I suppose the inverse of today’s Autopian ask is an easy one: New Car Smell is the best car smell. It’s also the only good smell that comes to mind, at least for me, amongst the many, many smells associated with cars – which are mostly not-good, and to varying degrees bad, awful, and/or gross.
OK, but what do you mean by car smells? Smells produced by cars? Well, sure, those odors are of course on the list. In fact, Matt, presumably mid The Morning Dump, instantly offered burnt clutch as the worst car smell. Indeed, there is no Burnt Clutch scented Little Trees Air Freshener for a reason. Brian (Silvestro, but you should be on a first-name basis by now) countered with “diff oil,” and “hot-ass brake dust,” not to be confused with “hot ass-brake dust,” which is a different thing that also smells bad.
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I would like to raise Matt and Brian with cherry-red catalytic converter under my Dodge Omni in college, the glowing box of hot stench that befouled my secretly-a-Talbot hatchback halfway through a date. It was a bit of a mood-killer TBH.
I would also count as car-smells any odors one is likely to encounter in a car, even if not car-generated. Obviously, “blown-out diaper” and “carsick puke” are way up there. But I’m also strangely grossed out by food smells; a big bag of In-N-Out smells delicious on the way home, but when I get into the car later and the smell of Double-Doubles and animal-style fries hits my nose anew, it makes me wanna hurl.
Your turn: What’s The Worst Car Smell?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Stale cigarette smoke mixed with mold and mildew. Back in the 90s I bought a car that had sat in front of my neighbor’s house for years. It was missing a window for at least three years, which in Houston meant it had been flooded with rain many, many times. It belonged to the neighbor’s deadbeat son, who was a chain-smoker and abandoned it at his parents place when he went to prison. I got it for cheap, but it took a lot of time and effort to get the cigarette and mold smell out of the car.
In a high mile VW Rabbit diesel, add a hatch dog cage for two huskies. My worst customer experience. Can’t imagine what the chain-smoker huskies smelled like inside his house.
Mouse urine in a hvac system that requires the entire front clamshell to be removed. The worst.
The next level up from that is when, after urinating, the mouse proceeds to die somewhere within the HVAC system.
Fresh dog shit on top of the package tray. Got that once when I was a young tire buster at Firestone. Worst Little Trees scent EVAR.
Transmission fluid is the proper response. but also sometimes New Car Smell can be sickenning.
Surprised nobody’s mentioned Moldy Evaporator yet. Nothing like getting into the car on a hot day and getting blasted in the face with musty air.
Came here to say this. Had this wonderful experience with a rental car last week. Absolutely nauseating. And just an extra little treat on top of enjoying a rental spec Trailblazer for 4 days.
Cat shit. No, seriously. Had a cat that would shit Everytime she even looked at a car, forget about what happens IN the cat.
My first cat, I tried to take to the vet without a carrier. He crawled under the passenger seat and promptly peed himself silly.
Leave a carrier out, open.
When convenient, drive the cat around in the carrier.
Maybe take them to see someone that can’t get around.
Shutins are often thrilled to see animals.
Set the carrier out at home, open it and leave it open.
You want them to feel protected in it.
When I was a kid my dad bought a car from someone for $50. It had “died” on them, so for some reason they kept cats inside it for a few years. My dad got it running in their driveway and drove it home, where he had all of us kids help him clean out all the cat poop and urine. The seats and floors were vinyl, so it wasn’t too hard to clean, but each time the heater was turned on you had to hold your breath for a few seconds to let the cat smells dissipate. We quickly developed a habit of cracking the windows whenever the blower fan turned on.
I would rather walk than ride anywhere in a cat piss car.
The internal workings of cats are a mystery to me.
Gear oil but specifically with a friction modifier added. That stuff is nasty.
When a bearing goes out and gets hot enough to burn the gear oil it makes the worst smell. That smell lasts a really long time.
