound the little tikes sippy cup under the passenger seat full of spoiled milk...yuuuukkkkkk! The smell was gone in about 2 days. Anyway, we owned a 1988 Acura Integra that smelled like rotten eggs all of the time. The dealer wsai it was a catalytic converter prob. Changed it out and it still smelled. I have noticed this smell a couple of times accellerating up a hill near my house in my new 06TL. I hope it's not the car. What is everyone else smelling?

GunnmeTaLCURA04

Yes, this is the famous rotten EGG smell. I took my car in for this. They said that all they did was adjust the pc to burn fuels different. Dont know exact details. But it still does it. Try it. Its free, its under warranty. They know what the "Rotten Egg Smell" is.

bored7one4

the smell goes alway after you put some miles on your car. when i first got my car it had that smell but after about 4k on the car the smell is gone.

Riu

i have 11k + on mine. its less frequent now though. mine is not just rotten eggs thought. Like dirty laundry but there is none of that in my car. Try the dryer fresheners though. They work. Put them under your front seats so they cant be seen.

DMZ

Sure its not ?

Riu

lol

Landonk

As the late Rodney Dangerfield said in Caddyshack...."Oooh....did somebody step on a duck?"

Scribesoft

My wife's car had that smell for about 6 months last year... we found a couple of sippy cups under the seats and removed them, but the smell was still there. Some of the milk seeped into the carpet.

I eventually ripped out her front seats and fully steam cleaned the entire carpet until the smell was gone.. What a pain in the butt!

I took the TL for a hard drive up to LL Bean in Freeport, ME this past Monday (about 3 hours round trip) and it stunk like brakes and all sorts of various car parts when I got home. Can't blame the car on that one though. I took a bunch of side roads and really had a lot of fun winding her out, so I think the smells were simply due to the very hard driving.

I took it easy on her yesterday and didn't have any smells at all.

triggle

If you smell this only when the engine is running it may be fuel related. I have heard that cheap fuel can cause this. Maybe try a top teir fuel and make sure you use premium. Give the car a good run once in a while to get the moisture out of the exhaust system

If it smells all the time then it may be organic. Try some Febreeze for cars under your seat where the spill was. If organic, maybe someones wet shoes moistened the old milk activating the smell again. If this is what is happening you'll need to do a better job of cleaning the carpet.

Riu

yea it prob is just moisture.

V-Power Gas all the time.

Alin10123

It's the exhaust system. With the newer cars you can't use gas with a high sulfur content. What you are smelling is the sulfur. Try switching around to different gas stations to see if it helps. The new 4runners have that problem too. There's not much the dealer can do to fix that.

Riu

Only gas station near school is Shell and Hess and I get money off at Shell with my CC. BUt i have been filling up for 8 months there and this has only happened one time and now seems to be tapering off.

mickey3c

How about playing "that smell" on the stereo by leonard skynard...lol...

GunnmeTaLCURA04

This is correct. For some reason I get the smell MORE with Amoco. I tried Shell and it was ok. But then Chevron did it the least.

And to that person that said that only new cars do it, thats not true. My car has 38k miles and still does it when I step on it. They have told me that its the residue(sP) on the cat. So when you floor it, it gets really HOT and it starts to burn up whats left in the cat, and thats what you smell. the sulfur residue (sp)

Riu

Now that I think about it I filled up a Mobil when it smelled. I was away from school with some friends. Could that really be it?

Ka0tik

mine has a lil smell, once i turn the air conditioning on (with the filter off) or roll the window down its gone..... this smell is only periodic

Jesstzn

Common cause is fungus inthe A/C vent . there is sprays made specifically for it .

Ka0tik

link? and where would i spray?

Riu

where can i get these sprays

Jesstzn

The dealer usually has the spray .. they are sprayed inthe A/C vents.

Jesstzn

Klima-Cleaner 250 ml (8,5 fl oz) Made by 1Z einszett

s Removes bacteria and fungi from air conditioning units and
ducting.
s Reduces allergens for clean, healthy, and fresher smelling
air.

Don't mask odors with fragrances -- treat them. Klima-Cleaner is an effective means for removing odors from the air conditioning unit by eliminating odor-causing bacteria, fungi and other germs. Works by effectively cleaning the evaporator -- the source of the problem. Simply insert included spray hose into the center air vents in your vehicle's interior and spray. Allow to work for 30 minutes. Creates a healthy and fresh smelling environment that lasts for months.

Riu

hmmm ill check that out

Road Rage

Perhaps "cheap fuel", perhaps not. (I would like to know where you can find cheap fuel these days, BTW). I infer that by "cheap fuel" you mean "poorly mfd fuel".

I think by "cheap fuel" you may be referring to the practice that allows some especially high sulfur fuels, or fuels with a different seasonal formulation, to be sold "cheaply" to independents, who can offer it as a "false economy" of 3-4 cents below general market rates, but more often than not, just sell it as their normal fees, and pocket the difference. I know,. it is hard to believe they would do such a thing.

The most common results?

1) High sulfur fuel gets to market
2) "Off-season" fuel gets to market (fuel is almost always adjusted by the mfr's from season to season - somewtimes to meet emissions targets, sometimes to ensure good driveability, sometimes both). "Winter fuel" bought in Spring, for example, can cause idle flares, and if it leads to a misfire, can set a temporary CEL. It would be unusual for off season fuel to cause a noticeable smell, although if it coauses a temporary change in the cat's temperature, it might be possible that a "change of state" cause residual sulfurs to be emitted abruptly. I doubt it, though.

Instead, it is likely a "high sulfur events".

High sulfur fuels are pretty easy to detect - they are about as popular as a dirty diaper filled with shrimp and left in the trunk during August. They small like rotten eggs, and if used over a long time period, can damage the catalyutic converter. Mostly, it is an annoyance to the owner and anyone behind him at a stoplight. BTW, some people are confused by the fact that the smell is not "behind the car", and believe something is fundamentally wrong with their TL. Consider this - wind can be at your back, so the smell can be blown forward. Even on a calm day, when one brakes to a stoplight, the trailing air mass continues to move forward, so the "smell" can be suggestive of a problem, where none exists.

The excess sulfur usually "burns out" of the cat as it reaches normal operating temperatures - sometimes one can see crud that has accumulated in the cat getting blown out when someone (like Granny) nails it after a long period of senescence - one sees a blob of tan smoke from ther tailpipe.

Regarding "I use Shell" or whatever. There is no guarantee that cheesy fuel bought under the conditions I mentioned above will not appear at a "Tier 1" Company. Their operators are subject to the same "money driven" marketing philosophy as "Joe Schmoe Gasoline" dealers, and I can assure you, Shell neither cares nor controls point of sale to any significant degree. I have seen a few dealer agreements, and do not recall a clause precluding the practice - could be wrong, but ebven if there were such a clause, who is enforcing. The EPA and States do not enforce the mandatory detergent levels dictated by Law.