de-stinking a car interior

Here's my guess;

If it's a vehicle that you may not drive every day, and maybe even if you do. We're coming off of winter, the mouse colony that took up residence in the heater box froze to death one very cold night. Now that it's warming up out, they are starting to rot. Also, they piss in their nests, and it makes for some horrendous stinking when you are trying to get warm from that heater. If this is the case, you'll need to pull the heater duct hoses loose so you can see in the heater box to get the nest out. You may also need to pull the blower loose in the engine compartment side, because the whole mess may be on that side of the heater core. Once you remove the nest, wash out the box with just about anything and the smell will quickly begin to fade, as long as you got it all. You know, mice simply love jute, which is found on the backside of most vehicle carpets, and even vinyl floor mats. It makes excellent nesting material.

HTH, Lefty

"m6onz5a" wrote

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Check behind the dash, in the ducts as well.

Boy this reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Jerry's car got some BO and he couldn't get it out. He wound up giving the car away after he couldn't sell it.

Yeah, the valet. That was a funny one.

You likely have a dead mouse in the heating ductwork or blower. Used to be a common problem in our shop when the sports car owners brought their toys out of storage in the spring. Datsun 240/260Z's were the worst, Triumph's right behind. Keep looking and good luck.

Joe

We had a bird fall down our chimney last evening, thankfully before it was too dark for my aged eyes to cope. Oh blanketty blank, thought I. I've been here before several times. I got all the kit together to remove the gas fire and the blanking board around the chimney. Flutter, flutter as I was trying to help the poor beastie escape.

Here on the Right Side of The Pond there is now some doubt as to whether I should have legally disconnected the gas pipe prior to lifting the fire off the wall ( but blow that, I shall). I was about to remove the sealed backing plate (which would have caused serious hassle in reinstallation, when the bird flew out through the small ventillation gap and went directly out of the previously opened patio door. No mess or crap in the house! Success.

Job done, fire reinstalled and gas reconnected.

Our wolf was then allowed into the room and immediately focussed upon the fire and knew there were odd issues that he should resolve. I smiled watching him in puzzlement.

I wouldn't waste my time cleaning things until I found where the smell was coming from. Airing it out that someone said is agood idea. If you can't find any smell after that, put your nose really close to things, a half or a hundredth of an inch, and also come back in 10 minutes, 20, 30 until you do start to smell it and then follow the smell to the source.

They did some game somewhere where they had people acting like dogs and tracking down chocolate syrump or soemthing on the ground, invisible, and they quite good at it. Following a trail, left here, right there. Just random people. You can do it too.

But the air coming out of the ducts doesn't stink! That is what has me confused. I only suspected ducts because there are floor ducts that come out under the front seats. I think more likely the damn thing crawled down one of the various slits where the hardpoints come through the carpet, and got wedged in.

Easy for a non-allergy-sufferer to say! :^/

My sinuses have been acting up for a month, so it is a damn miracle I noticed the stink at all.

I've not followed this from the start. Are you certain that you did not carry something into the vehicle on your feet during the freezing period?

Not absolutely, and that is my game plan for tomorrow, if it gets above

50 degrees- coin-op car wash the removable mats, and get a large spray can of the vacuum-out shampoo for the non-removable carpet. If that seems to help, take the car to a detail shop and get the interior steamed, or whatever.

Old cop cars and old pickup trucks had it right- anything other than a rubber floor in a work vehicle is a mistake...

stan wrote: > Here, the cost to a single 20 pack/day smoker is now equivalent to a

400 cigarettes a day does seem excessive.

Years and years ago, I worked at a Bordens icecream plant.Couldn't help but get some of that icecream on my clothes.At the end of my shift, that stinking icecream smelled like crap on my clothes.One time, Mythbusters put a dead pig in and old car.After they removed the dead pig, they never could get all of that dead pig smell out of that car. cuhulin

I had a mouse climb into my 6 month old Corvette during winter storage and die, leaving an incredible odor in the Spring when I came to take the car out of storage.

I ultimately found only 1 way to get rid of the odor based on an excellent recommendation here on this newsgroup. The solution was to find an enzymatic odor eliminator used for carpet cleaning, made by a company I believe was called "Rug Doctor". It is an odorless, clear liquid sold alongside rug shampoo machines to remove pet odors, etc. It is sold in small reddish-orange bottles, as are the other carpet chemicals from the same company (stain remover, shampoo).

It took 3 applications, but the odor is now entirely gone. My earlier attempts with Fabreeze and other fragrances made the problem much worse and should never have been used.

Smarty

I'll look for it, but I will note that the Febreeze I used was the unscented kind. It isn't just perfume. The stuff in it supposedly hooks on to the stinky compounds, and chemically changes them to non-stinky. Leastways, according to their web site. And it has helped a lot already.

I bought a '65 Rambler Classic back in 1972 - the chrome on the dash looked like brass and the headliner was brown. It also had tinted windows. (It was cheap - bought it for $100). A gallon of "FANTASTIC" later the headliner was white, the chrome was silver, the seats and carpets didn't stink any more, and even the windows were clean. Gotta be REAL carefull with Fantastic on glass though!!!!!

I remeber laying the fiber headliner out on the driveway, soaking it with Fantastic, and hosing it down with the garden hose about 4 times, with coffee-coloured water flowing down the driveway.

Little buggers used to love to die inside the seat upholstery too. Never forget my 28 Chevy - had a nest of dead RATS behind the seat when I got it.

A mouse climbed into my car and died, leaving an incredible odor. On a tip from this newsgroup, I applied an enzymatic odor eliminator used for carpet cleaning. It is an odorless, clear liquid sold alongside rug shampoo machines to remove pet odors, etc.

It took 3 applications, but the odor is entirely gone. Earlier attempts with Febreze and other fragrances made the problem much worse and should never have been used. ___________________________________________________________________________

Yes. Cover-up fragrances don't help. A pal of mine threw up in his car after a night of drinking. He blasted the interior with a garden hose, then poured a lot of his mom's cheap perfume over the affected area. From then on, his car smelled like cheap perfume and puke.

Rodan.

LOL. The worst of all worlds!

--Vic

Did you ever see the Myth Busters show where they bought a Corvette and put a dead pig in it and let it rot? It was awful.

TDD

That's just evil, probably the juices soaked into the fiberglass. that stuff doesn't just wipe clean like steel.

nate