Riu

I dont know what the smell is but it is bad. I know its not me because i dont smell like that. I took all the rungs out thinking mold might have gre in them but the next day the smell was just as bad. I cleaned the whole inside of the car and the next day it was still the same. I have not cleaned the trunk. I dont know what it could be. When i start to drive the smell is gone. When i let it sit for 10 min the smell comes back. Could there be a dead animal somewhere under my car or something? Im desperate to rid of this smell. its like that seinfeld episode. IT SUCKS. Its a 04 TL.

caball88

what does it smell like?

Riu

I cant identify with it. Its bad. I used to think old laundry or like spoiled food, but now i just dont know.

NFLblitze1

okay bear with me.....have you hit any animals lately? it could be that you MAY have ran over something and it got caught under wheel or something of that origin

wakattack

make sure your recycle mode is off and stays off .. If your a/c runs with recylce on too long it will cause the system to mildew. Make sure you don't have any wet carpet.

clay8898

Check your trunk. I left a damp towel in mine once and it started to smell.

rets

AC on? Rotten eggs smell?

NFLblitze1

does it smell on the inside AND the outside? or just on the inside of vice versa

madehtsobi

yeh usually it might be dead animals that you ran over and it got caught up under the underbody fenders....i would goto one of those self washing places and use their power washers and spray around your wheel wells and under the body and maybe that'll help?

sorta off topic of the smell but animals do end up in CARS!!

my brother has a jeep grand cherokee and he had heard this baby cat "meow" when he got in his car but didnt of anything and when he got to his destination he still heard the "meow" and he looked under the front bumper and found the baby cat hidden in there....hahaha....sooo crazy....

Riu

Well i have washed that car since the smell has been around. (at a car wash). And it still smells. To my knowledge i have not hit any animals but a squrell or something could have happened. I dont know what to do. Think Acura couyld help me out in any way? How do you clean a trunk. If it is in the trunk would the rest of the car smell. its only the inside.

Riu

And if it is caught outside of the car would i have this horrible smell in the car. I cant stand it.

KJSmitty

Mice have a tendency to crawl up into small places under the hood, wiper linkage area and/or into the heater ducts etc.. Cleaned out many a dead rodent "home" in my 8+ years at the dealership. Normally this smell would get worse as you drove or if the heater was on. If yours doesn't, hopefully its something "outside" of the cabin. Like Wakattack mentioned mildew in the air handler can also get smelling pretty badly....

On another note, a friend’s wife used his car one day for shopping. She accidentally left a large frozen chicken in the trunk. Needless to say he never uses the trunk... His car sat for 3 weeks while he was out of town on business. It was another two weeks before he came over and had me check it out.. All in 90-100 degree TX heat... The whole time he washed the inside of the car numerous times thinking the wife’s dog had pee'd on the seats etc.. Never once thought about looking in the trunk??. You could smell it anytime within 20 ft of the car. When I had him pop the trunk we both about fell over by the extreme overpowering odor of death..... Worst thing I have ever experienced. It was like watching an episode of fear factor seeing him extricate this mass of rotting chicken meat, maggots, etc. from his car... Took another 5 weeks for the odor to completely go away.

Good luck - Happy "hunting"

Riu

KJ thanks, do u have aim or msn or something where i could talk to you. I need help.

madehtsobi

so car wash no help....not the ac vents?

are you handy? if you are i would suggest taking the front two seats out since our seats will not go up....only back n forth..pretty stupid if you ask me.....but yeh......take out the front seats and see if you left dropped any food down there?

try to get FREBREEZE car deordorizer? or spray lysol? theres this car elimator made by meguiars....or try burning some scented candles in your car?

just some suggestions....hope it helps man...i hate stinky cars.....

Riu

I dont know how to take seats out. Im going to call acura tomorrow and see what they can do to help. But more suggestions always help.. You guys are great.

Riu

The outside kind of smells too, but you have to be close.

KJSmitty

I'm actually out of town right now. For the most part all I can say is try to diagnose whether or not the smell comes from the AC/heater vents. If it does it could be either dead animal or mildew. You can also pop the hood and look around the AC/heater air intake area - back of hood around cowl/wiper linkage area. See if their are any signs of "forced" entry or fowl odors in that area etc..
Not sure where abouts you live but look for any signs of dog/cat food etc. under the hood or cowl area. Every nest/home I removed was full of animal food that the rodent drug in.... At least 10 Cadillac's had burnt out wiper motors from the cowl being full of dog chow. All came in without odor but wipers inop... It was a quick and evident diagnosis of what burnt up the motor

Last but not least.. If able leave the windows cracked so the smell doesn't permeate your enterior.... IE garaged at night etc...

The dealer is your best bet. If it is mildew they should clean and fix under warranty (possible a clogged AC condensation vent). If not, it could involve some removal/install of several items to get to the odor.

Keep us posted

Riu

I will be sure to keep you posted. I will see what acura can do for me tomorrow.

KJSmitty

Good deal,

Heaven knows - whatever it is, if it happened with your TL it's bound to happen to someone else's on the forum...

Thanks Riu

Good luck

todorable

My curiousity has gotten the best of me. Please be sure to keep us posted. I would venture to say it is a dead rodent too. YUCK~ I would also go to a detailer and see if any of then have a negative ion generator for Autos they can use on your car. 2 hours with that in your car and the smell will be gone for good. But, if you dont find the source of the problem first, it will continue to come back.

