The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → Worst Automotive Smell?
A crispy cat that climbed into the engine compartment to keep warm. Frozen with fear once the engine started, it cooked for hours underneath an exhaust manifold until the horrible smell we thought was the coming from the sketchy side of town we were in, was actually US! We poked at it with a Really long screwdriver until its charcoal like remains crumbled and fell out below
Had a container of this for my 69 Bronco, but I never installed it. A day after bringing it home, I noticed that garage started smelling. I hunted around for a dead raccoon or something. When I opened my supposedly air tight box that had the friction modifier in it, I got hit with a Mike Tyson high on coke like punch. This stuff must really work if it smells that bad.
Icky-sweet smell of the inner plastic layer coming from a broken windshield.
Old old old rear end lube with LSD additive is some pretty repulsive stuff.
I'll have to agree with this ^^^^^^^^^ statement!........But the worst is the smell of money going up in smoke! 
My first car was a '63 mercury comet wagon. It cost $425 around 1980. Among other things, it started to hammer out the rear oil seal on the transmission. The gear oil leaked onto the hot exhaust pipe. Oh gods, that smelled terrible. Makes me queasy to think about it.
The smell of Failure is the worst automotive smell. It's thick in the Lemons paddock starting just after the green flag drops. It quickly replaces the smell of hope and anticipation.
TheEngineer wrote:Not 100% automotive related, but the decaying smell of the plastic handles on old tools. Screwdrivers mostly. I don't know what it is, but they smell terrible and instantly make me picture my grandfather's toolbox.
Oh god, is that where that smell comes from? That actually makes me feel better. I found a toolbox at the house where I used to live full of old screwdrivers. I could have sworn someone had taken a shit in the box.
yea, it's the plastic handles. Craftsman of the 50s or so seems to be the worst offender. I have a toolbox at work that is just infested with that smell thanks to old screwdrivers.
a mouse excrement soaked heater core as it warms up.
a mouse excrement soaked heater core as it warms up.
No, that smells like victory. It means you got that barn-find running!
The smell of our Opels was quite something, mostly dead and rotting stuff with a little olive tree thrown in to sweeten it a bit. Showering after working on the car all day couldn't get the smell off. It had gotten inside of me somehow.
After that, gear oil.
After that, burning rubber/plastic/paint.
A few years ago my week old new car developed a dead something stench that was over whelming. We had to drive it with the windows and sunroof open and the heater off.
A mouse had gone through the paper filter leading to the squirrel cage heater fan. When the heater was turned on, that litter bugger was macerated. The remains were then sucked into the duct system and started rotting. I had to remove the glove box, the squirrel cage, and some of the ducting. Then, reaching in with the curved end of a vacuum cleaner hose, I heard a thunk. All of the remains had piled up at a T in the duct and the vacuum sucked it all out at once.
I immediately covered the new filter with a screen. I don't know why the engineers couldn't have anticipated that scenario.
A few years ago my week old new car developed a dead something stench that was over whelming. We had to drive it with the windows and sunroof open and the heater off.
A mouse had gone through the paper filter leading to the squirrel cage heater fan. When the heater was turned on, that litter bugger was macerated. The remains were then sucked into the duct system and started rotting. I had to remove the glove box, the squirrel cage, and some of the ducting. Then, reaching in with the curved end of a vacuum cleaner hose, I heard a thunk. All of the remains had piled up at a T in the duct and the vacuum sucked it all out at once.
I immediately covered the new filter with a screen. I don't know why the engineers couldn't have anticipated that scenario.
I'll one up you.
I once had the little bastards build a NEST in the blower fan on my Dakota. Not only was one turned into pulp (an entire frakking family when I opened the engine bay to deal with the next sentence), but the nest went as far as the blower resistor. Which promptly caught the nest on fire. Flaming mouse shit, mouse corpse, mouse nest, wiring harness, and heater duct is the worst automotive smell.
The one that got pulped decided to grab onto the squirrelcage blades with its teeth in an attempt to survive. Its face got pulled off for the effort and was still there when I swapped the blower for a fresh one.
Drdanteiii wrote:a mouse excrement soaked heater core as it warms up.
No, that smells like victory. It means you got that barn-find running!
except its not a barn find, its my plow jeep. 
