My husband and I purchased a brand new 2005 Hyundai Elantra in 2005. It only had 39 miles on the vehicle. Ever since we purchased this car we noticed an aweful odor coming from the vents when you are not running the heater or air conditioning. It really stinks. If you use the air conditioning or heater the smell is fine. But turn it off and boy or boy you have to open the windows because the smell will knock you on your butt. Makes you want to vomit. We just figured it was because the car was new and the heater or air conditioning hadn't been used and that the smell would wear off. Well it's been a year now and we still have that aweful smell. We took it back to the dealer and they can't find any reason for the smell so they just covered it up (they thought) by putting air freshner in the system. It still stinks. Smell like vinegar or formaldehyde. How can we get this smell out of the car? My email address is doria53@yahoo.com if you have any solutions to this problem. Thanks Doria

 

I had a similar problem when I first bought my 05 last October, but it kind of went away on its own. My wife's Taurus has had the same problem on occasion and we used Febreeze air freshener with some success. Spray it into the vents and the air intakes. Some varieties of Febreeze do not smell nice to me; I go with the "mint" variety since it seems the most normal smell for me.

I think the problem comes from water accumulating in the blower motor housing, then it gets stagnant. I think it may be made worse if the car is parked on a slope, preventing the blower motor housing from draining entirely.

 

well people you are right i ALSO get that problem it smell like somebody who has had eggs for a meal and fatulated a hour after.