Any chance also that you may have spilled Orange Juice or Milk in the car? OJ can leave a NASTY smell once it starts to sour! (***Insert OJ SImpson joke here***) Both of those spills will leave an obvious mark behind though, I am sure you would have noticed that.

Good luck!

rexwui

It's not a rodent. I, too, had this problem with my TL. It's because you are using the AUTO setting on your climate control. When it is very hot in your car, recirculation will automatically kick in. This will cause water to build up around the evaporator and eventually will grow bacteria if your A/C is not shut down with RECIRC turned off!

I refused to use RECIRC after my problem - which is kinda counterintuitive to the notion of using an automatic setting.

Everytime I used the AUTO setting, I would push AUTO (to turn all settings on AUTO,) then push RECIRC ON, then RECIRC OFF.

This would keep all A/C and vent settings to automatic and recirculation would be off.

Try this for a while and see if the smell goes away - it should after about a week. Or you can try to fix it by turning on your heater full blast, recirc off, and spray lysol in the vent next to your wipers. This is all the dealership will do.

Riu

Thanks i will try all of this.

Sickening smell.

wakattack

If it was a black car, you could have had a Texas BBQ..

DMZ

Riu,

Do you or someone who routinely rides in the car have a farting problem?

quake97

Could it be mildew/mold from wet floor mats? Had that one myself after a lot of snow.

Joe

JohnDoe2

Do you have any friends or relatives that are practical jokers? I'm thinking of the movie "Grumpy Old Men".

CFIMIKE

A dead animal smells like skunk. That's probably not what it is because he is describing an "old laundry, musty" smell. I had exactly the same smell plus damp carpets in my Volvo several years ago. It was caused by the condensate drain from the A/C getting plugged with mud. The water couldn't drain so it backed up and got under the carpet.

After running the A/C and parking the car, we normally see a puddle of water under the car behind the right front wheel. If he's not seeing that, his A/C drain might be plugged with mud and/or ice.

Or, my theory might be way off due to the fact he lives in a cold climate this time of year. That said, even though he would not normally run A/C in winter, it is indeed on when in the defrost mode. But, I doubt much condensate is generated because cold air is normally pretty dry air.

Maybe some of you cold-weather guys/gals can expound on this(?) Am I on to something, or not?

Regards to all from soggy but right now sunny SoCal.

F23A4

Seeing as it's been so cold in the NYC area as of late, I'm leaning more towards either a rodent or cat that may have crawled up into the motor area (heat source) and met an untimely demise.

Let us know Riu.

JoganJani

Put the baking soda pack in the car and see if it eats up the smell. Also while you park inside the garage, park with windows rolled down for coupl of days. fresh air and baking soda might eat up that odor.

Riu

Well someone said run the heat without circulating air so i did that. I have not got back into my car since then. Ill post later when i get home. The carpets are in my garage and have been for 2 days. The smell is still there. It could be the carpet that is in the car but unlikly because i had the capret then the removable ones then plastic covers for the winter. I called acura and they are taking the car tuesday and keeping it over night. (Tues was the first day i could go, its 30 min away) . This car is my mothers but she rarly drives it. I end up taking it and she uses my fathers car. The acura has 4000 miles and i have done 3500. She swears she never spilled anything in it so i cant blame her. Im concerned because believe it or not she does not like the car an is buying something else and I am taking this great car. But I dont want that smell in my car.

My dads car gets the garage for the nights so i cant leave the windows open when this car is outside.

I want to thank all of your for your help and i will keep you updated.

BTW, lol i cant say that i have never farted in the car but not enough to do this and make it come back for weeks.

JohnDoe2

I think I can speak for everyone here when I say "We applaud your honesty"....Well Done!

Riu

lol i hope thats not what made my car smell.. But i dont think this much of a smell is possible from that. I hope its a dead animal so i know its nothing i did and dont know about.

Riu

I was thinking while eating dinner. Lets say its from someone in the car farting. What should i do to get it out. IM WILLING TO TRY ANYTHING. THE SMELL WILL NOT WIN THIS BATTLE!!!! This is like that seinfeld episode.

CSB01

THE BEAST!!

KJSmitty

Tooo funny!

I doubt it's your bodily gases hanging out in the seats though..... After graduating college I had a close buddy of mine drive my car to my folks home - followed me there as I was taking my race car to place in storage... It was about a 2.5 hr drive. The night before we were celebrating our college completion... When we arrived the inside of my car smelled like serious A$$.. I swore my buddy needed a new pair of shorts (or changed along the way..)... Needless to say it took less than a day for his "A$$ memory" to leave my car for good....
20 years later I still give him a hard time over it....

My moneys on a dead rodent or mildew in the AC condenser area...

Best of luck/light a match!

Riu

baking soda did not do it which makes me think its somthing that keeps it a constant smell.

F23A4

I cant imaging flatulence lingering for more than a minute.......maybe two minute tops, if chili-induced. And a '4-down blow thru' (i.e.: all four windows down @ highway speed) should easily disperse any incar flatulence.

DMZ

Oh yeah? You ain't never been in the car with me !!

Xpditor

I think I can speak for everyone here when I say: TMI.

todorable

EWWWWWWW! Please stay away from my car!!

Dang Riu, only 4K miles, so much for the new car smell, huh?