I have a 2007 Ford Mustang GT. I bought it new. It now has 30K miles on it.
I am the only person who drives it. The only other human being to be in the car besides me is my wife. However 99% of the time I am alone while driving it. This is not the car we take when we go places together.
For the last 3 days there has been a weird, very strong smell in the car when I first get into it. To me it smells exactly like finger nail polish (acetone, Butyl acetate, like that). It’s not from the air conditioner. When I run that the smells dies. I searched the car as though I had a warrant and found nothing that would be causing this smell. There are no fluids leaking on the outside either that I can see.
Any idea as to what is causing this smell? I’ve never experienced this before.
Smell the anti-freeze - is that it? Failing that, check out the other fluids under the hood.
I used to be great with diagnosing the next car problem based on the smell. (For instance a smell like wet wool felt predicts an imminent thermostat failure.) But those were older cars.
All I can think of for this one is that it’s some kind of finish in your car and maybe the temperature has brought out the smell. Has it been hotter/wetter than usual?
How about the windshield wash? Could it have dried out a little bit and concentrated?
Everybody’s sense of smell is different. The smell coming off the plastic type material in a car could alter other chemical smells coming from other areas. You definitely noticed something so you want to be on guard for a problem. Problems, and smells, often come from leaking fluids. Check everything. It could even be break fluid.
