Hello all,
My wife and I recently purchased a 2003 Mars Red 500. Great car, we love it completely. 80k miles and clean as a whistle needed only motor mounts, tranny mount and two control arms.

We bought it at the end of winter here in South Fla which is a dry season and the car smelled great. Once the spring hit with all the rain, we noticed a mildew smell. For the past three months I have been turning myself inside out trying to find and clean the source. The mildew was like a 2x4 hitting you in the face when you opened the door after it had been raining. We had it detailed twice and just last week had it "bombed" by the detail company. Unfortunately, the smell went away once the rain went away so it was hard to have a nice day that you could find the smell.

Every rain i would take a paper towel and wipe every surface of carpet to see if I could find wetness and never found moisture inside the car -- but the smell...wow. Today we drove the car across the state to visit a relative and on the way home went through a rain shower. Sure enough, as we were coming back into town we would catch the occasional whiff of mildew while driving. Once we parked, my wife got out and was immediately accosted by the smell. Since the weather was dry enough I spent a few minutes and think I have finally tracked it down to the cloth seal around the lower half of the door.

I'm going to attach a few photos to help illustrate. On our car, when it rains there is some wetness on the door sill where the SL plate is. Is this normal? I'm having trouble figuring out where the water should be able to penetrate and where it should be dry. There are several drips of water on the SL plate after a rain.



Any idea what the part number is for that cloth/rubber seal?

 

If you have checked that your condensation line from the air conditioner is clear and draining well, you may have some mold in the drainage system that drains water from the windshield. When you go through a rain storm, the water from the windshield drains through the grate that runs along the bottom of the windshield. This is also where fresh air is pulled through and it may pick up odors at this location. Try pouring a bucket of water mixed with 25% vinegar through the grate. Vinegar kills mold. Follow a few hours later with a bucket of water mixed with liquid Lysol to further freshen the area. If this does not work, ask the service adviser at you local MB dealership for his advice. P.S. I trust you checked the engine bay to make sure you don't have a dead mouse under the hood that stinks when it gets wet! Twin Cam

 

Just as an update....

I pulled the door panel off and did the smell test. The bottom of the panel (the vinyl) was mildewed very badly. Not discolored or anything, just smelled horrible. I ordered a new (used) one as the dealer wanted $1,400 for a new one. cleaned it up and installed it. I also removed the cloth covered rubber seal from the car body, treated it with mildew killer and washed it in the washing machine. Installed everthing and the smell is GONE! I was so happy I almost slept in the car that night.

I spoke to my mechanic and he told me where the water should get to and we decided that something had happened to that door panel in the past to mildew it.

Glad that is over, whew!