Here is another one. My mom left some shrimp in a bag that leaked under the hot sun in Mexico while we were on vacation at the beach. The whole ride back home, we had the windows down. The smell lasted almost a year.
An old boss did that in his caddy Deville, he had to get rid of it and got one of the early Escalades.
Reminds me of a work fridge incident. Someone left a tray of bocconcini from a company function in one of the fridges. Over time, people stopped using that fridge, but wouldn’t do anything about it.
Sometime several months later, I cracked that fridge door (as I don’t normally put my lunch in the fridge) and unleashed the full fury of the stench.
I got many kudos that day for being the one to finally toss out that cheese.
Story from Matt Farah from back when he cleaned cars. Customer left a quart of seafood chowder in the car (I think it was an Audi) and then went on a two week vacation, in the summer.
Matt reported that they went so far as to strip the entire interior, but still couldn’t get rid of the smell. It ended up being totaled by the insurance company. Totaled for a smell.
There is a Family Guy chowder episode on yootoob
First job out of the Navy at a dealership, doing porter and simple stuff. Had to deliver a customer’s Chevette that had an ashtray absolutely overflowing onto the floor on both sides of the console. I had to roll the windows down.
Those old GMs had some massive ashtrays, too.
I had an ’83 Oldsmobile 88 with an ashtray the size of a Catholic pulpit bible.
6 Years worth of dirty dog blankets stacked on passenger seat…… A customers vehicle
100% the worst smelling car I’d ever been in was a friend’s mom’s Element which was the designated “dog taxi”. I forget the reason I had to drive it once, I think it needed to be dropped off at a shop or something, but that car was exclusively for dog transport (they weren’t allowed in her good car, a new BMW suv), and it didn’t get driven super often, and also was left out in the sun, not in the garage. I opened the door on a hot day and the stink hit me like a punch, holy shit. Wet dog, concentrated about 100x, with distinct undertones of “Overflowing Music Festival Porta John on 100* Day” and “Nursing Home Incontinence Ward”, since there was the faintest whiff of disinfectant/air freshener in there somewhere. The interior was absolutely filthy, clearly the dogs (a great dane and german sheperd) were allowed to jump around the car since not one surface didn’t have scratch marks and paw prints on it. Inch of fur/dander on everything, about a thousand coffees had been spilled all over the console, everything was sticky. The cargo area was lined in blankets which I’m sure where the prime source of the stank.
Anyway drove it with all the windows down, head out the window as much as possible. The whole rest of the day I kept catching faint whiffs of it on my clothes just from being on the seat.
The thing is, this family was rich enough they had a 40hr/wk porter who would clean, cook, shop, whatever for them, and had for years. The mom was a neat freak bordering on germophobe, yet apparently that car was an exception or blind spot or something, since she apparently had no qualms about it. I mentioned something another time about “how do you drive that car?” and she seemed genuinely puzzled.
I imagine you were covered in dog hair after that drive.
Sounds way to familiar
Dog cars can be awful. I hate riding in my bestie’s Fiat 500 because she went everywhere in it with her pup (sadly recently deceased). It just REEKS of dog.
My neat-freak Mom has that “car’s are different from houses” thing going on. You could do surgery on any surface in her condo, but her car is generally a disaster inside. I don’t get it. My cars are generally cleaner than my houses.
I spilled a quarter gallon of milk in my wife’s CRV many years ago. In the summer. It took many cleanings over many months to get that smell out. I would also say smoke. It lingers forever. I’m thinking I’ll have to change the carpet in my old used truck before too long.
I’ve spent enough time in my siblings’ child carrying vehicles that the smell of old milk baked into the seats/carpet is not only immediately recognizable, but takes me back to a place/time.
I got my FRS used but only about 6 months old. The guy I bought it from had kids, and thought he could make it work for longer than he did. 10 years later, if it was parked directly in the sun with the windows closed on a hot enough day – BOOM – I’m transported to 2013 and a Grand Caravan full of my nieces and nephews.
This is between old milk-vomit and coolant.
