I'd like to draw on your experience of all things car to tackle a musty smell in the Panda.

- The mats don't smell.
- The seats are regularly cleaned to remove minor stains / rain marks.
- No tea/coffee/drinks containing milk are ever spilled.
- The car is aired out when cleaning the inside with all the windows down and the boot open for well over an hour.
- No food left to rot in the car.


I'm starting to think theres possibly mould or dampness inside the cooling system and by letting it run it's letting the smell in.

Where can I start to tackle this?!

Change your socks?!!

Is there any sign of damp anywhere.? Lift the carpet mats and push down firmly on the carpet to check for water ingress under carpet. Look under boot carpet, in spare wheel well for damp.
Change the pollen filter and use anti bacterial spray for air-con system.
Is the smell there all the time.??

Lol to the socks thing!

And there's no cabin filter / pollen filter or Air Con on my model.

The smell always seems to come back, yes.

The carpet has never been damp, but on wet days I'd say it takes a lot of water. When I hoover it it's always bone dry (thin, and rock hard, thanks Fiat!) lol

I will double check the spare wheel, but that has never had wet in it in the past

Didn't you have the heater intake overflow after heavy rain?

See if you can borrow a surveyor's damp test meter to check out the carpet condition.

Carpets can be replaced with used from a breakers. Cost probably very little after all who buys a replacement carpet?

But before that try cleaning with carpet cleaner and a wet vac. Really sponge the water on and immediately suck it out so the carpet/upholstery never stays wet.

The heater matrix can be cleaned though Ive never done it. Probably the same process as used for air con condensers.

Yes, though it was in a car wash where it probably suffered a lot of water. It was actually after the huge blower was forcing the water up the windscreen! Suppose it could have just blew the water against gravity and in.

Still, would love a diagram of how those heater vents look and flow. Searched on Elearn but found nothing so far.

The only scrapyard we have here is run by invalids so that'd involve a trip across the border or to Belfast. And I bet they'd charge a fortune too. Most the cars in the yards I've been to had smashed windows and were exposed to all sorts of fungus and damp sadly - and that was looking at tenapenny Corsas.

Must give the carpet cleaner a go.

Does anybody else agree that the carpet is very thin and flat or is my Panda just the victim of years of abuse to make it that way?!

Might buy an antibacterial spray and see if that can improve it.

Got conned into buying a bloody Cabin Filter today.

Described the smell and asked if they had any products to fix it. The man started saying 'if the cabin filter is old then that'll cause the smell'

So I told him that the non-AC Pandas don't have cabin filters, but asked him to check (in case perhaps I'm missing something)

He found a part anyway with a diagram showing it being fitted to a Panda like mines. For £5.40 I thought sure why not .. maybe this 'professional' knows more than me - not impossible!

Tried following the instructions.. seems to me the removable part is sealed on the non-AC models.

Somebody confirm I was an idiot to buy one please?!

Did he have big windies?





He saw ye coming!


No filter would be correct.

Best of it is, there's instructions printed inside if the box which had to be ripped open to read.. so probably can't take it back :-(

Sounds like you need to try a smoke bomb. Leave heater running on full on recirculate. Close the windows and set it off. Should freshen it up.

dozer where could I obtain such a contraption?

Asda used to sell them but if you type smoke bomb air freshener into eBay they will be there. Strawberry or lemon I've used in the past

Googled 'car smoke bomb' .. probably not the wisest combination of words lol


Might get some of that Neutradol spray and leave the car on full recirculate for about 15 mins to see if that solves it.

My real worry is if there's mould within the inner workings of the heater ducts. What are the chances of that?

SB1500 said:

Googled 'car smoke bomb' .. probably not the wisest combination of words lol


Might get some of that Neutradol spray and leave the car on full recirculate for about 15 mins to see if that solves it.

My real worry is if there's mould within the inner workings of the heater ducts. What are the chances of that?

Click to expand...

VAG homepage..

you can get an airduct cleaner - google Normfest = ECP

chances are when you noticed the blocked drains - it let SOME skanky water into the cabin

when my heatermatrix went,
I lifted the footwell carpets - the "underlay" was dripping wet.. hung it on the line to dry for days ( being December didn't help there..)

Haha, VAG are ridiculously reeky!

Must order some of that.

Was the heater matrix an expensive and hard job?

SB1500 said:

Haha, VAG are ridiculously reeky!

Must order some of that.

Was the heater matrix an expensive and hard job?

Click to expand...

They've got to put the emissions somewhere!

Found the source of the smell...

Two microfibre cloths still damp after application of turtle wax... removed them. A week later and we're back to freshness.

How was I stupid enough to not realise this!!!