Jetta - Volkswagen - Smells :: 2001 - Stinky Toxic Interior - Fix?
Oct 26, 2011
We recently took our 2001 VW Jetta TDI in to a body shop to have a dent in our fender repaired that occurred the day after. The body shop we selected quoted us 5 days to repair the dent. Little did we know they'd also drop a toxic chemical bomb on the car's leather and vinyl interior as a courtesy.
When I picked the vehicle up I was greeted by the manager who told me the four-month-old, battery recently installed by one of Michigan's two trusted TDI specialists was dead (it wasn't). He told me I should just head over to the VW dealer to get it looked at (he said there had been an issue with the battery since I dropped it off a week earlier... when I questioned why he was just now telling me about this issue, he said he "just found out about it." Needless to say we got off on the wrong foot. I then noticed there were scuffs all along the bumper from the wax not being rubbed in properly and the red paint they'd sprayed on the repaired (and poorly reassembled) fender has also sprayed onto the black plastic below the bumper. But none of this matters compared to the significant loss of brain cells due to the chemical odor that my husband and I, as grad students, simply could not afford to lose.
As I was driving the vehicle the two miles back home, I noticed a strong smell that was not your typical "new/clean car" smell. While I got a little light headed, I didn't think much of it. Until the next day, after the car had been sitting in the sun, when I got in the vehicle to go grocery shopping and I noticed our beautiful, shiny black leather and vinyl had a white-ish residue that had dripped, smudged, smeared dried and crusted all over it. Further, I couldn't drive the car without the windows completely open without my eyes burning and throat getting sore and a severe headache.
I asked my husband to call the manager (he and I were already not on good terms). After convincing the manager the smell was definitely not from bike grease, the manager conceded that "MAYBE his new cleaning crew had used the wrong chemical when wiping down the interior of the car." Because the vinyl is now sticky and tacky, we were pretty sure it was a pretty strong solvent. The manager agreed to "go above and beyond and clean the car" himself - which he did attempt to do - and when I picked it up he did show me the solvent he thinks his cleaning crew used. Unfortunately, while much of the staining is now reduced, the smell is still very strong and is not only in the cabin but also very strongly permeated throughout the trunk.
It's been about a month and we've tried scattering baking soda throughout the trunk to no avail; I'm about to go to an auto parts store and see if there's anything else we can get to clean it out.
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I have a 2007 Nissan Murano. When I first get into my car after it is sitting the smell of garbage is overwhelming! Once I start to drive it, the smell begins to disappear. The longer the car is sitting turned off the stronger the smell when I get into it. We have searched the vehicle inside and out for signs of food, although the car is extremely clean. We have also searched for reminants of a dead animal as well as moisture but have found nothing. Where to look next?
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My husband drives a 97 Toyota Corolla. Great little car with one problem, it stinks. It smells like gasoline after its started. I never smell it from inside the car, just after its run when I exit the car. Took to a mechanic.... they couldn't find a leak and of course they didn't smell anything. He told me the LEFT OUTPUT SHAFT SEAL needs to be replaced but wasn't very positive that had anything to do with the gasoline smell. He only suggested replacing the gas cap, again, not with much confidence. Should I take it back, take somewhere else, anyway of narrowing down the possible leak areas myself or other suggested areas for them to look for the leak???
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What the problem is, what to do about it, if VW is doing anything if you complain enough.
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2004 jetta, interior lights & door open light on dashboard intermittently come on and off while driving.
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Its a 2001 jetta vr6, 5 speed, electronic seats all leather with wood trim panels, and I am having quite the issue. When you turn on the car it has a rough idle around 600rpm but doesn't die out. it smokes like a banshee, white smoke. if you come back later and start it, no smoke until you give it gas. some times it doesn't smoke at all. misfire cyl 6 and 5, used to have 4 misfires but spark plugs did me justice, maf sensor low voltage output, bank 1 sensor 2 02 something or another, when i first got it, it would just chug and not smoke at all. the better its running, the more smokes it produces it seems. none of my coils have the rubber graumet around them anymore and all seem to be pretty shot regardless. I have no leaks underneath the car, coolant has no oil mixture in it all all, no visible leaks on the headgasket, and most of the time the smoke smells like gas, but its purely white. I am just wondering what could cause it, im trying to feel out more options before getting drunk and doing a headgasket. no oil loss, no coolant loss.
[URL] .....
video of the smoke.
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This is a 2005 GX470 with 125k miles. We've had this truck for 3+ years and this is the first time we're experiencing this issue.
