IT was a nasty niff that plagued residents across Southampton.

And it took experts from Germany to discover where it was coming from.

But now the whiff, dubbed Le Pong, has finally been consigned to the history books after engineers at the Southampton Ford Factory replaced a faulty fan.

Bosses at the plant near Swaythling hope the work will put the stopper on nasty smells caused by fumes from the transit factory paint shop which got up the noses of residents.

For weeks it was thought the whiff was being blown in from France, leading locals to dub it Le Pong.

But German experts, specially flown in by baffled Ford, cracked the mystery.

Ford called in environmental health experts and moved to keep residents informed of its progress in fixing the problem.

The company's maintenance team had to wait for the plant's summer shutdown before replacing the failing fan.

But it was no easy job.

At 2.5 metres across and weighing 700kg, sections of the 43-metre high roof had to be removed to hoist in the new fan and its casing into place.

The mammoth operation is said to have cost about £75,000.

Since the company had figured out what was behind the bad odour, restrictions had been in place limiting the amount of foul smelling fumes that could escape.

Wendy Graham, paint area manager, said: "The team working on this maintenance job have done well, especially to overcome the restrictions posed by tight access and the heavy components involved - and all well ahead of production restarting on August 16."