Our Two Cents: Least Favorite Automotive Smells
A promise was made in our last installment of Our Two Cents, and today that promise is kept. It’s only natural to ponder the worst automotive smells after discussing the ones that most satisfy your nose. Sometimes you gotta take the bad with good, as cars are always a mixed blessing. It’s the contrast between the sweet aroma of certain gasolines and putrid 90-weight gear oil. Or the smell of a new car with a cheap interior versus one with really expensive bits and decadent leather trimmings.
So that’s how we kicked the question back to the staff here at Hagerty Media. Let’s see what are their least favorite automotive smells!
Interiors
“The VW Jetta (Mk IV) crayon smell in the interior: GROSS! Why? Because it’s just that unpleasant!” – Matt Tuccillo
“For me it was toxic new Hyundai smell from the 1990s. I wanted to enjoy seeing South Korean cars getting better and better (looking at you, Hyundai Scoupe) firsthand, so I’d try to check them out at the annual auto show. It took serious commitment to do so, even with the windows down. ” – Sajeev Mehta
“Faux leather that hasn’t finished off-gassing, a smell we recently experienced in a press car. Come on now, go cow or go home!” – Grace Houghton
Critters
“The smell of mouse encampments in spring after you so diligently tried to prevent them the previous autumn.”- Eddy Eckart
“The easy answer here is ancient rear differential oil. And it’s not just the stink, it’s that it seemingly never goes away, especially on clothing. However, there is not a single thing on earth that smells worse than cleaning rotten animal guts off the underside of a vehicle.
Thankfully, I have only had to do this twice. To clarify, I was not the one who ran over the already very much deceased animal in the middle of the road, but when that vehicle comes home to park in my driveway, I am the one that had to clean it!” – Ben Woodworth
Rental Cars
“Diesel exhaust. And most rental cars.” – Cameron Neveu
“And the backseat of every Uber.” – Sajeev Mehta
“Hey Sajeev, are we graduating this from smells to stains?” – Matt Tuccillo
“Oops, my bad. Ubers are bad because of the stains paired with the masking smells of car air fresheners. You can see the sins but you can’t quite smell them anymore.” – Sajeev Mehta
“We once had a Camaro convertible rental car in Colorado for a Barn Find Hunter shoot many years ago. (I got a convertible to shoot video from while wandering through the mountains). Had the top down when we got it at the airport. We put the top up when we stopped for lunch in Denver since we had some camera gear in there.
An hour or so in the hot, Colorado sun left us a nice surprise when we returned to the car. The thing smelled like vomit. Like, so bad the whole car may as well have been filled with vomit. It was awful. We quickly removed our things (while holding our breath), called the rental agency and told them to bring us a new car.”- Ben Woodworth
Cigarette Smoke
“I was a kid who grew up riding in the back seats of cars driven by cigarette-smoking adults, and that nauseating smell is unshakable because not only is it in the upholstery and carpeting and headliner, it quickly gets in your clothes and hair. These days, any time I get into a car that has been smoked in (which is not often, thankfully) I try to breathe through my mouth to avoid it.” – Stefan Lombard
Grab Bag
“Fire, for obvious reasons.” – Andrew Newton
“What about the smell of, “Huh, I wonder what that smell is? It’s probably fine.” – Ben Woodworth
“Trapped farts.” – Molly Jean
Gear Oil
“The answer is, obviously, diff oil. Sweaty gym sock filled with goose droppings, left overnight in a neglected bathhouse. Gives me chills just thinking about it.” – Eric Weiner
“Differential oil. Look at a picture of an axle draining diff: Can you smell it? I bet you can. Cam’s entry of diesel exhaust is up there too. I’m talking like an old indirect injected machine, that smell just gets in your clothes and takes a while to come out. Or a coal rolling tune on a bro dozer pickup. . .no thanks.” – Greg Ingold
Boiling over, geyser-like coolant – terrible smell and terrible worries.
That general smell of overheated engine that tells you that even if it’s still running, it’s been hurt
A leaking heater core—sweet, cloying smell that sticks to your sinuses and back of your throat.
And all you can think about is how many hours under the dashboard you’re going to spend to change it out!
I had a 92 GMC Jimmy that I had to replace the heater core TWICE in 100,000 miles. Soaked carpet that never got clean.
Worst smelling car I ever bought ($20) was a nice looking 2 door 1962 Catalina that overheated on I-90 near Madison WI. After it overheated the previous owner refilled the radiator with the only liquid he had available at the time… beer. He then drove it several miles to the gas station I worked at.
You beat me to this one, couldn’t agree more. Boiling over coolant smell. That sickly sweet smell that says your in trouble.
It’s worse when you smell it in your corn flakes and your old lady is smiling at you when she serves it.