2 days ago, i noticed that there is a strange moldy smell inside the cabin when i drove the car around town. Not too strong, but definitely noticeable. It was not the usual musty/humid smell that all cars have after you drive them with the AC on for awhile and then you turn it off. This usual smell is common in a lot of cars, i've had it in the Lexus too, and it usually goes away after 10 mins or so.
What i have in our car is a different smell. It smells like there is a piece of old moldy wood or moldy piece of cloth left under the seat for a long time. The smell does not go away. I am 95% sure it comes from the vents on the dashboard.
Today i checked the entire cabin and all floors for leftover food, wet clothes, stains, spills and i found nothing. The car is clean. Carpet appears dry and very clean for a 10yr old car. No strange stains. Nothing inside the car smells like mold, especially when it is not running.
When i start the engine, the smell creeps up. It appears to be coming from the vents. I checked the cabin air filter. It is not brand new, about a year old, but it DOES NOT smell like mold at all. I ordered a new filter but i doubt this will fix the issue. The current filter is not wet or smelly. It's not the source. What else should i check?
There must be an AC condenser drain hole somewhere under the car. Not sure if this is obstructed or not. Where is the AC drain located exactly? Any pointers will be useful.
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For the past several months I have been noticing a mildew smell in my truck. Today it seems much more noticeable than ever. I have no leaks that I know of. Back in the first part of the summer we had very heavy rains and flooding here and I was in the middle of it, stuck in my truck overnight due to flooding. During that time I never noticed any leaks.
A couple of months ago I saw that there was about a half inch of water in the bottom of my glove compartment. (It's dry today.) I didn't find any wet spots in the carpet underneath. I thought maybe that some AC condensation had gotten in there somehow.
This morning as I was leaving for work, the smell was very noticeable and when I turned on the defroster I could definitely smell it coming out of the vents. What could be the cause?
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2001 VW Jetta wagon will randomly not start it up. Jumping it or popping the clutch doesn't get it going. I've made sure there is nothing draining the power and the battery is new and clean. My mechanic has run diagnostics on it to check the codes and kept it for a week to use it when he ran errands; it never gave him any problems. He wants me to give him a call if I get stuck again so he can hear what it sounds like when it won't start. A week later, it wouldn't start for me(of course it was on a Sunday). I waited an hour and it started. It does this whether it's been sitting over night or after using it for an hour or two. I'll go somewhere, park,and return 10 minutes later and it makes that sound like there isn't quite enough power to start (starter is new).Now it does have over 382,000 original miles on original motor, timing belt replaced a few months ago and the mechanic said it's clean and strong. I would love to know what to do other then getting rid of it!
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Experiencing very weird electrical issues with my 2001 Wolsfburg edition Jetta 1.8T. Sometimes when I come to a stop light the car will die. I'll turn the key and here "clicks" and see flickering dashboard items. I've found if I power the locks up and down several times eventually the electric system engages again, and I can start the vehicle. Before the system engages, the locks will only slide up/down slowly or not fully. I encounter these electric issues moreso during cold & wet weather. To avoid having the car die, I'll keep my engine revved up at stoplights. I've sometimes experienced other random electric issues. For example, while driving on the freeway last week I turned on my headlights. I heard 3 loud beeps. I think a couple dashboard lights came on (not the check engine). Sometimes these beeps/lights occur just during normal driving, and almost always when I come to the next stop the car then dies. Battery has been tested and is fine. Ignition coil recall performed, still has issues.
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My 01 VW Jetta with 181690 miles started having intermittent loss of power a year ago:
1) it never conks out;
2) it loses power on the highway at 70 or in town at 25;
3) engine is usually hot, about an hour into a trip, but now does it cold, too;
4) weather doesn't matter: dry or wet;
5) check engine light flashes while it happens
6) it feels like it's running out of gas but isn't.
Mechanics have tried the following: Note: every time I brought it in to be looked at, the symptoms above were happening :
1) March 2013: replaced coil pack and it ran fine until Sep;
2) Sep 2013: ran Dx on check engine light: "arching all over the place" so replace spark plug wires;
3) Dec 2013: got oil changed
4) Jan 2014: ran Dx and was told crack in piston;
5) Jan 2014: got second opinion and told wrong spark plugs were used (single electrode vs triple electrode)-replaced all spark plugs; got car inspected and had oil changed again as it was dirty;
6) Feb 2014 mechanic is stumped, but found an article about clean oil and changed the oil again. Oil was down almost a quart.
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2001 golf interior lights don't come on if any door opens, car doesn't recognize any of the doors to be open on the dash. I read it could be bad door lock modules, but does that happen to all 4 or could it be an electrical issue?
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Been having an issue with my 01 Wolfsburg VW Jetta 1.8T.
