2001 Jetta Crayon Odor

Just bought a used Jetta TDI a couple weeks ago. It had been detailed and smelled fine when I took it for a test drive, but 20 minutes into the drive home I noticed a noxious smell best described as "melted crayon" and it's gotten progressively worse since them. It is to the point now where I get a headache within a few minutes of getting in the thing.

After researching the issue on the web, it seems the consensus is this is caused by defective soundabsorbing material and very expensive to fix. I've contacted the used car dealer, but he has been of no help. Also contacted VWoA and they will not help because the car is used and has no warrenty.

I feel like this is a serious problem VW should address. A manufacturing defect is making me physically ill everytime I drive my car. I'm interested in getting this fixed, but I don't want to spend my life savings on it. Does any one have advice on how to go about this?

Check out all these posts spanning the last five years for further descriptions of the problem:
Do you have a Crayon smell in your car?
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?cmd=print&id=644816

2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS VR6 from North America
http://www.carsurvey.org/viewcomments_review_80873.html

2001 Volkswagen Jetta from North America
http://www.carsurvey.org/viewcomments_review_82221.html

This car is amazing!

http://www.epinions.com/content_116762381956

Melted Crayon smell in TDi
http://www.automotiveforums.com/t429901-melted_crayon_smell_in_tdi.html

I nailed down the crayon smell!
http://www.myvwlemon.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001119.html

I Need Help!!! – Bug smells like crayons
http://www.dfwnbclub.org/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1129&sid=69f73beebe208775e4b069fc97f68c32

sfo calling all 01 Jetta owners with interior odor < smellyjetta >
. . . yep ... we have a 2001 < tryingourbest >
. . . . . . pls write/call VW about odor in Jetta < smellyjetta >
. . . . . . . . . one more thing on quote to replace carpet... < smellyjetta >
. . . . . . . . . . . . if you don't replace the sound absorbing ... < dub-wrencher >
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . how is it so many people know of this? < tryingourbest >
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you have mold or whatever and something is... < dub-wrencher >
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mold has been ruled out... < smellyjetta >
. . . . . . . . . Well ... I just havent had the time ... < tryingourbest >
. . . . . . . . . . . . response from VW on crayon odor < smellyjetta >

odd heater smell
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=98415&highlight=crayon

Hi,
Does it have a white or light tan colored interior? I own 3 of these cars and drive many and find that only the light colored interior cars have this annoying smell in 00 and 01.
Jeff

It has a black interior & dark blue exterior. Have you had any luck getting rid of the smell?

i work at a dealer, not VW but we get a decent amount of VW trades... almost all 99-04 used vw's ive driven there (all of them) had the crayon smell! didnt bother me TOO bad..

guys, also volvos have this smell and some saabs.

I think the smell I am experiencing is of a different (and much stronger)nature. From what I understand the super strong crayon smell is only present in certain 2001 model year VW's manufactured in Mexico...see this post from VWVortex:

Quote, originally posted by 03Jetta1.8T »Adg44, a new update for you and the rest of the guys who have this problem. what year vehicles do you own? 2001 right? 2001 vehicles were affected and no other years. There was a batch of sound deadner that is used UNDER the absorbant layer under the carpet. This stuff is like tar paper or for you audio junkies, Dynamat material. The only change in the repair was to chisel all of this off the floor boards and to replace it with new updated sound absorber. This is still only for people in thier 2/24 bumper to bumper warranty. Otherwise your looking at 10+ hours of labor and a few hundred on parts. If i were you guys, id pull the front carpet up as far as you can on both sides, lift the thick layer of absorber up and throw some baking soda under to absorb the immediate smells, then spray each layer as you go, or line it with baking soda. Thats what we do when we re-assemble the vehicle.
Good luck all.

did you try this suggestion with any luck?

JJ,
If the odor is as strong as you suggest, I don't think baking soda is going to fix your problem; unless you want to do this on a regular basis! The baking soda will obsorb what it can and that's it. If it were me, I would treat it much like you would radon gas! Since the layers on top of the source are pourous, I would put a non-porous barrier on top of the deadening material such as a heavy gauge plastic (or two) and the put my carpeting back in. Whatever it is that's off-gassing can't be good for you to breath so you need to somehow seal it off!!

