Maybe 2 weeks ago, it rained for the better part of a week. Nothing abnormal, but my car developed a funny smell. Drove it maybe for 2 days before I had to park it due to my tags expiring. Havent had the time at work to get new tags, so as my car sat, I kind of went over it trying to find out where the smell was coming from. Well, about 2 days ago and pulled the seats out of my car to see if it was them, but to my surprise my carpet was wet and there was a puddle under the passenger seat. Since then, I scrub the carpet and hit it with a shop vac when I get home but the smell hasnt gone away, and the carpet is still damp. I'm pretty much out of ideas. It's getting cold, and rains when it wants so I cant even air out the car. If anybody has any suggestions, please, let me know. And if push comes to shove, where can I purchase a replacement carpet? I've tried looking, but only see non pre-cut carpets with 40-50 some odd different colors, and the feeling that the one I would get probably wouldnt be the right shade of tan.

 

new carbon filter? Might be a bandaid solution, but could help with the odour.

 

I would try lemon juice although it may be acidic.

 

The same thing happened to my son's car.

You must remove your seats and pull up all the carpet and find the leak which is probably in your floorpan. Remember, pull out all the carpet and let it dry and treat for mold or mildew. The other alternative is fix the leak and buy some carpet from a part out car. This problem will not go away with a bandaid

 

KrayolaSE-L - If your car is a 6th gen with a power sunroof, then the leak soaking the passenger carpet is caused by a stoppage in the right power sunroof drain tube which runs down inside the right 'A' pillar and drains out just behind the front wheel. If that tube is stopped up, and the car is parked with even a slight lean to the right, the water will collect and run (soak) down the fuzzy interior material of the 'A' pillar, ending up in the carpet. Sometimes water from that leak even drips from the top of the 'A' pillar, and can even drip from the sunglass compartment.

It takes the dealer's service department less than an hour to disasssemble enough parts to uncrimp/unblock this tube.

There is a writeup on this (explaining how to confirm this is the problem) in one of the stickies at the top of the 6th gen board.

Of course, if your car is not a 6th gen, then I don't know . . .

Getting the moisture out from under my carpets took several sunny days, several rolls of Bounty towels, and propping the carpet up and directing a fan at the moisture for hours and hours. Leaving it wet underneath the carpet will result in mildew, a bad smell, and rust.

 

You have to find out where it is leaking before you can go about getting the smell resolved.

I hope you find it soon.

 

Pull the seats...remove the carpet...reinstall the driver's seat...go thru a car wash...see leak...fix leak...take out driver's seat, again...reinstall by-now, dry carpet...put back all seats...problem solved.

 

Gee knapp9, I wish I had thought of this! Just do it KrayolaSE-L and stop procrastinating.

 

Almost forgot, disconnect the negative battery terminal 1st. The yellow wiring harnesses under the drivers seat connect to the air bag system. I you don't do this you run the risk of a computer code error when disconnecting the wires. Very safe to disconnect with battery off line 1st.