Bad Smell At Higher Speeds

2001 Ford Escort ZX2 2.0L L4 97,600 miles

I recently had to do some work related traveling for 2 months, and my Escort remained home and unused the entire time. I noticed the other day when I get up to highway speeds, my car produces a funky smell. It's kind of hard to describe the smell. I would say, it smells like I'm driving inside a chemical plant. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!!!

A leaking heater core will cause odor. With the defroster running watch the window for discoloration.
Watch on top of the motor for a cracked thermostat housing.

Does it smell like burnt oil?..if it is you might have to change the manifold gasket. I used to get oil leaks from there, then it used to smell really awful.

Narrow it down- Put your heater control on recirculate. If you still smell it then it's coming from inside the car. If you don't smell it then it's coming from outside. I've always thought antifreeze smelled like pancake syrup. On my car it sometimes leaks a little oil onto the exhaust pipe and it smells up the inside of my car. Putting my heater/AC control on recirculate stops the smell from coming in.

Narrow it down- Put your heater control on recirculate. If you still smell it then it's coming from inside the car. If you don't smell it then it's coming from outside. I've always thought antifreeze smelled like pancake syrup. On my car it sometimes leaks a little oil onto the exhaust pipe and it smells up the inside of my car. Putting my heater/AC control on recirculate stops the smell from coming in.


Your escort has reciruclate?..mine doesnt..

On early 2nd gen. Escorts there was a lever just for 'recirculating vs outside' air. On the later ones, (like 94 for instance) 'recirculate' was the leftmost position of the heater outlet selector lever.

On early 2nd gen. Escorts there was a lever just for 'recirculating vs outside' air. On the later ones, (like 94 for instance) 'recirculate' was the leftmost position of the heater outlet selector lever.
And on many cars the "MAX AC" position is recirculate.

There is no discoloration on the windshield. I always run the climate control on the defrost/feet setting, and I never noticed any discoloration. I did have it completely tuned up with a coolant flush, oil change, and ran some lucas in the tank. I haven't noticed the smell since. I hope its fine now. By the way, my first thought was a bad catalytic converter. Would that make any sense at all?

A bad cat would smell bad but if you're smelling it inside the car then you also have a major exhaust leak.

Check the serpintine belt. When my tensioner began to freeze up the belt began to burn up as the pully was no longer spinning so the belt just ran up against it. It smelled bad and smoked.

Please be gentle. This is my second post only. I had noticed similar problem with my ESCORT 99 couple of years ago. There are traces of a plastic sheet stuck and burnt underneath my Escort.