dwe8922

When I run any degree of heat in the car, the smell is almost unbearable. What tubes need to be cleaned out exactly, and how does oil get in them? Also, if I leave the car sitting for more than 2 weeks, I get a gas/musty smell in the cabin. Could this be related? I tried replacing the gasket on the gas cap a while back, but that didn't change anything.

Thanks!

quasr

I experience the same thing when the heater comes on. A strong smell though not unbearable. Could be just a Central FL 993 thing...

briefescape

I smell a R.A.T. (Rotten Animal Trapped )
Is there rodents around where the car is stored ?

Cheers Guy

dwe8922

From what I remember, oil gets in the tubes somehow, and for us that rarely turn the heat on, that makes it worse.

I don't think its rodent (I hope) b/c it has too much of a fuel/oil/petroleum smell to it.

Falcondrivr

I can confirm the Central FL heat smell. Don't know the cause though...

Kolbjorn S

You might find your answer in this this tread.

I can add that aside of blocked evaporator drain, if the evaporator itself start going bad it will emit a fairly diagnotic bad mold- / dead rat-like smell. I had this happen and eventually one fine day the cooling suddenly stopped as well - and a replacement evaporator was the only option.

dwe8922

My evaporator /drier was replaced about a year ago. I didn't know about this correlation then, but I don't remember noticing a difference.

justin993

I have a large maple tree by my drive. Even though my car is almost always in the garage, I had the little helicopter seeds get into the heating tubes, and made their way down to the heater boxes. This was a couple of years ago in the fall. It smelt like burning leaves when I turned on the heat. I disconected the heater tube and cleaned out the debris. The smell eventually went away.

cab&coupe

Micky or Mini ???

quasr

Had my evaporator replaced this last summer also. Can't possibly be the problem but thanks anyway.

chet

Here is all I know about the heating system. The air intake for heated air is in the engine compartment. The heater blower sucks air through the intake, pushes it through the heat exchangers, and then through tubes running up to the mixing chamber up at the front of the car. How much heated air is allowed into the mixing chamber is determined by a valve that is controlled by the temperature control dial on the control unit in the dash. Full blue and the valve is completely closed. Full red and the valve is completely open.

So I suppose two things could happen. The air being pulled into the heater intake could smell of any excess oil being heated on the outsides of the engine and heat exchangers. I would think that would be less likely while driving but possible while sitting still. The other possibility might be something getting inside the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger has inflow and outflow for the air running through it, and inflow and outflow for the exhaust (creating the heat) that is running through the pipes inside it. I don't know anything about the likelihood or source of something getting inside the heat exchanger, but if it does you would get the smell of it burning for sure.

zone5

Check your valve cover gaskets. You may have an oil leak getting on to the heat exchangers, causing this smell. Very common issue and an easy fix.

mstolo

I am having this same issue. However, the weird part is I can smell it more when I'm on the gas above around 5,000 rpms. Then the smell shows up - clearly oil. I had recently gone over a driveway that was slanted and in poor shape and thought maybe I bumped something loose underneath, but I haven't had a chance to crawl under and check things out.

Any ideas why accelerating would cause this?

johzev

When I purchased my car this issue came up on the PPI. Dumonts in Oklahoma City corrected the problem with a cleaning.

RAPID

Heat exchangers do rust, it could be possible to have exhaust smell through leak?....