Help! I have a brand new HHR with leather and I've noticed this strange odor in the car when the outside temperature get's to 80 or more. It's kind of a chemical odor; even with the windows down it get's very strong. I've noticed that it only occurs in the heat and hot sunshine. I love the leather smell but this odor is overwhelming! Anybody else experiencing this? Also experiencing the AC funky odor. Had that problem with the last vehicle too, a 2007 GM pickup.

 

Changing the cabin air filter will help.

 

I have leather but it has no smell at all. Have a 02 Impala and it had the nice leather smell up until this yr. If that smell is coming from the air vents, the dealer has a chemical that will (so they say) kill the mold that caused it, usually it is cars in the south that run a/c most of the time. I've heard some people will spray a weak solution of laundry bleach and water into the air intake vent (at the top of the hood area) to help kill any mold that forms.

 

Sorry for not explaining better. The odor is coming from the leather. It's perfectly OK when the air is on or the windows are closed and the seating surfaces are not exposed to the direct sunlight. When the sunlight hits the leather it just smells caustic. Hard to describe the odor but it's not something natural and all seating surfaces have the smell. The AC odor is only when it first comes on, I'm guessing that there's stale water in there somewhere, that one can be fixed easily.

 

There is a GM Odor Eliminator that is extremely effective for both air conditioner vent odor, and interior "odors". Not sure if it would help your situation which sounds like the leather treatment is outgassing or something. At any rate the part number is 12378554 it comes in 12 packs which would be $50 +, so hopefully your dealer stocks it.

 

This is not the first time I heard this.

Chevy had problems with a glue used on the leather seats in 2006 I think. It happened on only a handful ov HHR's.

Some friends and I were at a car show and they had their HHR there. A guy walked up and told us how much he loved his but GM had just bought it back due to a smell from the leather seats. He said it was like a dead animal smell. They did everything to eliminate it but it was still there.

GM bought back the HHR to study the problem and he bought a brand new one.

You might have your dealer contact Chevy and see if they can locate the info on what was causing it.

It is a rare problem but Chevy knows about it and may have learned the cause by now?

 

UPDATE: The dealer is still waiting to hear back from GM on this one, like that'll ever happen. Anyway, I followed someone else's advice and got the Zaino leather conditioner and it smells GREAT! Of course the weather is cold and there's no sun to beat on the seats but we'll see if this does the trick when old Sol returns in a couple months.

 

great to hear. I was hoping it wasnt some latent bovine flatulence.