Hello all,

My 2005 Mk2 Focus has recently developed a rather unpleasant smell. For a while i thought someone had left some pizza somewhere in the car, or slipped something nasty into the air intake as a screw you for parking in my spot :P. After some investigation i found that the carpet, cladding, and soundproofing underneath the drivers seat (rear passenger footwell) was wet, and undoubtedly the source of the smell.

Now from reading the forums it seems to could be any number of things:

• Air Con drain tube
• Pollen filter housing / pollen filter
• Door seals
• Windscreen seals
• Sunroof seals (luckily i have no sunroof)
• Heater matrix

Obviously this is a pretty long list of things to check in depth brandishing a little spray bottle of water. As some of them are more of a pain that others (looking at you heater matrix), does anyone have any suggestions to narrow down the problem, or things to quickly try and fix.

I had wondered if the smell was linked to my coolant constantly needing a top up, but I found a rather leaky thermostat housing this weekend which has been re-sealed and seems to have cured that problem.

Also any advice as to how I can dry out everything well, and get rid of that terrible terrible smell would be greatly appreciated, I swear its constantly in my nose now.

think I'd be looking at a blocked pollen filter vent or possible the wing mirror surround seems to be quit common is it loose and do you have leaves trapped under the scuttle tray also as yo open the bonnet n/s have a look where the scuttle pan meets the windscreen area I've seen this clogged up before now stops water draining properly .

Hi, you mention air con drain, to check the drain pipe, you need to remove the drivers side centre consul foot well panel to get to it, it will be a small right angle rubber pipe at the bottom of the heater unit, see if it is blocked as you could get a back-up of condensation in the heater unit, which could find it way to the vents under the drivers seat, hope this helps you.

I've actually not checked the wing mirror surround, I'll add that to the list of what to check.

At the weekend I had the scuttle tray off and cleaned the drain holes on either side where it meets the body.

Alan I believe I found that pipe at the weekend when I was installing the mk2.5 centre console, pretty easy to get to. I guess i should just try and run something down it to push anything out, is it work pushing something up as well or am i likely to damage whatever its connected to on the other end?

Neil, if the pollen filter vent is blocked how do I unblock it? It seems that if i take the pollen filter out there isnt much wiggle room in there to investigate any blockages, is it easy to access from the other side?

When i was fitting the mk2.5 console i did notice that the two black pipes on each side of the centre console, which i assume are for air, were not completely seated into each other, I pushed them back together and put some sealing tape around to stop it happening again.

Hi Dan, don't push any thing in to the heater unit as there are two matrix units inside one for air con and one for the heater, just clean the heater unit pipe with a cotton bud, and use water to clean rubber pipe if its not blocked you will see the water come out under the car.

Ah okay =) I'll give that a go.

Any recommendations for getting rid of the smell? I dont really want to have a buy a whole new carpet and liner

cleaning the carpet should do the trick, rug doctor carpet cleaner from morrissons are ok for this, they have a long pipe, good for doing cars.