Something smells in my B Piller

[kiwi]

Yes thats the topic!

Noted a smell like something had died in the car. Well tracking it down to the seatbelt stunk and then removed the piller trim to find maggots.....yuck. Now not sure whats died but think it was a mouse.

Heres the problem

It is in the B piller mid way up! How did it get in there you ask. Well Sunroof is my entry point as that is pretty much left open in the garage over summer and the cars not been used that much. The problem I have is how to a, eliminate the smell and B, get it cleaned out of there? Any ideas.

[Thread Bear]

Maggots. They will eat the dead flesh and fly away. There will forever be a little skelingyingtong in the B post, like the riveters sealed up inside the hull of the Great Eastern.

[macplaxton]

I'd approach B first and cut an access hole in the B-post and poke something up there (coat hanger wire?) to drag the corpse out. Maybe there's a hole already available to do some viewing with a borescope / fibre optic camera LED thing for looking inside things. With the stiff out of the way, then the smell will go eventually. Perhaps a trip to the pet shop for something to eliminate pet urine?

Maybe a local pest control operative can give some advice or have some of the above to aid location and removal.

[citronut]

get r Monica out, oh no its mouse organs

you could always send a ferret up there

regards malcolm

[kiwi]

Maggots. They will eat the dead flesh and fly away. There will forever be a little skelingyingtong in the B post, like the riveters sealed up inside the hull of the Great Eastern.

Someone else said that as well! Dont help that the summer just ceased with rain in the forecast for the foreseable future and some cooler temperatures. Meantime The cars grounded due to the liquids of death running on to the seat belt.

Not sure if cutting a hole in the B-piller such a good idea given its a structural point. This goes down as one the weirdest occurrences I can recall. But lesson learned not to leave the sunroof open.

[macplaxton]

a) you need to get IF you want to remove the stiff
b) you can weld it up afterwards, but if it's not too big, then a blind grommet will be fine - ease of access for next time!

[kiwi]

I was thinking of sealing the hole its seeping though with sealant then it can vent out the top through the sunroof. Until I get it sorted the car is unusable, not that I am driving her much these days with company van.

[Kaapelimies]

You can get into B-pillar just under the roof lining. The pillar is open from the top as I recall. The problem is, it's not open all the way down, just some 50cm. I know, I tried to get a wire through..

[kiwi]

Yes I realised that hence how it got in.

Also realised only goes down halfway! hence the problem.

I knew it was a long shot asking on here, just got to let mother nature take its course. Wish the hot weather was back the problem would fix itself pretty quick now probably going to have smelly days over the winter.

[Thread Bear]

A water proof vacuum cleaner and a length of pipe like a hose. Attach hose to Vacuum pipe. Insert hose in hole at the top of the B post. Select suck. Either the thing might disintegrate and pass up the pipe, or it might be pulled onto the hose whole and removed gently in this position.

This same principle, using a kids plastic bendy straw, removed crude for combustion chambers and many other incidents like recovering lost fasteners from the access hole on the central spine of a Messerschmitt.

[citronut]

A water proof vacuum cleaner

good idea Mr Bear, dont use a Dyson as they never block ( well acording to there advert anyway ) honest .GOV

regards malcolm

[David]

Have you tried dismantling everything to see what you can find?

If you remove the plastic trim off the B piller, you can then remove & clean the seat belt.

The actual seatbelt coils up in to a roll at the bottom of the piller & it has a plastic insert around it. If you remove that, then you will have some access in to the bottom of the piller, although I don't know how high something can be pushed in upwards, if the smell is coming out from inside the actual metal piller.

It might help if you remove the seat on the side concerned so you have more manoeuvring room.

Hope that helps & good luck.

[kiwi]

Urm yes David thanks for that as I mentioned earlier have done all that you suggested and found out that the b-piller is not hollow all the way down.

Other than a screw hole for the seat belt and where the plastic trim attaches the only hole was not really a hole midway, where the juices were leaking out.

Anyways problem currently cured with some silcone sealant in the drip area. The smell is not so bad and hopefully venting out into the roof space and sunroof area.

One thing I did discover was the seatbelts had been replaced with Australian Factor parts so the recoil does not seem as efficient. So those are now on the list to be replaced with originals.