I have to add my vote for Ford friction modifier, but it is a tie with old Eaton supercharger oil from one that was overheated severely. I acquired an m112 for free from a Jag whose engine was overheated to death. It was disassembled and cleaned seven years ago, and it still stinks.
Burnt (yes, that's a word!) gear oil/rear diff fluid is the worst smell known to man. It's even worse than Russian Wolf Pussy, which is saying something.
Not 100% automotive related, but the decaying smell of the plastic handles on old tools. Screwdrivers mostly. I don't know what it is, but they smell terrible and instantly make me picture my grandfather's toolbox. .
Xcelite tools are notorious for that smell; kinduva cross between vomit and diarrhea. In the old days in our avionics shop, we used to hide a vinyl pack of nut drivers in/around other tech's desks and watch them sniff around for half a day until they found them, then bark and bluster about how "it ain't funny". Right up until they pass the joke off on the next poor sap.
Pull my finger.
Gear oil is pretty awful, hydrolastic is it's own pungent sensation to be sure, but the smell of ancient gas brings me to my knees. It is one of those smells that gets into your sinuses and lingers long after the offending item is long gone.
I oiled my girlfriend's rusty bike chain with smelly PB-blaster then she stored it in her living room. The small little house stank for a week and the roommates gave me plenty of dirty looks!
Burnt clutch. It has a sharp smell, but there's the added pleasure of knowing the asbestos has just increased your chances of getting cancer. After that, burnt transmission fluid. It smells nasty and expensive.
rodknox2 wrote:A few years ago my week old new car developed a dead something stench that was over whelming. We had to drive it with the windows and sunroof open and the heater off.
A mouse had gone through the paper filter leading to the squirrel cage heater fan. When the heater was turned on, that litter bugger was macerated. The remains were then sucked into the duct system and started rotting. I had to remove the glove box, the squirrel cage, and some of the ducting. Then, reaching in with the curved end of a vacuum cleaner hose, I heard a thunk. All of the remains had piled up at a T in the duct and the vacuum sucked it all out at once.
I immediately covered the new filter with a screen. I don't know why the engineers couldn't have anticipated that scenario.
I'll one up you.
I once had the little bastards build a NEST in the blower fan on my Dakota. Not only was one turned into pulp (an entire frakking family when I opened the engine bay to deal with the next sentence), but the nest went as far as the blower resistor. Which promptly caught the nest on fire. Flaming mouse shit, mouse corpse, mouse nest, wiring harness, and heater duct is the worst automotive smell.
The one that got pulped decided to grab onto the squirrelcage blades with its teeth in an attempt to survive. Its face got pulled off for the effort and was still there when I swapped the blower for a fresh one.
My wife and I went back to WI for a wedding and stayed in my Aunt's converted farm house basement. After the lights went out, I felt a brush on my side and thought it was my wife getting frisky. As I am thinking about my next move, my wife tells me to stop touching her and go to sleep. I had not touched her. I feel another brush against my back now and the another on my leg. We both jump out of bed screaming and look back at the mattress as it moves in tiny waves like a serpent just below the surface. We grabbed the blanket and pillows and slept upstairs on the floor. Come to find out later the mattress was FULL of mice.
Bad smells can be forgotten, but bad touch stays with you FOREVER.
Used Motul Gear 300 gear oil is officially worse smelling than regular used gear oil.
We were working on the racecar and I was simultaneously changing the gear and diff oil on the BRZ and it damn near gassed us out of the garage.
And then I ended up spilling 1/20th of a quart on my pants.
I very nearly took them off and burned them.
in my limited experience, the worst thing I've ever smelled was a terribly-running first generation diesel Ford Mondeo that had been (badly, obviously) converted to run on reclaimed vegetable oil. I only saw it a few times in the early 2000's in east hull, and that stink (especially when it had just started) overpowered even the great multitude of bad smells in this city. I assume it probably got scrapped some time around 2002, I doubt anyone misses it.
Second to that is probably burning oil.
super old and slightly burnt gear lube is the worst
Baron wrote:
Had a container of this for my 69 Bronco, but I never installed it. A day after bringing it home, I noticed that garage started smelling. I hunted around for a dead raccoon or something. When I opened my supposedly air tight box that had the friction modifier in it, I got hit with a Mike Tyson high on coke like punch. This stuff must really work if it smells that bad.
Oh it works as well as it stinks 
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → Worst Automotive Smell?
