Insight: Sad Saga of a Smelly Sonata

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

With no car payments over the past seven years and more than a decade of great gas mileage, buying my 2011 Hyundai Sonata in 2014 turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Yet in the last month or so, that car has tested my ability to overcome a pungent problem.

Several small holes in the plastic cowl of Ed Pierce's Hyundai
Sonata allowed a chipmunk and mice to enter and die there,
leaving behind an overpowering stench of death in the car's
interior that has been hard to remove. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

It all started about three winters ago, while I attempted to remove thick and hardened ice from my windshield with an ice scraper. I somehow punctured several small holes about the size of a silver dollar in an area called the cowl. It’s a vented piece of plastic sitting between the car hood and the windshield with space for the windshield wipers.

My stepson laughed when he saw those holes in the cowl and said he had never seen that happen before. I didn’t think it was too funny, but I kept driving the car and it didn’t affect the vehicle’s performance one way or another in snow or rainy conditions.

I truly never thought about the cowl holes very much until one Saturday morning about a month ago. My wife and I used my Sonata to ride around visiting yard sales and upon entering the vehicle something reeked badly inside it. It was an overpowering stench of death that was tough to inhale.

My wife couldn’t stand the odor, and I suggested we roll down the windows to air out the car’s interior. It didn’t help.

Then on a trip to Walmart before driving home, I purchased a pack of those pine tree air fresheners that hang from the rearview mirror. I opened the package and left one hanging inside with the windows rolled up. When I got in the car again several days later, it smelled like a combination of pine trees and the pungent funk smell resembling the odor of death.

Suspecting that maybe something had gotten into the cowl through those small holes, I asked my auto mechanic to replace the plastic cowl piece and see if he could discover the source of the bad smell. When I arrived at his shop, he said he could smell the odor while standing 6 feet away from the car and that he’d try his best to remove the smell.

Arriving home, I noticed that my clothing and my hair both smelled bad just from driving the car to the mechanic. My clothes went straight to the laundry and I hit the shower.

The mechanic kept the Sonata over the weekend, and he replaced the plastic cowl piece and the cabin air filter. He discovered four dead mice and vacuumed away the remains of what he thought was a dead chipmunk. But the bad odor persisted, even with the windows open for several days.

He wiped interior surfaces with white vinegar, removed the floor mats and washed them. He sprinkled baking soda on the carpet and seats and vacuumed that up, but the bad smell persisted.

Nearing the end of what he could do for me, I began to think that after 12 years, I might have to purchase another vehicle.

Looking online, I replied to several people who were selling vehicles. I wasn’t looking to finance a newer car, rather I was looking for a low-mileage car priced under $5,000. I was shocked by how much new vehicles cost and ruled out leasing options too. 

At least three individuals selling used cars told me that their vehicles had rebuilt titles, a term I hadn’t heard of before. I then learned a rebuilt title is designated for a vehicle that has previously been in an accident and declared a total loss by an insurance company.

Discouraged by the expense of obtaining a new-to-me used vehicle, but also by how much more my car insurance would rise and not wanting to go into debt, I put that option to the side and thought I’d try resolving the stench issue in the Sonata again.

Watching YouTube, I saw a video promoting a product featuring volcanic rock bags which supposedly remove odors when placed under a car seat. I ordered two bags on Amazon, rolled up the car windows and let the volcanic rocks work for several days with the car parked directly in the hot sun all day.

Entering the vehicle after 48 hours had passed, I found the car’s interior now smelled like baking soda, white vinegar and the bad funk smell.

My wife had discussed my car issue with her hair stylist, and she recommended that I purchase an air purifier called “EDENPURE Thunderstorm Oxileaf.” It was created to be effective at eliminating stench and bad odors by changing the molecular structure of the source through converting oxygen to ozone.

I was skeptical, especially at a cost of $129 on Amazon, but being desperate to save my Sonata, I ordered it and it arrived Friday evening. On Saturday, I set it up and let it run inside the car for a two-hour duration and then later that day for four hours. To my surprise, I estimated that 98 percent of the bad smell was gone and wiping the door seals with Clorox cleaner took care of the rest.

A whiff of skunk, rotting trash or mold wouldn’t even come close to that funk.