OK, what the hell is the fish smell in my car?!?

[M4Now!]

UPDATE: Turns out the smell was actually coming from the wash water

After making sure the car was spotless inside and out, the smell was still faintly there - and when I rinsed the dust off the other day, the smell was hanging in the air.

Have narrowed the culprit down to two possibilities - the hose itself, or the CR Spotless water ionizer The hose is in the trash, and after reading recent complaints about the (expensive) resin used in the CR, am going back to just water and drying thoroughly.

Am now enjoying a car that once again smells like leather and cockpit cleaner!



Would appreciate some help, I thought this was a temporary thing, but it's stuck around for a week: When I first get in my car, it smells like fish

Opening the windows flushes it out, but it remains faintly if I have outside air coming in through the vents. If vents are set to inside only, no smell. It isn't anything in the car, there's rarely food in it and never fish.

Hypotheses: Have taken a few long trips lately, resulting in a disgusting layer of bugs on the car. Have washed them off as soon as I got home, but there are still some jammed under the radiator. When I'm washing them off, the smell is similar. So I'm wondering, wet dead bugs from the washing and rain lately?

Or, we've had a ton of rain lately. I've heard the carbon filters can smell if they get wet (damp)?

Or finally, could be mold in the vents, but doesn't really smell like that.

Thoughts?

Cheers

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

there is a rotting vegatable/fruit in your car. was a tomato under my mom's car seat once. smelled rancid. can be any type of food.

rodents inhabit your car at night...leaving behind some types of bodily fluid.

ac could be sour, but your car is new?

[M4Now!]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

there is a rotting vegatable/fruit in your car. was a tomato under my mom's car seat once. smelled rancid. can be any type of food.

rodents inhabit your car at night...leaving behind some types of bodily fluid.

ac could be sour, but your car is new?

Thx! First, fair point, could be a stray grocery item. Will look for that.

Two - ewwww... It's garaged tho, and judging by our mousetraps we're rodent-free.

Three, it's a 2015.

Cheers

[GOLFFRR]

random out of the box, check your AC unit, sometimes bacteria will build up and cause a odor in the cabin. Friend of mine had a similar issue (vinegar smell) on his jeep and that was the case. dealer cleaned it off and it went away. Not saying its that but could be something

[M4Now!]

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

random out of the box, check your AC unit, sometimes bacteria will build up and cause a odor in the cabin. Friend of mine had a similar issue (vinegar smell) on his jeep and that was the case. dealer cleaned it off and it went away. Not saying its that but could be something

Huh, it IS kind of a vinegar smell... Guess I'll ha e to get that checked, thx.

[damageprone]

Vinegar smell has been discussed before in previous posts. It has something to do with the AC vents. It happens to mine at times during initial startup and the vent is on but with no AC on.

[GOLFFRR]

Originally Posted by M4Now!

Huh, it IS kind of a vinegar smell... Guess I'll ha e to get that checked, thx.

if it does have a vinegar smell then def have them check the AC unit thats where the bacteria builds up and causes the smell. I have not seen that on our end just know what I know from a friends personal car (jeep) could be something

[damageprone]

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ighlight=smell

[PshhhhhMW]

If I've had my AC on for most of my drive I always let it air out before I turn off my car. Just turn the AC off, put it on high and let it air out. I've never had that vinegar smell in any of my cars since.

[IK6SPEED]

Perhaps bird dropped a fish it caught for lunch and it near your windshield wipers.

You know the old saying, “if it smells like a fish”....

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

Originally Posted by PshhhhhMW

If I've had my AC on for most of my drive I always let it air out before I turn off my car. Just turn the AC off, put it on high and let it air out. I've never had that vinegar smell in any of my cars since.

Now I've heard the complete opposite of this statement. The idea was; if you turn the AC off than you are allowing humid air dry out the vents. Thus leaving behind residual moisture. The air "conditioned" air should ideally be the best "conditioned" air to dry out the vents and stop the smell. Ever since I;ve been doing this. Not even a hint of smell.

Anyone with more on this? Still not a 100% on either side.

[JamesGames]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

Now I've heard the complete opposite of this statement. The idea was; if you turn the AC off than you are allowing humid air dry out the vents. Thus leaving behind residual moisture. The air "conditioned" air should ideally be the best "conditioned" air to dry out the vents and stop the smell. Ever since I;ve been doing this. Not even a hint of smell.

Anyone with more on this? Still not a 100% on either side.

A/C does dry out the air, but it leaves the cold pipe to condensation still. That is why the a/c is so efficient at defogging windows - however the moisture and the smell is more than just the a/c air coming out. A short drive with your a/c on and then off produces only a little bit of humidity on my vents before disappearing(meaning humidity in the system out coming out). But after long drives with the a/c running entire time, and then switched off with fan only, a lot of humidity comes out, sometimes forming almost droplets wet to the touch on the vents. I've tried both ways and the best method is to let warm/hot non air conditioned air into car after using a/c. However, I do live in socal, humidity here is low so it may be different for a florida /eastcoast car..

[EB89]

You should be able to sniff around and find where its strongest?

Like others have said, you might want to remove your two front seta and have a look.

I did it once and under the seats is an aircon vent that has coins and chocolate balls in it.

I was searching for a rattle but you might find some dropped food.

[R-M4]

I had the same problem with my 335i. The car was 4 years old at the time. The smell was very unpleasant once you turned the AC on. However, the smell used to go away within minutes. I took it to my local BMW dealer and guess what? The smell was caused due to bacteria build up in the ac vents. Guess how the fixed it? With some Lysol being spayed inside the vents. (They turned the fan on and sprayed Lysol from inside the hood to the cabin. The filters were removed prior to them doing so, of course)
Problem fixed!

Note that the dealer did advise me not to let the AC run on circulating mode at all times. That's something that I always did and that's what most likely caused the problem.

[damageprone]

Strange. I have a CR Spotless as well and I don’t have a fishy smell as of yet. Although I don’t use the water to clean the interior.

[M4Now!]

Originally Posted by damageprone

Strange. I have a CR Spotless as well and I don’t have a fishy smell as of yet. Although I don’t use the water to clean the interior.

No, I wasn't using it to clean the interior. It was so bad that the smell "residue" it left on the car wafted inside

Have now done three washes without the CR, smell has completely gone away. Won't be using it again - which is a shame, because it worked great for about five years.

Cheers

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by M4Now!

No, I wasn't using it to clean the interior. It was so bad that the smell "residue" it left on the car wafted inside

Have now done three washes without the CR, smell has completely gone away. Won't be using it again - which is a shame, because it worked great for about five years.

Cheers

Was the resin you were using the resin from CR spotless or another supplier? This would be good to know as I am due for a refill. It may be a resin issue if it was recharged as they use KOH to recharge it. Working with KOH, I know that does have a fishy odor you speak of.

[M4Now!]

Originally Posted by damageprone

Was the resin you were using the resin from CR spotless or another supplier? This would be good to know as I am due for a refill. It may be a resin issue if it was recharged as they use KOH to recharge it. Working with KOH, I know that does have a fishy odor you speak of.

Interesting, I bought the refills on Amazon I think, but it came in CR Spotless bags

I just sent them a note about the problem, and that I can no longer recommend - or use - their system. Will report back with their response.

Thanks for the tip!

Cheers