Whats that smell? Pictures included.

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22 November 2001
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My car has been sitting in my garage all winter. Last weekend was warm so I dedided to uncover it and check things out. I notice this smell coming from the front under the hood. It smells like urine but I'm sure nobody peed on my car. Notice the little brown puddle. The liquid is on the floor and has also been on the front bumper in the hole you see in the picture, just under the turn signal light. When I wipe it up, it comes back the next day. I can't find anything dead in my car. Could this maybe be coming from the air conditioning system? Anybody know what is in that part of the car that could produce a foul odor?
 

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It's probably from a small animal/rodent living up in your bumper. I don't think there are any fluids in the front of the car that smell like urine.
 
The A/C would not cause a puddle really if it was a small leak.


Start the car, and do a 0-100mph pull, the puddle will be gone the next day. :biggrin:

if not...another track day will do it.
 
I vote for the rodent theory.

I was recently startled by a rat running like a bat (rat?) out of hell as he tried to get from the hiding spot I was walking towards to another. Turns out he'd been in the garage for a couple of days, mostly living in my wife's TL's engine bay (not mine, thank goodness). She has a photo of a dried corncob he'd dragged up in there. Good thing for her or he'd probably have been chewing on wires and other soft stuff.

I'd suggest calling an exterminator, and once you've got it taken care of, take the car to the shop and have all the wiring checked out. Seriously, they like to chew wires and hoses and other things that your car sorta relies on.

Edit: By the way, getting in the car and starting it will only cause the animal to move somewhere else, and then when you give up, it will return to your comfy warm car for a nap.
 
I was leaking some brake fluid and it didnt look anything like that. i vote for some kind of mystery varmit. :biggrin:
 
well...

hmmm... From my personal experiences in dealing w/ rodents & other small vermine in the research lab & around the house/grounds, the pic above isn't of rat/mouse urine. It maybe rodent-related, but I'm just dismissing urine! (maybe rat/mouse vomit or regurg'? loose-bowels? rodent_2_rodent fight-club, ie. blood ?)

Thinking more along the lines of the NSX... It maybe corrosion/rust or dirt/mud/road-debris that combined w/ the water from the A/C condensor and then trickled down later to the garage floor.

(I know the NSX is aluminum, blah blah blah... so there shouldn't be corrosion. Maybe some component around there, or even the condensor has non-aluminum metal parts?)
 
This is the most bizarre thing. My car was sideways on rollers in the front of the garage when I noticed the smell. I would wipe up the puddle and there would be a new one the next day, much smaller than the one in the picture. I rearranged my garage over the weekend to put the car in its normal summer spot and hosed out the front of the car to try and rid it of the smell. Now I have a bigger puddle that smells just as bad.
 
Have you crossed paths with any birds on a drive? I hit one and it took some effort to get all the remains out of the front end. Just wondering if that juice is post-mortem.
 
Why not try parking the NSX outside for a night to see if it is the car or animal causing the puddle?
 
Well I took my bumper off tonight to see what was under there. Apparently, mice built a nest inside the metal beam that is inside the bumper. Its the perfect spot for them because it has a few small holes for them to get inside a hollow piece of metal. It was filled with blanket filler (they ate up a blanket in my garage) and seeds and shit and urine. It stunk really bad. I hosed everything down and will let it sit for a few days.

If you store a car in the winter, take extra care to kill any mice living in or near your car.
 
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