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Foul smells emitting from under hood of car

Rod said:
Got in my car this morning, turned the heater on, and once the engine warmed up, a very foul smell began blowing through my vent. When I got to work, I popped the hood, and it smelled atrocious! I'm not sure what's going on, but it smells like a dead rat. Is it possible that there is a dead rat under my hood? I looked around the engine and couldn't find anything. I'll take a closer look when I get home. Just wanted to see if this has happened to anyone else. There is no smoke coming from under the hood, but the smell is really bad. Ideas???
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Ok 2 scenerious ... animals will crawl up next to the engine to stay warm through the night so that can be issue 1. A friend of mine killed a cat this way when he turn the car on.

ALso another friend of mine had a really bad smell, they found out someone put a fish near the radiator, so the smell was the decomposed fish. By the way it smelyt really bad!
 
Fords are famous for heater cores going bad. Have you noticed any type of fog/condensation on the windshield above the defroster vents?

If you're smelling a sickly, rotten, sweet smell, then that would be suspect. Also, go to the passenger side floor board and look to see if you can see any evidence of antifreeze leaking on the floor. Peel the carpet back by the firewall to see if you also see any evidence of coolant leaking.
Then look up to see if you also see any antifreeze drips.


Another possibility is a dead rodent in the air filter housing (least likely), or I have seen rodents get caught in the HVAC blower fan and die.
This usually causes a noisy vibration of sorts though, because the weight of the mouse causes the fan to be off balance.
 
I don't think it's the heater core. There would be a sickly sweet smell and anti-freeze on the floor.

Doc.
 
If it is the heater core...which it doesn't sound like it is as Doc pointed out, they usually put them behind the glove box for easier access.
My money is on a dead rodent, as the same happened to me...a chipmunk touched both poles on my battery, needless to say, a few days later and it wreaked.
Then again...it could be all those dutch masters you smoke Rod.
 
Quit hanging out at highway rest stops and this won't happen.








Any noticable smoke? If it's oil it should be smoking as it's burning, but you may not notice it. Could be a bad differential blowing fluid up onto the engine. You would probably know if it were the heater core, as you see a wet spot on the passenger side carpet, though that may be something that is always there. ;) I'd bet it's a bird that you hit while driving and didn't know it. It's probably been in the grill for a few days and is just now starting to decompose. If you had an animal under the hood and started the engine, causing it to be cut to pieces, you'd have heard it. Unless of course you do what I do and turn the radio on full blast to Bon Jovi's "wanted dead or alive", before you start the car.
 
Why is our fearless leader so familiar with the smell of dead rats that he can equate this smell with them?!
How can we ever trust his opinion on the aroma of fine cigars ever again? :(
 
I hit a bat once leaving my house. I thought it just slid off the winshield but it was stuck under one of my wipers and when I turned on the air or the heat it smelled awful until i realized what it was 5 days later. Check there to see if anything is rotting because that's where your vents may be taking in the outside air. Good Luck!
-Mike
 
Oh, I forgot something. Ya got any enemies? Some folks have been known to put a dead chipmunk on the manifold under the air cleaner. Of course I wouldn't know anything about this.

Doc.
 
Devil Doc said:
Oh, I forgot something. Ya got any enemies? Some folks have been known to put a dead chipmunk on the manifold under the air cleaner. Of course I wouldn't know anything about this.

Doc.
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Doesn't take an enemy. For my brother's wedding, I wired sardines (packed in oil) to the exhaust manifold of his getaway vehicle, a 66 MGB. Best gag ever!
 
Heater core would smell like antifreeze, as others mentioned, sickly sweet, but not the smell of dead or decaying flesh.

My boss' 911 had a coon crawl up in the engine compartment and die. For several days everyone commented on the horrendous smell in the parking garage. One day his 911 was replaced with a loaner Cayenne and I asked him what was up.

Over a week and a thousand bucks later he got his car back, sans stench.

You can just let it go away, which will take about a month or you can have someone remove it, which will cost some change.
 
Three ideas:

1) Belt melting.
2) A hose is resting against something that gets hot when your car runs.
3) Brake fluid leak, believe it or not. Usually smells like hot ass and tar.
 
Well, look on the bright side..

If it's something dead, and it was intact (like a mouse, squirrel, pika, fischer, or mother in law) it'll dry up in a few weeks after the flies and such have done thier business.
Then it'll sort of mummify, like the Tutankhamen of your Toyota.

Now I forgot to ask you something, are you sure that smell is coming from outside the cabin? Perhaps a dog and/or drunk passenger recently could be involved?
 
JimiHendrix said:
I hit a bat once leaving my house. I thought it just slid off the winshield but it was stuck under one of my wipers and when I turned on the air or the heat it smelled awful until i realized what it was 5 days later. Check there to see if anything is rotting because that's where your vents may be taking in the outside air. Good Luck!
-Mike
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Why was a bat leaving your house?
 
Could be a leaky fuel injector. My wife's van had this problem and the leak would mix with oil/grease and then smolder off and stink something terrible.
 
alexgtp said:
Sour burnt rubber with a sweet scent? Coolant leaking on your manifolds and when it burns off will give an atrocious smell. Any white smoke?
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This does sound like coolant, Heater Core. Is the smell still there if you turn on the a/c or just cool air? If not, heater core. Some say it also smells like cooked coarrots, don't see that. You won't see any dripping inside the car untill it gets really bad, if it is the heater core. There is a drip pan that sit's under the core on most cars and once full enough it will drain outside the cabin.
 
If it's the heater core leaking, you would probably be overheating at idle or low revs. It doesn't take long to get a good size air pocket in there.

The smell of a dead rodent is hard to mistaken. You could give it a month of decomposing, then when it's dried out the smell is gone. Turning on the heater would probably help it decompose faster. If it was me, I would rip apart the ventilation system.
 
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