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Smells from vents

DamonT

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Location
North East
Car
2007 Accord Diesel
Morning all,

I used the windscreen washer jets yesterday for the first time since owning the car.

I got a horrible rotten egg smell come into the car, and it was the previous owner putting ordinary tap water into the bottle, and it must have been like that for a while... anyway I flushed it all out and put proper screen wash stuff in... problem solved, no more eggy crap!

however, I got in the car this morning to go to work and noticed that in the first 10 seconds or so of turning the engine on, I get a burning smell come into the car... after I've driven about 100 yards the smell disappears and doesn't come back, until I park up, and start back up when the engines cold (After a shift at work for example)

I thought 'have I burned out my washer jet motor?' but I tried it this morning and its fine?

any ideas?

Thanks.
 
The rotten smell will be stagnant water in the washer bottle. I had the same issue when I bought my car. Apparently white vinegar in the washer bottle is good to sort this. I just filled the washer bottle with undiluted washer bottle concentrate for the first few fills. It sorted itself after a while.

As for the burning smell, I reckon that's unrelated to the washer bottle smell. As it only happens on start up, perhaps the starter motor is on its way out? Pop the bonnet and have a look around while you get a mate to start the engine, see if you see/hear/smell anything dodgy.
 
Yeah I got rid of the eggy smell, but I can only ***ume that the burning smell is washer jet related as the smell only came on since I flushed all the water out and put in the new wash detergent.

I'm going to have a look on my lunch break.

Thanks mate
 
Got my mate to start the car while I looked over the engine bay, and there's no obvious symptoms, the smell only seems to enter the car, I didn't notice any smells at the engine bay, nothing smokes, and everything works as it should.

Completely confused now :/
 
Hmmmm, check your fuses and relays. Make sure all's ok and maybe just an eye on it.
 
Could be your heater matrix.
Are you loosing coolent at all.
 
Stevearcade said:
Hmmmm, check your fuses and relays. Make sure all's ok and maybe just an eye on it.
I'll check the fuses in the morning mate, thank you.
 
brett said:
Could be your heater matrix.
Are you loosing coolent at all.
I hope it's not lol.

I don't think I'm losing coolant mate, the car runs totally fine, doesn't struggle to start up everytime, my temperature dials all read fine.
 
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