Car Odor Elimination

[garbr95]

Hey all! New to the forum with a 2001 black Lightning and looking to see what everyone recommends for odor elimination. Not looking to cover up with another scent, looking to get rid of a slight older truck smell. Thanks!

 

[Stangra]

It depends A LOT on what's causing the odor, not sure what your 'older truck' smell is from. I can tell you that for many odors including the smell from moisture/mold/mildew, white vinegar will do the trick. I had a car with a leak and water soaked the trunk liners, rear seat bottom cushions and rear carpet. If mold is the cause of your smell you should look everywhere for signs since water trapped in a vehicle over time will form condensation throughout, and mold will follow. You will have to disassemble everything in the affected area, clean all hard surfaces, saturate all textiles (I used a gallon in a Hudson sprayer), wet-vac & dry. Rinse with water, wet-vac and dry again, reassemble. If you skip the rinse you will still kill the mold smell, but replace it with a vinegar smell. It's bit time consuming, drying must be thorough or mold will come back again, but a very effective and cheap fix.
Make sure that no more water is entering the vehicle before doing all this!!

 

[JWExperience]

Turtle wax makes a “bomb” that you start with your car running and vents on so it circulates through the hvac system also. I used it on a truck that was previously owned by a smoker. Two cycles made it tolerable and over time the smell disappeared.


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[CobraBob]

I don't know if your seats are re-upholdstered, but some of the leather conditioning products have a nice smell that will fill the cabin. The product I used to use smells like new leather. It always gave my SUV a "new car" smell. It will depend, too, on the degree of bad odor you're dealing with. It could be a minor issue to fix/coverup, or a more major issue to resolve.

 

[lightningnik]

Hey all! New to the forum with a 2001 black Lightning and looking to see what everyone recommends for odor elimination. Not looking to cover up with another scent, looking to get rid of a slight older truck smell. Thanks!

I've heard the dealership trick is to use little bowls of vinegar on the interior. Leave it inside for a couple days if you can.

I used this same process in my house after some bad renters and it worked great! It'll suck up all the cigarette smoke smell if there's any!


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[98 svt]

I used a mix of vinegar and baking soda in a spray bottle in an old Explorer I bought many moons ago.

 

[Booky]

Airthereal MA5000 Commercial Ozone Generator 5000mg/h O3 Machine Home Air Ionizers Deodorizer for Rooms, Smoke, Cars and Pets, Black​

 

[Ryan2KRedL]

When I purchased my 68 Charger 2 years ago, it had a dead mouse in it.
It took me a few days to find it behind the glove box up inside the dash, but the smell was unmistakable!
I cleaned the area with bleach and aired the car out for a few days, but the smell just wouldn't go away.
I finally went thru 3 rounds of distilled white vinegar sprayed all around the dash, carpet area and got the smell to go away completely.
But as stated above, finding the culprit is priority and then cleaning thoroughly will ensure it goes away and does not come back!
Good luck!
Ryan

 

[98 svt]

When I purchased my 68 Charger 2 years ago, it had a dead mouse in it.
It took me a few days to find it behind the glove box up inside the dash, but the smell was unmistakable!
I cleaned the area with bleach and aired the car out for a few days, but the smell just wouldn't go away.
I finally went thru 3 rounds of distilled white vinegar sprayed all around the dash, carpet area and got the smell to go away completely.
But as stated above, finding the culprit is priority and then cleaning thoroughly will ensure it goes away and does not come back!
Good luck!
Ryan

This was the problem with the Explorer I had. It was sitting before I bought it. Drove it home and parked it, went out to work on it a few days later. Bam! Like a slap in the face. Like you said, the smell is unmistakable.
Found 3 baby mice behind one of the rear interior panels. I bet mama mouse was out and about when I took the car home. My driveway looked like a forensic lab. I had just about the entire interior out of the car.

Like I mentioned, a mix of vinegar and Baking soda in a spray bottle did the trick after a few liberal applications and some time to air out.

 

[TAF]

Coffee grounds. Buy a bunch of these and spread them around the inside of the car. set it in a sunny place for a couple/few days...smell will be gone.