2009 Chevy Silverado, 5.3L V8, 130,000 miles

Yesterday my wife noticed that the front of the truck smelled like fish or bad trash when the engine was running. This smell can only be noticed from the outside (doesn't come into the cab through the vents).

Fast forward to today, i'm at a red light and the truck shutters a bit, makes some noise from the engine compartment (kind of sounded like a belt shredding) then smoothes out again. I'm looking around for lights or indication on the dash, never see a check engine or any other light. AC and fan still blowing air, feels normal temp (cool). I hit the A/C button to turn it off, leave the fan on, then hit the A/C button to turn the A/C back on (fan stays running the whole time). The A/C light blinks at me 2 or 3 times and then goes out.

I pulled off the road, opened the engine compartment expecting to see a shredded belt, a leak or something...nothing except the bad odor. I drove it home with the windows down and no AC, truck ran fine, no engine temp or anything else weird.

Got it in the driveway, opened the hood and restarted the A/C, light comes on, compressor spinning, cold air blowing, no noticeable leaks, still the smell.

My thought is that maybe the compressor is going out but honestly don't know what the hell is happening other than i think it's an A/C problem. Any thoughts?

All jokes aside, dead cat in there?

That smell is usually reserved for the backseat of a 60 Chevy.

Starting to think maybe something did die in there, had no problems with the A/C going to or from work today (about 22 miles each way). Perhaps the ker-chunking was a dead animal falling into the belt or something. I have no idea. It's weird. Whatever it was seemed to fix itself...or at least conceal itself.

Did you piss someone off who would put a dead fish in your pickup?

CanyonAg77 said:

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Did you piss someone off who would put a dead fish in your pickup?

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I don't think so. I'm very likeable. Ha. A friend a couple of streets over had his wiring wrecked by mice, wondering if one of them got up in there somewhere.

Fish mouse?

That sounds like what my dad had happen with his Camry a few years ago. Unfortunately, it took a few thousand to fix as the rat had eaten up some of the wiring. I'd take it in and let them pull the dash. On the bright side, insurance did cover it (assuming you have comp on it).

I've got to take it in on friday for an alignment, i'll ask them if they see anything unusual and i'll poke around a little more over the weekend when i have full sun.

Ill update if i figure out the issue.