Bad odor in my SMART!

[dsopher1]

While in the engine compartment, check for the neighbor's cat!

LOL--thats not funny but I had to laugh.

[SmartDigger]

I would take it to the dealer and have them check the AC for mold. You could have a air exchanger full of it.

[74AMX304V8]

and check vent tube from battery

[HerrZ]

good idea on battery vent. when mine went in for the "bridge" and bigger battery...i checked the install. the dealer BROKE the vent tube elbow off of the new battery. there were grease prints on the broken elbow.. and i was clean.

[SmartChip]

Nance, You are suffering from SMARTSKUNK. this is a critter that tracks Smart cars. They nest near your parked Smart and when you get in to take a drive they latch onto the undercarriage and go along for the ride. They are very hard to find as they release and run when the car stops. Keep your eyes open, you may see a small black and white animal hanging around your area. WARNING, DON"T chase them,their defense mechanisms are to terrible to deal with. GOOD LUCK, I hope youcan get rid of th' lil' stinker. Cheerz, SmartChip

[jimvw57]

Check under the seats, If you use your car for grocery runs, it may have dumped a bag and something might have got left under there. The wife left a pork roast in the trunk of her Tempo for about a week during the hot summer months and man did it smell bad. the only option was after a thorough cleaning, to leave the trunk lid open when i wasn't being griven. It eventually went away but it cost a lot in air fresheners, deoderizers, baking soda, cleaning supplies etc.

[JPaul]

Duplicate posts/threads by OP merged... Thank you.

[Jim R]

I had a similar experience with another car years ago.As suggested earlier in this thread,the culprit was my neighbors cat.It had met it's demise in the fan belt under the hood. Sorry about the morbid thought but it was reality.

[w10king]

Once, my mothers car had a terrible odor. You could tell it was coming from under the front passenger seat, but we couldn't see anything. My father asked me to remove the seat, and shampoo all the carpet. When I got it out, I found the wrapper from a stick of butter, which had melted, spoiled and turned rancid.

[SubSlr88]

Nance, I live in Central FL, too, and have had the odor in my car, as well. The high moisture gets into the cabin air filter and after baking for a bit in the heat will produce mold and other unpleasant stuff on the filter. And then, the incoming air stinks. Until I got a new cabin air filter, I took mine out, dried it in the sun and then sprayed it with some Lysol before reinstalling. That pretty well took care of the problem until I got a new filter installed.
I bought the FRAM FreshBreeze CF10132 filters from Amazon.com - two for about $30 including shipping - a pretty good deal.