Old milk-vomit requires significant interior dismantling.
On the other hand, an interior coolant leak requires significant interior dismantling.
old milk smells are so bad.
I borrowed a car from some friends while they were out of town. They had two young kids that had practically lived in the back of that Forester.
I spent several hours cleaning, shampooing, and strategically placing air fresheners in that car before I could stand being inside it.
The smell was a mix of old milk, probably a few blown-out diapers that were never properly followed up on, and stale sweat. It was eye-wateringly bad – and they drove it daily like that.
Hot coolant is absolutely revolting to me and I am raising kids….
Cooked brakes, clutch, or coolant; all signify impending cash outflow.
Contenders:
Manure filled mud drying in your jeep carpet because you thought you could make that water crossing. (not me, my buddy)
Girlfriend’s peach schnapps vomit in the front seat upholstery (not me, my college buddy)
That weird old car smell of staleness, sticky old fluid leaks and unburnt hydrocarbons. (my old jeeps)
Not just gear oil – burnt gear oil. Especially just after a practice session at a NASCAR event. From the grandstands I could smell it in the garages.
I’m going to have to go with the smell of a brake rotor being chewed through by a pad that’s down to the steel backing plate. Metal on metal burning is as acrid as you can get. Behind that, general brake burning, or clutch burning is pretty bad. Also not a fan of the smell of coolant boiling over.
Scents from the car? I would go with diff fluid.
Associated with the car? Mouse on the exhaust, vermin whizz, that milkshake the kid spilled in the backseat and now its 90 degrees are all bad.
Back in the mid 00’s, my psychotic girlfriend at the time had a Jetta VR6 that smelled like crayons. Apparently that was common in VW’s of that era. But thinking about that smell makes me want pack up my sh*t and move to another state again (which I did).
I also had a girlfriend in the early 00’s who drove a Jetta VR6 manual that smelled like crayons. She wasn’t psychotic, but she was a pathological liar. I did like that car though.
The 1980 Jettas also had this smell.
We had several 1960s era bugs and they all had the crayon smell new from the factory too.
Genuinely curious about this – I always heard it was the old aircooled VWs that had the crayon scent. Was it because the seats were stuffed with some sort of arcane fiber like coconut hair or some such?
My understanding is that it has something to do with paraffin wax being used in the sealants and insulation, at least in the MKIV VWs. I’d assume it’s the same story with the older ones too.
Gear oil, hands down. Anything else in a car can smell bad, but gear oil has the stank and staying power unlike anything else.
100% gear/bearing grease.
You would think that after 100+ years of being in use, they would develop a more appealing compound.
It is the sulpherous EP (extreme pressure) additives that give it that smell.
BTW, do not use any EP oil/grease with any yellow metal (brass/bronze). It is corrosive.
+1 on the gear oil. We opened up a Ford Model A differential in high school auto shop in ’71 which had probably been there unchanged for 30 years, it was horrible.
Like pure moly?
Ok, for just “car” smells… bearing grease. That shit smells FOUL. Most modern cars don’t have hub bearings that can be disassembled and serviced, but my ’76 Celica did. And that crap never came out of my jeans, either.
For smells that get “into” cars…
I had an intoxicated friend bum a ride with me once, and he left a bottle of orange juice under the seat. It was open… during Texas summer.
Coolant smell. You know something is wrong and if you dont act fast, you will be stranded soon or even blow your engine.
Burnt/very used ATF or Power Steering Fluid is absolutely vile. I’d rather take a bath in gear oil than smell used power steering fluid again.
Dog farts. Our old rottie (eating crayons with the angels now) let one rip that was so nauseating that we had to roll the windows down in the middle of winter. We chose death by hypothermia over the gas chamber she put us in.
We had a pug that was the master of that. She would intentionally back up against a door card to make sure the entire vehicle heard her work. Then sit there and grin as she basked in the glory of what she had just unleashed.
She’s running into random fixed objects with the angels too.
