Yeah, title sounds pretty funny, but for the last week or so, the inside of my car smells like a something died in there. I never eat or drink in my car, and keep it very clean. It smells like a combination of day old Burger King and rotten tomatoes (you really have to smell it yourself to fully appreciate it ).
Is there anywhere I should begin to look besides obvious places like under the seats?
While I look foward to a few humerous responses, I'd really like to get rid of the odor.

Thanks for any input guys!

JJ

 

A rat or cat in your engine bay??

 

No joke...Check your intake air filter area, look around the back of the headlight housing...Something may have infact died inside of the engine back.

 

cabin air filter?

 

Thanks for the input guys.
I Checked the air intake assembly behind headlight. Nothing there or anywhere else under the hood. Will check cabin filter later on today.....

JJ

 

Wait a minute....

I remember back in the day, a year or so ago, there was a thread about a "musty" smell that used to be emitted by our cars. I still get this from time to time, and its due to lack of use of the AC (in the manual it states that we should run our ac's on a regular cycle, blah blah blah)

Would this be the smell you are talking about?
maybe try running the AC for a bit, turn it off 1 minute before you shut the engine down and see if the smell goes away? Just a suggestion

and touche on the cabin air filter.

There is a charcoal filter you can buy in lieu of the standard filter.

 

Also check to make sure nothing is rotting inside your trunk. Knew someone who left a whole chicken in his trunk for a week. Decayed and never was able to get the smell out of his 525i. LOL. He got rid of that car quick.

 

definitely check the vent hood and cabin air filter.. something may have crawled in and died.. lizards.. rats.. you name it. Spray some treatment at both ends and replace the cabin air filter. How's the A/C running?

Also.. I hit some road kill (skunk) about 6 months ago.. and it still lingers.. you may have hit road kill.. go around the body and sniff around for anything funky..

 

That musty/damp/mildrew smell you may notice from the vents is generally caused by one, or both, of two things. 1) Running your A/C on recirculate almost always. 2) Failing to dry out the evaporator when using the A/C (this is the most common reason).

When running your A/C, turn it off and turn the fan speed up high for the last 5 minutes of your trip (or about 2-3 miles). This will go a long way in helping to dry out your evaporator and keeping that smell to a minimum.

 

Word.

 

Hey guys:

After thouroughly examining the ventilation system (intake/cabin filter) to no avail, I decided to have a more in depth look under the front seats. After moving the drivers seat as far foward as possible, I discovered a small container of salsa far in there. It had swelled substantially, but luckily did not burst. (I detonated it in the driveway)

Thanks again for all your tips, and props to the guy who mentioned someone finding a chicken in the trunk, really put me on the right track!

JJ

 

Yeah, can you imagine this one? You have a blind date and arrive to pick her up for the evening in your TL. The both of you are heading out to an evening under the stars at an outdoor concert and she has a basket and some other things that have to go in your trunk. You open it up to this nasty smell of death warmed over and she says, " Is that your chicken or are you sorry to see me?".


I don't know.. cut me some slack here. It just came out of nowhere... another beer is in the offering.

 

I heard a story years ago at an Acura training class about a guy who got pissed at his dealer and when he returned his loaner he slipped raw fish fillets between the back seat cover and the seat pad. The loaner sat outside over a July weekend and of course when they went to send it out on Monday it stunk to high hell. They had the whole interior gutted before finally finding it. Wow people are creative about revenge.

 

wow.. I wonder if they charged they guys insurance.. talk about revenge.. a word of advice for all you guys - Treat your girlfriends well..