Hello guys I seem to have a problem with my 1989 300zx non turbo, Every time I got to jump in the car and go for a ride it smells really bad like nail polish remover, (no its not my girlfriends) . It only started recently but when driving the smell seems to go away pretty quick with the windows down, I read somewhere it could be a leak around the heater core? (Heater doesn't work) or a leak around the air con ( working ) I really don't know where to start, I saw that you can just plug the pipes to the heater core at the back of the engine bay witch i don't mind doing as I don't need a heater but I'm insure if this is the problem is their any way I could diagnose the problem? Easy? If so how do I fix it and how long will it take as I need my car for work, will it damage my car Cheers
Hi, is this what you've seen? http://www.pexcom.com.au/z32cms/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.341 a couple of tells for leaking matrix (or other parts to it) are losing coolant in the rad, water in either of the foot wells under the carpet coming from above the centre hump. it could just be one of the hoses coming in to the cabin, you'll need a torch. You'll need patience and time... so get on it right away...
nail polish remover (acetone) smell is quite different to a coolant smell. open your radiator cap and take a sniff to compare. are you sure the smell isn't fuel?
Agree with sandeep, but coolant is pretty much the only funky smell you can get in the cabin... You should be able to tell fuel from everything else though.
hydrogen sulfide gas stop farting everytime you are getting out of the car .. it gets trapped and goes stale . The gas that makes your farts stink is the hydrogen sulfide gas. This gas contains sulfur which causes farts to have a smelly odor. The more sulfur rich your diet, the more your farts will stink. .
Mould? My Z got a little wet during some bad weather, if I leave it closed up for longer then a week I get this strange mould smell... couldn't work out what it was, my first thought was coolant. Have no idea where the mould is growing, but smell's nearly gone now. "Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds (MVOCs) are gases produced by mold. The musty odor which you might smell from mold is caused by MVOCs. These odors are actually chemicals which are produced my molds during some parts of the mold's growth cycle. Laboratory experiments have identified over 200 compounds as MVOCs. They are commonly made up of strong chemicals such as aldehydes, benzenes, tulolenes and many more."
If the problem only occurs when you turn on the aircon. I used to have that problem with my toy 86 celica. It only happened on hot days when I needed the aircon. As soon as I turned the aircon on and got a wiff, I knew the aircon wasn't going to be effective, so I switched it off and put the windows down. The aircon still worked on cooler days and still demisted the windscreen. I paid a guy $300 to regas/recon my aircon to the newer gas and it was fixed. If the problem occurs whenever the car has been closed up for a while. Another cause of that problem for me, when I lived in Sydney was my cat caught a small lizard and after getting bored playing with it, left the dead lizard in my car. The smell was like a chemical smell that built up in the car while it was closed up, but less noticeable after airing the car. Took a while to find the lizard carcass.