I'm with JTDixon4520.... If you don't want to take the old material off I would use something to seal it. I know is a lot of labor but if you want to keep the car and enjoy the car, think of it as an upgrade.
Personally- I would even take and dynamat over top of it, roll it down tight as you can and then seal over top that with thick plastic, you could probably get away with how they do door panels. Double side tape it in areas then seal the edges with double sided tape or fumeless caulk.
It will give you a chance to go ahead and clean your carpet vbmenu_register("postmenu_2031565", true);

The $100 and 6.5 hour fix for crayon smell-

I can definitely and without question confirm the source of the "crayon smell"
There are many different opinions out there, but the the crayon smell culprit is the sound deadner underneath the carpet and behind the dash. I absolutely 100% can confirm this. If you look under the dash on the drivers side above the carpet level you can see some of the offending grayish waxy coated material(The underlay is composed of what looks like shredded cloth, covered by a waxy layer- Once you can get at it, this pad removes like carpet and is not stuck or glued down). When you locate it, go ahead cut a piece off with a utility knife and take a sniff-especially when warmed will smell like crayon. That small piece won't smell too bad by itself, but remember, there are about 14-16 square feet of it in your car. The good news is you can remove most of it pretty easily.

Just tonite, I pulled out my seats and carpet and removed the sound damping material. It 100% stank of crayon-absolutely reeked. I removed all I could get to, now my trash can has the crayon stink-the car, not so much. There is still some sound damper matrial behind the dash, but I did my best to remove what I could and cover what I couldn't get out. It appears that i got about 80-90% of the material out of the car.

Here are some tips: I am average in my mechanical ability and interior removal took about 2.5 hours total. There are instructions on another forum on how to remove the necessary interior bits. The instructions are here:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?958556
and
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?967146

I disconnected the battery and ensured the ignition was in the OFF position before removing the seats- to prevent airbag deployment. For the seats- Remove trim rail covers, then removed two nuts under front of seat. Lift seat release lever and slide seat back-may need to lightly hammer bolts to get them thru the holes toward rear of car. As soon as free, unclip the wiring harness. Most of the trim pieces were held in by Torx (star) type bolts or could be carefully pried free--be careful not to break tabs. The rear seats can be pushed toward rear of car to release the rear locking mechanism, then the back of the seat can be forward for easier removal.

As a side note: IF you too are going to remove your crayon stank, you really MUST also replace the sound dampner you are removing with a suitable replacement- Otherwise your VW may be loud with road noise and less solid feeling. I DID NOT replace the original carpet.
For the bulk of the floor I replaced the factory sound damping material with TWO 12 sq ft rolls of dynamat brand dynaliner material - 1/4 inch thickness. For the trim work under the dash and near the doors I used a roll of Mr. Gasket 11027 G-Sport Titan-Lite Sound Dampening Material. I purchased both materials from Amazon. With no mistakes in cutting, this was about precisely the right amount of material.

Removing the interior, carpet and sound deadener (no scraping needed), cutting the new sound dampener and removing the under dash dampening material took 2 hours and reassembly was about 2 hours for a 6.5 hour total job. Plan for up to 8-10 hours, just in case you are not mechanically inclined.


UPDATE - 1 Year 3 months later - the crayon smell is a distant memory. The car smells great. The "crayon-ectomy" is the best thing I have ever done to fix any car -EVER!

BTW- If this explanation helped you out, would love to hear from you. Or leave a post with your succes story! Thanks!

A note on replacing the dampener, I used eDead when I was sound deadening my car and it works quite well.

I don't have the crayon issue described, I just wanted a quieter car. eDead was significantly less expensive than dynamat and according to my reading equally effective.

There are several reports of edead stinking...after some reading it turns out this was the case for a while, but that they changed their design and it no longer does. I can confirm this. It had a slight smell for two days but now I can't smell anything at all. Even the initial smell was mild enough that it did not bother myself or anyone else who got in the car.



I just suggest getting under your feet in the front of the car really well, that's where a lot of the noise comes from for me now (I didn't get under the seats/carpet).

