[SimplyBS]

Sorry if this has been discussed/answered before. I am struggling with the crayon smell in the CPO 328i I picked up last week. Figured it was just the cleaner used to get the car ready to sell. But a week later it is almost worse today than when I picked it up. It seems to be coming from the dashboard? I have heard about others having problems with older cars and some of the sound deadening material. Anyone else struggling with this? It is driving my sinuses crazy.

[HotTea69]

I am not familiar with any crayon smell in my car. Picked it up used as well.

[wrickem]

Does your car have leather interior or the pleather? I've noticed a crayon smell in loaners which didn't have leather in them over the years.

[SimplyBS]

Leather. Vin decode shows the following

Leder Dakota/schwarz/akzent Rot - LCL3

[Class5Kayaker]

I found this in my 2-year-old new-to-me CPO 328i shortly after I bought it when installing the Bimmertech back-up cam. You have to remove the butt part of the back seat as part of the install. Probably not your issue, but made me think of that day and laugh (the neat freak in me went nuts seeing this mess and not knowing it was there my first couple of months of ownership....lol) Obviously the previous owner travelled with kids a lot.

[SimplyBS]

Haha. I may have to take a look.

[SimplyBS]

Guess I am going to have to trade in a car I bought just a week ago. Can't locate the source. Every time I drive the car I get a headache.

[Dan203]

Could the A/C be leaking. It has sort of a strange smell, and when mine had a slow leak it was always more noticeable when I first fired up the car after it had been sitting for a while.

[Orion4]

You stated it is a CPO. Take to your dealer and ask them to address the smell.

[Fronzdan]

Originally Posted by Class5Kayaker

I found this in my 2-year-old new-to-me CPO 328i shortly after I bought it when installing the Bimmertech back-up cam. You have to remove the butt part of the back seat as part of the install. Probably not your issue, but made me think of that day and laugh (the neat freak in me went nuts seeing this mess and not knowing it was there my first couple of months of ownership....lol) Obviously the previous owner travelled with kids a lot.

Holy crap!

[asus389]

Not sure if this will help OP, but I thought I'd mention it. In trying to figure out what in my e90 was irritating my system after BMW worked on it I discovered that the foam carpet padding has what I can only describe as an irritating sweet kind of smell to it. I am not sure what the substance is, but if you pull up the trim and touch the foam it it comes off on your hands and is very hard to wash off. It gives me headaches if I get too close to it and is a general irritant to my system at a distance. I don't think it's the foam itself but some chemical or fragrance that they apply to it. Correctly manufactured PU foam shouldn't have an odor. Would the chemical still be present in a 3 year old car? Not sure. I don't think that when the e90 was in production I noticed it. But both of my E90s were CPO so it might have faded by then. Several new 2016 F30 loaner cars had it though. A 2013 I was in had it, but much less.

BMW put a new section of carpet in my e90 that was recently manufactured and it was so strongly smelling of this substance when they gave it back to me that I couldn't drive it for weeks. Although the odor itself has died down, my reaction to it still occurs. My attempts to get the dealer to get BMW to identify the substance have so far failed.

[jlbjr]

I had an M3 and now a 428 and they both had the same smell. Its just an odd smell that gets worse the longer the car sits stationary for a while. I guess its just a BMW smell.

[Fronzdan]

I know this smell and I have it occasionally. With just a little bit of imagination, you can convince yourself it's carnauba wax and you've just detailed your car. Seriously it smells a lot like carnauba anyway. In fact for the longest time, I thought that's what it was after the dealer did the initial prep.

[Gearhog]

BMW leather definitely has a distinctive smell that is different than any other car. I have never found it offensive thankfully, but I think your issue must be something else.

[Jason954x]

Check in the dashboard. Maybe the previous owner was involved in human smuggling, and forgot one in there.

[ziyfan]

Solved, latest update to the interior/cabin crayon smell :
the smell is confirmed to be the insulation material , mainly the front insulation under the dashboard.

My car is BMW 2013 M135i, bot from BMW dealer in 2021 with extended warranty.
The smell mainly come from the gap between the window and the dashboard.
the smell is strong when the carbin is hot , eg. switch to hot A/C facing up or just put the car under the sun for a few hours.
the smell is weak when A/C temperature is cool or use a big towel to block all the gaps on top of the dashboard .

Took 2 weeks to oder the new sound insulation boards from BMW Germany . Cost only around $200
Then took around 8~12 hours to install the new parts. cost $2500 for labour.
all paid by BMW dealer under warranty.

Good luck everyone, don't buy old BMW, they used faulty material in old models. especially F20,F30

[tim930]

Is the odd smell really gone after changed the sound insulation boards? I got the same problem and will take my car to BMW to fix it, I just in case they cannot find the problem then I can tell them where the problem is.