What's that smell?
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: 05-23-2006
Posts: 1,082
From: Chandler, AZ
What's that smell?
About a week ago I started noticing a strange smell coming from the engine compartment when I'd stop, after the engine was hot. I couldn't figure out what it was to save myself. Nothing was leaking, all the fluid levels were fine, and it didn't smell of gas or coolant.
It just smelled like something was overheating. I lived with it for a few days but the smell persisted. I finally took it into the dealers yesterday and the first thing the guy did was get on his hands and knees and looked under the car. Seems that a plastic bag had snagged onto the exhaust pipe somehow and was wrapped around it and melting. 
I felt like a jerk, but I never gave such a thing a thought. I guess it happens often enough for him to find the cause in 5 minutes! 
Founding Member
Joined: 11-23-2007
Posts: 8,210
From: Texas
About a week ago I started noticing a strange smell coming from the engine compartment when I'd stop, after the engine was hot. I couldn't figure out what it was to save myself. Nothing was leaking, all the fluid levels were fine, and it didn't smell of gas or coolant. It just smelled like something was overheating. I lived with it for a few days but the smell persisted. I finally took it into the dealers yesterday and the first thing the guy did was get on his hands and knees and looked under the car. Seems that a plastic bag had snagged onto the exhaust pipe somehow and was wrapped around it and melting. I felt like a jerk, but I never gave such a thing a thought. I guess it happens often enough for him to find the cause in 5 minutes!
Senior Member
Joined: 01-02-2008
Posts: 1,529
From: Nashville, TN
I had the same problem back in '99. I started noticing the smell as my car warmed up, but could not figure out what it was. Nothing wrong under the hood, all fluids OK, etc. The smell continued and got unbearably bad one day after it rained. I took it in to the dealership for an ongoing electrical problem, and asked my service writer to take a whiff. He had one of his service techs take a look after telling me "you can't drive this car with that smell!" What they found was a stash of dog food. They took me back to show me. Yes, there was a fairly large stash of dog food (the kind I fed my dogs) in a cubby hole behind the front strut tower and close to the manifold. They cleaned it out, and it tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. A little hidden camera work gave me the answer -- a squirrel was coming into my garage through the doggie door, was stuffing his mouth full of dog food, then was climbing up into my car and storing it for winter!
Senior Member
Joined: 07-17-2006
Posts: 520
From: Beyond the Sun....
I had the same problem back in '99. I started noticing the smell as my car warmed up, but could not figure out what it was. Nothing wrong under the hood, all fluids OK, etc. The smell continued and got unbearably bad one day after it rained. I took it in to the dealership for an ongoing electrical problem, and asked my service writer to take a whiff. He had one of his service techs take a look after telling me "you can't drive this car with that smell!" What they found was a stash of dog food. They took me back to show me. Yes, there was a fairly large stash of dog food (the kind I fed my dogs) in a cubby hole behind the front strut tower and close to the manifold. They cleaned it out, and it tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. A little hidden camera work gave me the answer -- a squirrel was coming into my garage through the doggie door, was stuffing his mouth full of dog food, then was climbing up into my car and storing it for winter!
A very similar thing happend to me at work....I had a beater Pontiac 6000 that I was driving to work for a while, and when ever I would pop the hood to check fluids I used to find all sorts of food remains. Then another day I found a huge mound of dog food piled on top of the heater box...I just figured that some of my co-workers were messing with me, I didn't care cause we do stuff like that all the time to each other. Then one day I was walking out to my car and watched this "animal" climb down from the wheel well area of the car. Well it turns out that animal was a big ass rat....Then I finally put 2 and 2 together and figured it out.....What they would do is, when it is cold out, they will climb up into the engine compartment to keep warm and they were doing this all winter...Needless to say, I stopped parking by the dog food where our guard dogs eat and haven't had a problem since...lol...
Member
Joined: 01-13-2008
Posts: 71
From: Guthrie, OK
Anyway, ever since then, whenever it looks like I drive over something like that, I always look in the rear view mirror to make sure it comes back out, or I pull over and look for it. Paranoid I realize, but fool me once...
Senior Member
Joined: 06-21-2006
Posts: 3,100
From: Chicago
A very similar thing happend to me at work....I had a beater Pontiac 6000 that I was driving to work for a while, and when ever I would pop the hood to check fluids I used to find all sorts of food remains. Then another day I found a huge mound of dog food piled on top of the heater box...I just figured that some of my co-workers were messing with me, I didn't care cause we do stuff like that all the time to each other. Then one day I was walking out to my car and watched this "animal" climb down from the wheel well area of the car. Well it turns out that animal was a big ass rat....Then I finally put 2 and 2 together and figured it out.....What they would do is, when it is cold out, they will climb up into the engine compartment to keep warm and they were doing this all winter...Needless to say, I stopped parking by the dog food where our guard dogs eat and haven't had a problem since...lol...
Z
Senior Member
Joined: 06-21-2006
Posts: 3,100
From: Chicago