bad smells
 

I posted this under someone else's heat question, but I'm not sure I understood the replys:

On my '84 Carrera when I pull the passenger side heat handle (the right one between the two seats) a terrible smell comes into the car with the heat. The left handle doesn't produce a stink, only the right one. The previous owner said she spilled some dog kibble once and thought that's what's smelling (but I'm not taking her word for it). It does, though, kind of smell like dog food. It doesn't smell like oil or gas or grease or exhaust.

So, becasue I don't have a Bently manual yet, could someone please tell me the path/process for tracing down this stink, ie, where do I look?

Thanks,
Dylan

It could be some kind of pet food but I doubt the owner spilled it into the heating system. I'm don't know how one could accidently get pet food into the heating system! However, rodents (such as mice) are know to steal pet food and stash it places. It very well could be you're cooking some critter's cache of food. You also could be cooking the rotting critter too. I suggest you look under your cooling air shroud and check your heater valves for a rodent infestation. Look for nesting materials behind the alternator (one has to remove the alternator to do this). Look under the car on either side of the front of the engine where the fabric covered tubes connect the heater boxes (they're the sheet metal shrouds around exhaust manifold)s to the heater valves attached to the body. Good luck, Jim

sometimes mice and other varmints can crawl into the ventilation and or heat exchanger plenum and after they are dispatched for a while you get the resulting bad smell of dead animal. I would check that area for sure.