Engine degreaser toxic smell in car

[Xtractorfan]

It is possible that some of it is still lying in the bottom of the heater blower or matrix.

 

[Pauly288]

It is possible that some of it is still lying in the bottom of the heater blower or matrix.

Thanks yeah we might end up having to take out the dash to see what's going on. It just makes no sense how long this has been lingering. I'll know more in he next couple of days

 

[ajlsl600]

stink.

frankly. if you have witness to the fact that there was no prior issue wid de stink .? i would take them with you and put the ball in the repairers court .. its bizzare in the extreme but i think yr issue lies in the felt/insulation material and not pooling detergent, as by now that must have burnt off . i heard some time ago of some merc interiors ect stinking badly after they got wet ,but i am led to believe of cat pee ,not petrol. was due to the glue they used to fix the materials . hope you get sorted .

 

[peterws1957]

Funnily enough I recently checked tinterweb to see if Gunk was still available and there was a whole long list of sites where people were experiencing the same problem with the residual odour from engine degreaser. I didn't read all the posts but might be worth trawling through them to see if a solution is available.It does appear to be a common problem where engines have been cleaned with chemicals.

 

[Pauly288]

Funnily enough I recently checked tinterweb to see if Gunk was still available and there was a whole long list of sites where people were experiencing the same problem with the residual odour from engine degreaser. I didn't read all the posts but might be worth trawling through them to see if a solution is available.It does appear to be a common problem where engines have been cleaned with chemicals.

I saw a lot of those posts, thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately some of those people whose engines were cleaned with gunk had to deal with the fumes for months. I won't be leaving the repair shop who did the cleaning without finding out what they used. Perhaps they put it on when the engine was red hot and it baked on. If I can find out the name of the product then I should be able to find out what antidote can be used to neutralise it. A friend has put me in contact with a guy who supplies most of the cleaning products to the motor factors and he reckons most odours can be neutralised once you know what you're dealing with to begin with

 

[long jon]

Have you considered contacting the manufacturer of the degreaser to seek their advice

 

[Pauly288]

Hi all

By way of update I just thought I'd let you know that i am still dealing with this toxic smell from the blower/aircon but it seems to be improving, as in when I turn on the blower or AC initially i get a blast of a horrible toxic smell and then it dissipates after maybe 15 seconds. Also when I use the recirculate button the smell doesn't come into the cabin now.
It is still the case that whenever I've been driving and the car is warm and I park it up that there is the same toxic smell emanating from the exterior of the car, through the front grille and even as you walk the length of the car from bonnet to boot.
As at last week I had given up and the guy I had bought the car from
had agreed to give me my money back which offer I had accepted. This was was after about 6 different mechanics having looked at it and given up, including the main Mercedes service centre in the city I live in. I put myself back in the market and drove a 450km round trip to see another CLK over the weekend and noticed after a few hundred km that the smell wasn't as bad as it had been before inside the car. I have easily done 2000km since the cylinder head work was done and the engine bay degreased so this is taking a lot of time to burn off if that's whats happening.
I just hope now that the smell will continue to dissipate and that before the winter it's gone because while I can live without AC in summer it's not possible to drive safely in winter without the blower for demisting the front windscreen.

 

[umblecumbuz]

You initially said that the engine was degreased in an attempt to rid the car of a burning plastic smell.

Has this now gone? Is there still any burning plastic smell around? Or is it masked so much by the degreaser that you can't detect it?

The burning plastic smell would bother me if it was still even slightly detectable over the lingering smell of the degreaser.

Umble.

 

[Pauly288]

@umblecumbuz at this stage I don't know what exactly the smell is, all I can tell you that is is a toxic chemical odour of some description as opposed to an organic odour. Everyone's nose seems to detect something different (burning, plastic, degreaser) with the common thread that it's a noxious odour that's not normal and shouldn't be in the car.
Until I find out what's causing it I can't identify with certainty what material the vapour is coming from

 

[Frontstep]

On a related note our fridge freezer had a horrible smell in the ice cube maker department.
I stripped it and replaced a heater element washed it all out with Milton and it stunk for two more weeks then just went completely leaving us baffled.

 

[Xtractorfan]

It is also possible that there was some silicone or other type of sealer used on the cylinder head, or even manifold/exhaust gaskets.