after the recent heavy rain, i came to my car this morning and it smelled of damp, ive checked the carpets, boot carpet, spare wheel recess, mats, roof lining, and nothing is even the slightest bit damp, not even my seat belt which randomly seems to get damp on crazily rainy days

pollen filter is the smell absorbing carbon one, been in around 4-5 months, genuine part

when i got the car both rear doors let water in, with the usual carrier seal leak, ive fixed those months and months ago, and its not leaked now for a long time

ive even got a moisture absorber under the passenger seat, which is pretty fresh, only been in a week or so and its been ~25c lately

anyone any ideas ?

Edited 16 July, 201015 yr by BRUN

Gut reaction would be the door carriers leaking, but as you've said there's no wet and they've been fixed (just to be sure: there was no water laying on the rubber door seal? Maybe throw some newspaper onto the back carpet and stand on it just to see if there's any water lurking under the carpet?) ...

I have this problem in the last few days too, only since the rain came back. checked under carpets and all footwells seem dry as a bone. Would be nice to work it out.

Are the door cards damp from window seal leaking? Just a thought.

Kathy

nope i rubbed all the door cards to see if they were damp but nothing, and nope no water resting on the door aperature seals (thats what i looked for this morning on every door)

guess ill have to try some newspaper but the carpets felt dry to me

I'll hazard a guess here that it is leaf debris etc. that has collected in the windscreen wiper plenum that has got wet again and is starting to smell.

aha, i hadnt thought of that !

ill give it a look at tomorrow, cheers

had a look at this best i could, but as i didnt have any replacement clips to hold the scuttle panel down i thought it best to not remove the panel, the Haynes says the clips need replacing as they dont come out intact

i wedged it up a bit and had a look, i presume the air intake is the black thing on the passenger side ?

if so i did have some leaves and gunk there, like sediment, mud really, ive cleaned some of that away with a toothbrush through the gap and hoovered out some leaves and gunk, some still remains as i couldnt get to it properly, ill have to buy some new clips and take it all off

could be onto something with that really as id imagine it gets wet, and the smell is carried through the air intake pipes