The worse smelling dog was when we volunteered to help transport a Great Pyrenes from a shelter to a GP rescue group. Poor guy had been living on his own for who knows how long and was absolutely covered in mats and grossness. To make it worse, he had major problems with coccicia and had been stuck in a too small kennel for a while and his fur was matted with the result. One of the nicest dogs I’ve ever dealt with, but a 130 lbs of stank. Since he was a flight risk, we could only crack the windows on the van and live with it for our 2 hour drive. We drove back with the windows all down after scrubbing the interior for an hour with canned carpet cleaner.
The next person on the relay transport had a Yaris. It was shocking to see how she fit that giant boi in her car and my wife and I have no idea how she survived the smell for her 2 hours of driving.
Smoker’s cars. YUCK! I would rather smell ANYTHING produced by the car itself than that.
Weed smoke in cars is even worse.
I can only imagine, having never experienced that. Ugh.
I’ve always felt that weed smoke didn’t linger as much as tobacco. But we were pretty baked at the time.
Yes. I haven’t a clue how smokers go so completely noseblind to how vile this is.
The ones where you can smell it three cars over, even if the windows are closed.
They can’t smell it on themselves either – right there in clothes, hair, beards, and everything else that has been in the car for more than 30 seconds.
I’ve a colleague that I can smell the stale smoke on him when he walks past my office even when the door is closed.
But, just as bad, is another colleague who bathes in cologne after smoking – so then you’ve got stale smoke mixed with an overpowering blast of cologne that wafts down hallways announcing his presence is within the building.
Oh man, the cologne/perfume cover strategy is so gross.
I am very sensitive to scents like that – I’d almost rather smell the smoke.
I knew a smoker that complained of excess perfumes.
IN the 1970s everything smelled of cigarette smoke, EVERYTHING!
Even peoples’ dogs smelled like smoke LOL
Ahhh… the 70’s.
I remember pushing the frameless car windows with my nose to get a small crack open and some fresh air when trapped in the car with my smoking parents. I went hunting with my dad and his buddies and spend time in the hospital from asthma after being trapped in a camper with 4 smokers. My parents smoked 2 packs a day and I had 6 asthma attacks a year. I grew up an moved out and have not had one since.
A lot of my allergies, etc… disappeared when I went off to college.
Glad that happened for you! Cool!
I still have mine but as an adult, I just am never around my triggers any longer. Moving from the 6 cats and 2 smokers house worked wonders.
I was always told I was allergic to cats, but nope.
Allergic to dogs, otherwise just nature in general.
I quit smoking many years ago because I woke up one Sunday morning and I could smell my clothes across the room. Combined with the hangover it was just too much.
Good on you.
I suspect this a big part of why car headliner adhesives failed so often in the ’70s – ’80s. All that nicotine tar.
Convinced I went through nicotine withdrawl (all secondhand) my freshman year at university. Driving in a car with dad as like hot boxing cigarette smoke and his steering column was always covered in ash. I was SHOCKED when he quit a year or so ago after 60 years of it.
Dude that was my childhood, smoke in the cars and the malls and restaurants and the cloud of smokers smog that always occupied the top 3′ of the living room. Then a few years after my sisters and I moved out both of my parents independently (they were divorced and not speaking by then) both decided to just quit.
Yep. Spent many a winter hour in dad’s basement workshop with him: making Pinewood Derby cars, model kits; learning all sorts of electrical, woodworking, etc skills. Summers in the garage fixing bikes, lawnmowers, cars. Always a lit cigarette present like a signal beacon.
…right next to wood, oily rags, fuel, denatured alcohol, etc.
Toss that greasy valve cover in this tub of gasoline to clean it.
Most Gen-X and earlier childhoods. I hated it then, I hate smoke even more now. Thankfully my mother quite 20 years ago. My grandmother only did once she got so old she couldn’t go buy them herself, and nobody would.
Yep GenXer here and all my 70s and 80s memories smell like smoke.