help with strange smell in 323i (Reward!)

Hello Everyone!

I drive a year 2000 323i. There is a strange issue that I have with the
car which has perplexed me as well as every repair shop that I have
taken it to.

Every summer (and early fall), I get this strange smell when I start the
car in the evening. This only happens in summer and only in evening. The
smell is something like a burning chemical smell. It could be
psychological, but I fell a bit nauseated after a while. Problem is that
it is not deterministic (i.e. will happen every other day or so), and
unfortunately has not been reproduced everytime I have taken it to a shop!!

The whole car immediately fills up with this smell, and it goes away
after driving a bit with windows open.

My guess is that it is something to do with AC system, because it tends
to happen in the season when I would have AC on in the morning etc.

Any guesses on what this could be and how I would go about chasing this
one down?

Beyond good karma I will offer a small reward to anyone who can help
me with this. Something like a USB flash key or general help with any
computer issue etc....

Thanks

it might well be the air conditioning unit, there could be a small leak
somewhere, and since refrigeration gasses are not ozone friendly you will
certainly smell them, it might be worth getting a refrigeration engineer to
check the pressure in the system to see if its lost any,
one other possibility is that throughout the winter months when your air con
coolers, pipes, and radiators are idle there may be a build up of dust etc,
which will only transfer through the cars vents when you switch on the air
con in the summer.
from my experience some cars air con systems do smell different, some even
rather foul, until they've been on for a few minutes.
another possibility is the cars catalyctic converter, (catalyst) although
not sure why this might only be evident at certain times of the day,
possibly just coincidence.

steve, UK


"Robert Chan" <robertdchan (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Hello Everyone!

I drive a year 2000 323i. There is a strange issue that I have with the
car which has perplexed me as well as every repair shop that I have
taken it to.

Every summer (and early fall), I get this strange smell when I start the
car in the evening. This only happens in summer and only in evening. The
smell is something like a burning chemical smell. It could be
psychological, but I fell a bit nauseated after a while. Problem is that
it is not deterministic (i.e. will happen every other day or so), and
unfortunately has not been reproduced everytime I have taken it to a
shop!!

The whole car immediately fills up with this smell, and it goes away
after driving a bit with windows open.

My guess is that it is something to do with AC system, because it tends
to happen in the season when I would have AC on in the morning etc.

Any guesses on what this could be and how I would go about chasing this
one down?

Beyond good karma I will offer a small reward to anyone who can help
me with this. Something like a USB flash key or general help with any
computer issue etc....

Thanks