More power!

My LS1 Camaro has a musty smell that gets worse when I drive the car. I can let the car sit in the garage with the windows down and spray Frebreeze and other odor killers in it and it will start to smell decent again in a few days. Then I take it for a drive the musty smell returns. I have never ran the A/C while driving -- only the heater since it is winter. I do not smell anything coming out of the heating vents. Every thing in the cloth interior is dry. It has not been in the rain for months (at least). What could be causing this musty smell??

Would a leaking heating core wet the carpet and make it smell musty (but not like coolant)? Where is the heater core so I can check the carpet near it?

Thanks,

Fred

LS-wONdEr

damn that sucks, my cousin's car had this rotten stink smell. he ran over some road kill and some crap got on his exhaust. so when he would run the car it would smell

BuBbABFP

iTrader: (3)

check in ur engine, they might be a dead cat or rat in there dude. happens! or anywhere in the car

LSUxBlake

iTrader: (3)

Are you sure its not an exhaust smell? Do you have cats?

More power!

Well, the smell is not burning flesh or trash. It doesn't smell like dead rodent either (i've experienced plenty of those in the house walls!). It is a slightly acrid, moldy smell that comes out after driving the car for a little bit. The longer the drive, the worse the smell gets. Nothing bad while the windows are down, but it can accumulate and get fairly "dense". I can clear the smell out once the car is parked by using Frebreeze and keeping the windows down, but I need to find the source.

The car has full stock exhaust including the cats -- the exhaust doesn't smell bad or rich. The rear of the car is odorless. The strongest smell seems to be around the passenger seat.

On a side note, I did check to see if the A/C condensor drain was plugged, and the hole I found (on the passenger-side of the engine bay, at the bottom of the black box that the A/C lines go into as seen while lying under the car on ramps) was not clogged at all.

2000 SILVERADO

I think I know what you're talking about. Sometimes mold builds up in the A/C because of moisture, and causes it to smell even if you don't run the A/C. My truck has started to do that too. It's smells brand new when I get in, but after I start driving for a bit, it starts to smell.

BuBbABFP

iTrader: (3)

it has happen to me aswell, this time i was driving and it seemed like the smell was coming from the bottom where the vents are at... i dunno kinda weird. sucks when i have a babe and it smells like that.

FelixIlka

I'd guess you have bad cats maybe? The bump in the floor on the pass side is a cat so.....

Edit: altho I think bad cats smell like rotten eggs, I wouldn't know though..

AW/whiteZ-28

Check your coolant level if it's low it might just be your heater core. After you drive it for awhile the core heats up and makes the musty smell more apparent. Maybe?

HAMRHEAD

iTrader: (8)

I think you have a mold or a mildew in your vents somewhere. Maybe not all of the vents but in atleast one of them.

More power!

Any instructions on how to look in or get to the heating/cooling vents to clean them out? Spraying stuff down the vents doesn't work well, does it?

Thanks,

Fred

30thanniv

iTrader: (2)

I think its mold and mildew build up in the vents from a poorly designed system. I think it holds water, thus the musky smell. I park my car in a garage so I just leave the windows halfway down and no more smell.

bigv99SS

iTrader: (2)

It happened to me too..... It ended up being the rear hatch was not sealing well. never drove the car in the rain in would just get in from washing or the humid weather... The reason why mine smelled the more i drove was because the exhaust would heat the carpet and make it smell like 20 yr old gym sock....
just open the hatch and pull out the carpet and let it dry.... then get the hatch adjusted...
not sure if that's you problem but that's what happened to me...

hope I helped
chris

BLKKNIGHTWS.6

It is your heater core. This exact thing happened to my 1996 Camaro. I thought it smelled like fishsticks of all things and coolant leaked all over my passenger side carpet. The liquid is a orange/red color, is sticky, and smells really bad. GET IT FIXED NOW!! I procrastinated and ended up paying over $2000 to have my entire coolant system replaced .

rotwiler

iTrader: (1)

One day I went to work and as I drove a terrible smell kept getting worse, ended up the next door cat sprayed in my cowl. Had to use industrial odor remover to get the smell to go away.