Funny, my car has been nicknamed 'The Crayon' by my local VW club because it has an overwhelming crayon smell. I don't even notice it anymore. And yeah, its part of the sound deadener as well as some of the adhesive used in the car. You'll get used to it. Doesn't take long.

crayon smell follow up

Just a follow up on my crayon stink removal. It absolutely worked! There is no detectable crayon smell at all in the car, despite the remnants of sound dampner remaining in the dash. I left the car in the sun on purpose today-no crayon smell. As a side note, the car is just as quiet as before with the dynamat dynaliner 1/4 ". Also, I did NOT replace the carpet, just cleaned it thoroughly before replacing.

Finally a successfull crayonectomy at a reasonable price! I really hope this helps someone who was as desperate as me.

I took pfredricks advice and had a neighbor of mine (who used to restore Rolls Royce vehicles) take on the task of removing the sound dampener material from my 2002 Jetta TDI.

I just got off the phone with him. He told me that after he had removed as much as he could, he left it in the garage. The next day he came in and could hardly breath in there as the smell was so bad. He dragged it outside.

While it's not completed yet, my guess is that this will solve the problem.

I've come to love my crayon smell. Give the car so much character.

Super T said:

I've come to love my crayon smell. Give the car so much character.

Click to expand...

I second that. My crayola box makes me smile when I smell that faint, waxy smell. Takes me back old school. I guess it is worth mentioning that I cruise in an '02 - perhaps they found a solution to this pungent smell you mentioned.

Have a friend that has this issue with his car now i know why

Here's how I fixed my crayon smell. My 2001 Jetta sat in a parking lot on a rather rainy day. The parking lot decided to flood up to the door sills of the car, and I had it pulled out of the parking lot, syphoned the 4 lakes of water out of the 4 floor pans of the car. I found and removed the drain plugs the next day while changing the oil (more water came gushing out), and drove around the next week with the windows down and baking soda on the now mildewish smelling carpet untill it was all dry. And NOW it smells not of crayon, nor mildew, but fresh "lavender" scented baking soda!! (do not try on your own)

OK TDIer's,
I'm about to embark on operation a cab crayon odor elimination mission utilizing the strategy posted pfredricks on 9/2009. My 2001 Jetta is in the garage an I'll begin the process over the next 3 to 4 days. I'll keep you posted.
Keith - Kenosha 10/14/09
http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=103120

Good luck, and Godspeed Keith

OK TDIer's,

Operation "cab crayon odor elimination" began this morning at 10:00am CST.

About 2 hours to pull the seats, floor trim, carpet and the suspect sound proofing insulation. About another 2 hours in removing various parts under the dash to remove sound proofing insulation that was up against the firewall. This was a little more difficult which is why it took 2 hours due to working in such confined spaces under the dash but I was able to remove all the suspect material.

Just to verify that it was the sound proofing insulation, I placed the removed insulation inside a large garbage can and closed the lid. After about 15 minutes I came back and open the lid, and WHOA!!!!!!, the odor was so strong I about gagged! So I can confirm the dreaded crayon order definitely comes from the sound proofing insulation.
I am now preparing to install the new sound proofing material and reassemble the interior of the car. (2001 Jetta)

One observation I made once the carpet and old sound proofing insulation was pulled from the car; I discovered that 2 of the rubber floor plugs that open up to the underside of the car were out of place. Any exhaust blowing back underneath the car could possibly makes its way up into the cab through these openings, so these and the rest of the plugs have been checked, re-installed and sealed.

I am also placing a couple layers of heavy milled plastic over top of the newly installed sound proofing material before I re-install the carpet so I have an additional barrier and a little added protection.

Well worth the effort. I should have everything wrapped up and my Jetta back on the road tomorrow.

Very do-able project. Plan on giving yourself a day or two to start and complete the work and under $100 for the new sound proofing material. I went with the dynamat brand dynaliner material - 1/4 inch thickness as pfredricks recommended.

Well that's it. So if you have the annoying crayon order in you car and you want to get rid of it, this is all you have to do. Again, it's not that difficult, you can do it.

