Unpleasant Smell

A

Alpine Z

Member
Apologies if this has been discussed before, I've a number of search criteria without success.

Since my car has come back from the MoT two weeks ago, I've noticed an unpleasant smell in the car. Somewhat similar to cats pee.

First thoughts were that it was the day after I'd been out to get a fish supper. It wasn't that.

The smell persisted, so I've checked for damp possible leak in the roof, no, all seals bone dry.

To the mats out, they were bone dry, hoovered and cleaned them.

Checked the floor mats again dry.

Looked in the boot again dry and no smell there.

Engine bay, that's clear.

So my only other thought is that it's coming from the air ducts and could be A/C related, done the usual heating on full blast, still there.

OK, so after all this checking it is not as bad, but it's still there.

Is there something that can be sprayed into the air vents to try and remove this, if it is indeed A/C related?

Sensible comments appreciated.
 
You can get aerosol bombs to sort this. They are anti bacterial to remove smells.

Odd that you noted only after its MOT tho?

Eg. http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/331644710576?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368
 
You could be right there firebobby.

Thanks for the replies, I've got a few options now, off to order a can now.

The video was helpful.
 
I've noticed this in some cars but never in the zed.

It's always been related to the aircon. I guess condensate trapped in the pipework.Turn the aircon up to max and run it for a few minutes, that should do it.
 
Well it was around that time, in the space of a week it had been to the tyre fitting centre and two visits to the BMW Dealer.

I noticed it after this.

So, thinking about this, I decided to clean the seats, Baby wet wipes are well known to work well on leather car seats, so I liberally used a few on the seats yesterday.

Get in the car today. The odour appears to have gone.

Hopefully, sorted.
 
If it comes back and only when air-con is on then first buy 3 cans of Detol anti-bac and unload it all over the air vent under hood on passenger side. 1 can during cooling, 1 can during max heat and 1 can during demist.

If it's still there you have to buy the air-con cleaner (the one thats about £20 on amazon) take it to a BMW specialist and tell them to use it on the rad intake pipe. You can't do this yourself.
 
Glycol Coolant smells of cat's pee. If there was coolant pooled somewhere I'd want to find it not mask the smell. Just some thing that popped into my head, may be a total red herring. :)
 
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