The back of my car smells like a skunk! A couple of months ago, I got a whiff of a skunk as I rounded the back of my 4Runner and upon closer inspection, found that it was my car that smelled so bad. It looked like there was some kind of clear, stinky fluid covering the back of my car and I thought my ride had unfortunately been sprayed by a skunk. I took it to a car wash and it still was not gone, so I washed it myself. After that second wash and a couple of days of rain, the smell was gone and the back of my car was finally clean. A week or so later, I noticed the same smell coming from the back of my car and I thought I was just parking by the local skunk hangout. But, I noticed that none of the other cars smelled bad. It has been raining off an on for the past few weeks in Birmingham, AL with every shower washing the back of my car clean. However, when we do see some sun for more than a day, the stench is back and my car is once again covered with splatters of some sort of clear, stinky fluid. I no longer think it is a skunk, but now I am starting to think it is my tires and they’re kicking something up on the back of my car. What could it be? Help!
Does it start to smell after parking on one specific place, like a parking lot at work? If so, park in a different location and see if it helps. Since there are smelly splotches on your car, it probably isn’t coming from the exhaust pipe. I suppose someone might be pranking you as well. If you suspect that someone is splashing fluid on your car, you might get a battery operated camera, put it on the dashboard, and point it at the area where you find the fluid. If someone or something is messing with your car, you can get it on video.
If your 4Runner has a rear wiper/washer, could you be using a foul smelling washer fluid?
One time I had a job that went from 8 pm to 5 am. It was an office building for 250 employees, but I was the only one in the building during those hours. When I’d come out to the parking lot at 5 am to leave, there were usually 3 or 4 skunks sitting on top of my car’s hood, and 3 or 4 more under the car. To get warm I suppose. So maybe it is something like that. I never experienced any spray problem though. I’d just open the door & get in the car, say something to the ones on the hood like “ok, time for me to go” , and when I started the car they’d jump off and scamper into the nearby bushes.