Keith - Kenosha
10/17/09

For the most part, removing the upholstery etc. is not that hard. You just need patience and some ability with fixing stuff.

The nice thing about this particular fix is that there are no mechanics involved.

That being said, if you know someone who is good with tools etc (I'm assuming based on your post that you're not) then it would be worthwhile asking them to help you out.

Yea it doesn't sound that hard. Hmm I think i'll try it out with a friend. Even if it takes me a while, it would be well worth it to have that awful crayola smell gone.

Me too!

This is great. I was smiling when I typed "Smells like Crayons" on the Search tab, thinking, Yea Right like that's going to work.

My wife's Jetta smells of crayons so much so that when the grocery store young folks help with the groceries, 100% of the time, they comment. I just thought maybe the grandkids must have let a crayon roll from the dash down into the defrost vent. I was going to search and try to find if there is a type of pan or something down there that catches the condensation from AC and maybe there is a filter that needs changing. . Anyone know more about this odd problem? Thanks, mark

operation Crayon Smell removal

Hi all-
I am pleased to follow up and report that "operation crayon smell removal" was a complete success. Now, when anyone gets in my car, they don't noice or say anything about ANY unusual smells. IN fact the car smells, newish.
I think that the crayon smell was so bad for me because I live in Arizona and it is hot here. When the car would get hot, the underlayment (sound deadening material under the carpet) would heat and the waxy layer melt, and get more volatile (odorous). In cooler climates this is less pronounced. SO the crayon smell might be more tolerable in cold whether.

To be clear, I didn't remove the dash, just removed the carpet underlayment on the floor up as high into the dash (from below) as I could. I basically took out the carpet and UNDERSIDE of the dash and removed all the material I could at.

It has now been 6 months and the crayon smell isn't even detectable. I realize now that their was a vague odor that remained in the car( as the smell had permeated everthing including the seats, the owners manual, etc) but all traces of odor are gone now with the passage of time. As a plus, the sound dampening material I replaced the OEM stuff with has been great and the car is smooth and quiet.

Again, interior removal, material cutting, etc took total of about 6 hours. It was the best 6 hours I ever spent. The car is awesome now. If you are going to go to the trouble of removing the crayon smelling underlayment....definitely don't get cheap. You need to replace the underlayment with another material or the car will be LOUD and have lots of road noise. That's not why you bought your VW.

Lastly, and I forgot to mention. I had also replaced that micro-switch (thanks to TDI'ers instruction) in my door. I found a puddle of that waxy material that people talk about as the crayon smell culprit inside the doors. It is the stuff that tends to leak out onto the underside of cars. Anyway, I grabbed a fingerfull of that and sniffed. It is gross in consistency, but definitely does not smell like crayon. In fact, it really has no smell.

Anyway, just wanted to provide the feedback report. Thanks TDI forum for bringing us all together!

Good luck!

Does anyone know where you can buy new carpet?

I have a 2003 and a 2000. The 03 has always smelled like crayons. I never notice it, but my wife has the nose of something that smells really well. Also, most friends smell it too. My "new" 2000 had CLOGGED cabin filter and smelled of mildew. I changed it and sprayed it down with an awesome island vanilla spray. My wife says it smells like white frosting. As long as she doesn't smell the cigarette I smoked with the windows down and the air off, I'm happy.

mikey141414 said:

....but my wife has the nose of something that smells really well.

Click to expand...

My wifes sense of smell is painfully acute as well. There are lots of animals that have good sense of smell but no animal that "coins" the phrase. If my wife had good vision I would say "eagle eye" and everyone would know what that meant. But if I say "dog nose" I'll be sleeping in the doghouse for a month.

Therefore I call her Eagle Nose.

Point being... she hates the crayon smell in my Jetta. (her Jetta... since I never get to drive it).

Mikey, maybe we should have a one day GTG for tandem crayon-ectomies.

I'm looking to replace the factory sound dampener (with that gross crayon stank) with something new and preferably quieter. What would you suggest? I looked at Dynamat and eDead, and I like the price of eDead a lot better, but I'm not sure how it compares in terms of quality. What type of thickness should I be getting as well?

I used eDead for sound deadening and it worked quite well.