Whenever I'm accelerating (most noticeable in lower gears), it seems like the turbo can't keep up. Used to sound like a nice clean consistent whooooosh spooling up, but now its more like brrrr......brrrrr......brrrrr.....
Don't know how else to describe it. Seems to start and stop frequently. Will try getting a video clip of this tomorrow.
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I'm considering a 2001 VW Jetta 1.8T with 135,000 miles that the owner is selling for $1,000.00 because it is "starts and runs but it's difficult get it accelerated and it's just running rough ". I haven't yet looked at the car or pulled the codes, but before I do, is there a common point of failure on these cars that leads to the symptoms described?
If it is something such as a crankshaft position sensor, then I could potentially have a good car for a lot less than the book value. If it's something such as the timing having jumped a tooth, then that's probably not something that I want to mess with.
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My 2001 Jetta 2.0L steering wheel vibrates at about 60+ mph and when I turn the steering wheel to the right into a turn, the vibration intensifies. I've changed and rotated my tires, but to no avail, the problem persists. I have yet to take this problem to a mechanic until I've found out what the issue actually is, as I do not want to get jerked around. I've looked around on various VW blogs, and from what I can gather, the CV joint needs to be replaced/repaired.
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I have 2001 Wolfsberg Edition 4D jetta (gas) with 180,000 miles, manual transmission. The engine light has been on for years and years. Usually what I do is take it in for an oil change just before a smog. They re-set the codes. I drive it to my office and back and the light would stay off and I could smog it. Until recently. In April, I took the car in for an oil change. And when I picked it up, it ran terribly. It was lurching like crazy. I had to keep slip the clutch to drive it until it warmed up and the it would mostly start running OK. I took it back to my mechanic and he thought it was a timing belt. I had already changed the timing belt at 119,000 miles.
It seemed odd to me that this procedure needed to be done again after 60,000 miles, but I went ahead and had it done. That did not fix the problem. Then the mechanic replaced the air mass meter. That didn't work. Then he replaced the coils. That didn't work. My mechanic has had the car for a month and can't seem to figure out what to do. He keeps getting different error codes - codes that don't seem to make sense to him. The car needs to a smog (my registration date is June), but he can't smog it because we can't get the check engine light to stay off long enough.
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Twice now in the past week, my 2001 Jetta has become possessed. While driving along, the radio turns off. Then the warning lights all come on. If I use the turn signal the radio springs back to life and other weird electrical things happen. Eventually the car stalls. When I try to restart it, the warning lights all come on and the dashboard makes a click-click-clicking sound, and that's it. The first time, my mechanic said the alternator wasn't working correctly, but that he revved the engine and it kicked in. He then tested the alternator and battery and said both were ok. Is this an alternator problem? Something else?
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I have a 2001 vw Jetta with a manual transmission (just over 155,000 miles). My first set of front brakes lasted to about 135,000. After they were replaced a shimmy started to appear when braking a few thousand miles in. At about 8,000 miles the shimmy became so bad that I brought the car back to the dealer. They said the rotors were warped. The pads and rotors were replaced again and in about 5,000 miles same thing. The pads and rotors were replaced again at no charge and it is now about 5,000 miles later and the same thing is happening again.
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I drive a 2001 VW Jetta and have had many issues with this car but have had this particular issue many times. It starts when all of a sudden my car feels like it's going to stall when idling. When I go to drive it in this state the car has difficulty excelerating, bucking and sputtering (like the engine isn't getting enough fuel) and the engine light comes on. I have taken it to many shops and they usually replace an oxygen sensor saying that it is clogged etc. I have also had a couple of tune-ups because of it but after about a year the issue comes back and I shell out more money. I was told by one mechanic to use only super gasoline and that it should prevent it from happening again which I did and it held it off from happening again to about a year and a half but now it's back.
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My engine is in trouble. A few weeks ago, my check engine light came on. The diagnostics revealed that my Mass Airflow Sensor was done for. I replaced it, and everything was working fine for a week. Then a couple of days ago, my Electronic Power Control (EPC) light came on. The car is really dragging. It have to gun it to make it go above 60 MPH. It's become scary to drive on highways. Are the two issues potentially connected?
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I was driving on the highway in my 2001 jetta (332000 km) on the cruise control yesterday and suddenly it just started slowing down and stopped. Putting my feet in the gas did nothing . Before stopping completely the battery light came on. After won't start anymore, just making a sound like it is trying but turn in the butter. To be honest the check engine has been on for a while but we are pretty sure that is the glow plugs because it is a recurrent problem... Nothing else light up and there was no sound or smoke.
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