AC gasoline smell
 

Recently bought a 2002 Protege ES. Love it, except for one thing. My girlfriend commented last week that my shirt smelled like gasoline.

Every day since, I've noticed that every shirt I wear in the car smells a bit like gasoline or a smell similar to the inside of a garage. I haven't been to the gas station in 6 days.

It's hot here in Atlanta and I've got the AC on alternating between full blast recirculating and taking in outside air. I cannot really smell gas coming from the vents. However, I'm thinking that vapor is escaping/evaporating from somewhere inside the engine and getting into the vents. This vapor is collecting on my hands and shirt, causing the smell.

This being said, does anyone have any ideas how this could be happening? A broken seal somewhere? Perhaps a bigger problem? Or is it a problem that will go away with time? The engine only has 600 miles on it. And I don't drive it very hard...yet.

Well, if your a smoker, and the car hasn't exploded when you light a cig... Then you should be fine...

Maby you need some new aftershave...

No problem with my AC smelling like gas, but in the mornings when I go to work and have the AC on it smells really musty and some crazy (smokey like) condensation or something comes out of the vents...figure I should get it looked at or something. Anyone else had that problem?

had that problem
 

Yeah, I had that with my old VW GTI. The smokey stuff is probably just condesation. No biggie. But the fact that you have that with the musty smell means moisture is collecting somewhere. Have you been drilling holes for a phone or amp near the front? The previous owner of my GTI had done this, one of the holes had gone through a collection tank. Car constantly smelled like mildew.

Another problem could be a clogged hose. The AC gets cold and water tends to condense. If the runoff hose is clogged, mildew will collect.

This could all be due to a faulty tempreture sensor. There are several, so have each checked if the problem continues, especially if you notice varying tempretures in the AC airflow.

Good luck. And if anyone else can help me with the Gas smell coming out of my vents...lemme know.

Thanks

musty smell
 

I have a musty smell like also, and the fog, the dealer has looked at it but no fix......

Thanks for the info about the musty smell, I haven't drilled any holes or anything in my car, it is the same as the day I got it, and the fog/smell was there within probably the first week. It's not enough to bother me, I just get funny looks when I have a passenger and my car starts to blow stuff out of the vents.

I was gonna take it in to the dealer, but if there is no fix then so be it, I will mention it next time I have it in for service, the car is jut over a year old with 58OOO KM on it, I think the AC is still under warranty isn't it?

Mine does the same thing (fog no smell) but only on really humid days and only after I turn the AC off. Which means it is just the water vapour condensing in the cold air stream. I am not too worried about it.
Stocker.

OK, BUT CAN ANYBODY TELL ME ABOUT THE GASOLINE SMELL????!!!!

had this in the old Nissan pickup
 

GreatSkeptic,
My car smelled like ham once. Have you been frying ham in your car? Maybe when you were drilling for oil, you accidentally drilled into a can of ham... ;)

In my old Nissan w/ many many miles, the fuel filter in the engine compartment finally backed up and forced fuel out the inlet, into the engine compartment. Vapor then came in thru the vents. Since your car is so new, I wouldn't suspect a backed up fuel filter. But if someone else can also sense the smell as being gasoline, then I'd take it to the dealer and ask them to trace out all of the fuel line and fuel re-circulation lines in the engine compartment. After a drive, do you notice gas smell when you pop the hood?

-Don Caballero

PS: Or you could just stop eating mildew in the car. Then your car won't smell like mildew OR fog.

I'll check under the hood after work today, thanks. But I'll never stop eating mildew. Nothing short of Dutch cheese approaches the flavor and texture. And as for drilling for ham, it's all worth it if you hit a vein of that liquid pork, otherwise known as "swine's gold."

Thanks for the suggestion.