bad smell from the ac/ engine

[2late4u]

the bad smell started yesterday passenger side 2014 crossroad smells like a dead mouse I would assume,I have checked the engine over real good, smell is strongest on the passenger side around the fender and also inside the journey when the ac is turned on seems to go away or we are just getting used to i it while we have to drive it, I  have removed the cabin filter there was some trash ( small piece of sponge sealing strip) in there on top of the filter when I removed it filter is clean as it was just changed a few months ago didn't see anything in the blower fan and any of the vents leaving that area, I removed the passenger tire and also the inner fender plastic wheel house covering and found nothing there except the what looks like black rock wool insulation washed it out real good as well ,also removed the hood defroster plastic cover at the bottom of the outside windshield nothing found there except a few leaves  boy they made that difficute with all the different plastic connectors that mostly break when being removed, great that I had a kit of fasteners that I bought off amazon yrs ago, I still can smell it fairly strong in the engine compartment right above the alt area as well......man this really sucks, as if it far inside the air vent could get real expensive having someone tear the car apart trying to find it...getting late tonight but will try looking the engineer compartment again tomorrow, have never used or have a flexible electronic scope that might be able to snake up the vents to see if something could be seen,,,,,,,,,any ideas???????????????

[Summer Solstice]

Take a small diameter piece of flexible hose or line and duct tape it to the end of a vacuum hose. You might get lucky and snag something that way. Even if all you got was debris, at least you would know that there is contamination. 

I bought a very inexpensive bore scope on-line many years ago. Reads to a phone. Adequate for simple things like this.

[5rebel9]

Good luck to you in "curing" this situation! Of all the things I've had to contend with on our group of DJ's and other cars, I've been lucky to NOT have this type of problem. 

 

On a "side note", I got an update about our '14 DJ that I sold this spring.... the new owner put 18k miles on it with no troubles{mechanically}, but 2 weeks ago fell asleep at the wheel and totally destroyed the car. She came out without any injury.

The wheelchair van is doing great and have taken my dad and mom out for rides and such MANY times since getting it, hence my diminished postings on the site here.

[larryl]

What about the cabin air filter?

[2late4u]

got up early this morning so, looked it all over again real good couldn't really find anything out of the ordinary filter is clean and nothing  wrong with it,I use an k-n cabin filter and I keep it washed out and clean so no problems there, the strange thing as I still can get a strong wiff of him in the engine department over the alt on the passenger side, I had took the journey done to the quarter car wash yesterday and sprayed the whole engine and the right fender side  real good and then later on I removed the right side wheel fender underside as well nothing found there,,,this am I  did remove some clips on the firewall below the windshield area about 3-4 push pins and was able to lower the cover about 2 inches and it looked clean but I blew some compressed air from the drivers side towards the passenger side nothing came out but it did seem to have smell a bit,had to give it up for the day as it was getting ready to storm here these morning and coming down hard right now, the smell seems to be less as of now but that might change was looking at a horoscope from harbor freight to snake the vents around $85 for the cheapest but they don't say in the description on how long the cable /camera is? oh well I'll report  back on what I find/dont find out later on...take care everyone

[2late4u]

on a side note while I had the right side fender wheel well I  tore apart , I examined the strut real good at the top where the bearing is at, all I good see or feel felt tight but there was something like orange cork crumbling around the edges of the strut bearing face/side where it meets the metal  I have around 178k on the journey and have had the clunking noise at times,,, the struts seem to be working okay and no oil stains going down them so still okay,,,,,,

[Dean H]

This post talks about a smell caused by a dash silencer pad.

 

Odor inside the vehicle for quite some time now https://www.dodgejourneyforum.com/topic/8999-odor-inside-the-vehicle-for-quite-some-time-now/

Edited September 7, 2025 by Dean H

[2late4u]

Update,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, on the smell and not to jink myself but it is gone or almost gone as of last nite and still gone as of now. I had power washed the underside as well as the engine compartment so maybe what ever was dead or stinking I knocked it loose,as from all I did the other day and didn't see or see anything it had me going crazy don't believe it is the padding oin the inside since I was smelling it on the front right side fender well/engine compartment....SO I believe my problem is gone as of now... thanks for everyone's thoughts and /help