funny smell when ventillation/heating is on

[Dave_GTI16v]

sometimes its not always there but mostly is, its not causing any problems but its not very nice, obviously something from the engine i guess, but have any of u had this before and what did u do to sort it out. Thanks

[Splinter]

Could be a dead fish, ...or a squirrel !

(my dad actually found a large dead squirrel in his airbox a few years ago! )

Maybe you have small oil leak, burning the oil drips on manifold/exhaust occasionally.

...or try removing the air vent outles/covers and spray smelly orange/cherry/strawberry flavoured silicone down the vents for short term freshen up.

[jte]

Change your pollen filter.  And clean all the leaves and gunk from the plenum chamber.

Might be something else as well, but in my experience the pollen filter needs changing about every 6 months or it gets clogged up and smells awful.  And they only cost a fiver or so from vw.