I had the unfortunate experience of hypoid gear oil run out of a different and up my arm. Unspeakable!
Does anyone remember how absolutely awful genuine Mopar gear oil was? Rotten (gag) eggs!!
Mopar 4318060 Limited Slip Additive.
We used to bait salesmen with a capful in their desk drawer.
We, friends used to go to the mopar dealer, got a CAN qt. of that stuff $2.25!!!! JUST to smell it. 1967……
It was sperm whale oil
The worst is burnt gear oil!
I always thought drowning in a vat of gear oil would be a HELL of a way to go!
However, mouse encampments edge out the worst smell, you just won’t drown in it 🙂
Yep, I placed rags on the floor in a 3ft. circle around any gear oil replacement area, when finished the rags get a proper torch death, when replacing headliner in a resto project be prepared to cover the entire interior with old sheets, the headliner will be saturated with decades of mouse waste and bedding.
The smell of overheated clutch/brakes
I had a Subaru GL wagon back in the day that I used as basically a pickup truck. I had spilled gear oil in the back (not much, but a little bit goes a long way), which was followed by a tipped over battery. The acrid smell of sulphury gear oil/acid mashup was a horrible smell that could never be exorcized from that car from that point forward.
Burnt brakes or clutch
VARNISHED gasoline and any remnants of it anywhere. Dry heave anyone?
That always smelled like opportunity to me
Old gasoline that has rotted (literally smells like it anyway). It’s kinda like decomp-if you’ve ever smelled thou shalt not ever forget it!
Burnt oil that leaked onto a hot exhaust manifold, that you smell while driving.
Our ‘56 Chev 210 for the rest of its life with us after a pound of limburger cheese was placed on our manifold as a “going away” gift at our wedding in 1966. We stopped at our motel and everyone on the second floor balcony cleared the deck. It smelled every time it got hot from then on!
Ahhh, my 06 Subaru Forester! We call it “Old Smokey” for a reason.
Can’t believe no one said old coolant. Worse than diff fluid
That’s because mine always boiled out before it got old… see my comment above! 😜
Varnished gas, burnt clutch, yes, I completely agree, but there’s almost nothing like the smell of old, hot gear oil instantly permeating the immediate environment!
Similar to the sulfuric rotten-egg odor added to natural gas to provide an unmistakable indication of a dangerous leak, the smell of gear oil provides an effective olfactory indicator of a serious condition demanding immediate attention (reinforced visually by a growing pool of the dark, viscous fluid).
Besides, the disgusting smell of gear oil acts as an excellent social repellant to discourage annoying, superficial inquisitors, allowing proper repairs to continue uninterrupted. “What’s that John is doing over there anyway? (Sniff) Oh, never mind, it can wait; I’ll ask him later.”
Apparently, for some unknown reason, processors of fossil petroleum products, see no need to distill the putrid aroma of the decay of prehistoric rotting dinosaur flesh from gear oil.
Mikey –
The Sulphur is actually an additive, to lube the high pressure contact of the gear teeth.
when you ran to the store on a 90 degree day to get some milk and forgot to get it out of the car 3 days later?
Even worse, when you drop that gallon of milk in the car and the jug breaks.
My daughter left two gallons if soft serve ice cream in the trunk of our Jetta. Three 90 degree days later the trunk was full of rancid cottage cheese. Shop replaced most of the interior and trunk, power washed, vinegar washed, ozone purged for 6 weeks and finally gave up. The insurance company totaled the car.
For me gear oil is the worse smell AND it lingers.
The cooked on oil on a head bolt, I have seen people vomit from that smell. It is a smell something like gear oil that has turned to tar and retained the worst qualities of both smells.
First thought is gear oil – so bad I can smell the memory ofit before I even start to drain it. Next would be 12 y/o gas drained from a barn find. It took 3 days to air out the shop.
A bad regulator over charging the battery.
Yup. Rotten egg smell. Bleh.
Any mini-van that has been parked in the sun for a few hours with the windows up. As a retired tech, I can tell you that old French fries, Cheerios, the odd dirty disposable diaper and whatever else the local soccer moms heave all over the interior of their mini-vans and just leave it there to rot and fester is unbelievable. I have countless times driven those vehicles in the shop hanging out of the driver door window like Ace Ventura. Just awful.
you forgot baby formula!
For me it was my sons’ hockey gear left in the car during summer. Yes they were still playing in the summer.
I actually don’t mind the smell of gear oil or coolant.
I’m a nurse and have smelled far worse stuff than rotting dinosaur flesh.
Milk was spilled on the rear carpeting behind the driver seat and I didn’t know it .Midsummer 80degrees windows up.Opened the door the next morning and just knew something died in there.