Remove Odors from Your Car

If your car stinks, removing odors may not be so easy. Depending on what is causing the smell, and where, you may need to put in some time and effort to get it out, but all is not lost. Here are many ways to remove odors in cars, even if the odor has gotten into the vents and air conditioning system. Use your common sense, and try the easier options first. Then, proceed to more involved measures if you need to.

Steps

 * 1) Clean your car as thoroughly as possible. Remove any trash and clear out all other items in your car. Make sure to check under the seats.
 * 2) Wipe the hard surfaces inside the car inside with an appropriate cleaning product. Use glass cleaner on the glass, and leather or plastic cleaners for those surfaces. Your neighborhood auto shop can recommend and supply these.
 * 3)  Vacuum the rug and upholstery inside the car. If you want, sprinkle a carpet deodorizer and let it sit according to package instructions, first.
 * 4) Shampoo the inside of the car. Open the windows to air out the vehicle.  Steam cleaning (aka steam extraction or hot water extraction) with an enzymatic odor remover is far more effective, but it may be more expensive as well.
 * 5) Check for leaks. If the odor is due to mildewing water leaks, then you may not be able to get out that funky smell until you can stop the rain water from coming in.
 * 6) Spray the carpet with Lysol for mildew, if you believe that is the source of the odor.
 * 7) Armed with a spray bottle of a quality odor neutralizer, begin by opening the hood of your car in a well-ventilated (preferably outdoor) location.
 * 8) Start the engine and set the parking brake for safety. Next, place the AC and FAN on full. Important: make sure the "fresh air/recirculate" setting is in the FRESH AIR (outside air) position.
 * 9) Go to the front fender side of the car (usually the passenger side) and look in the engine compartment. Find the ac/heater AIR INTAKE, sometimes called the cowl vent. Different vehicles use different air intake vent configurations but all are just below the bottom edge of the windshield, normally on the passenger side, and all have some sort of screen, grid or louvers covering the intake.
 * 10) Liberally spray the deodorizer directly into the intake screen.
 * 11) After a few sprays, get back in the car and smell to determine if the deodorizer is circulating through the AC system. Repeat if necessary.  This application should treat the air conditioning evaporator, blower, and ducting, the places where smoke and odor particles will collect.
 * Now, switch the AC/Heater control to FULL HEAT, leaving the engine running, the air control in "fresh air" position and the FAN on full.
 * 1) Go back outside the car and repeat the spray treatments into the air intake as you did in step 4.
 * 2) By switching to the heat position, the deodorizer is now treating the heater core, blower, and ducting, another place that odors will hide.
 * 3) Repeat spraying if necessary.
 * 4) Replace the cabin air filter if the vehicle has one.
 * 5) After other cleaning options have been exhausted, use an ozone generator to do an ozone shock treatment to the vehicle. This will actually kill bacteria and mildew and denature odorous organic compounds.  See Do an Ozone Shock Treatment on a Vehicle.

Tips

 * If you're having trouble locating the air intake screen, shut off the engine and place the key in "RUN" position. Check to make sure the AC fan is still running.  Go to the front side of the car, usually the passenger side, and listen for the movement of air and the blower running.  After spraying and treating both the AC and HEATER, shut off the engine, close the hood and let the car sit undisturbed for a couple of hours.  This will allow the deodorizer to "work" on the odor.
 * Don't use Oust in large quantities or it will pool somewhere in the vent system and leave a bad smell overnight when you turn on the air/heat/vent the next day. Use Lysol (the old-fashioned kind) to kill off that smell. A product called Ozium also works very well and has a very mild scent.  It can often be found in auto parts stores.
 * Although exact figures are not well established, it is possible to damage interior components of a vehicle (e.g. rubber seals) through overuse of an ozone generator. Generators rated at 3500 to 6000mg/h should generally be safe to use for two hours.  More powerful ones will work just fine in less time.  Repeated treatments separated by airing out periods may be safer than one long, continuous treatment.

Warnings

 * Caution: Many AC/HEATER systems use vacuum to operate, and the running engine is the provider of the vacuum. There is an inherent danger of injury when working under the hood with the engine running.  Never perform this procedure with children nearby.  If you do not feel comfortable doing this procedure, take your car to a mechanic or repair shop.  They should charge you very little (if anything) for squeezing the spray bottle a few times.
 * Ozone generators can be harmful if used improperly. Read all manuals before using any ozone machine.  It is extremely important that no person or animal be in the vehicle during an ozone shock treatment.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Find the Source of a Bad Odor in a Car
 * How to Deodorize a Room
 * How to Apply Cologne
 * How to Choose and Wear Cologne
 * How to Get Rid of Tobacco Odors in Cars