Very easy to do. The secret is vinegar. White kitchen vinegar from the pantry. Or apple vinegar. Or whatever is in the cupboard. I just completed a cleaning cycle in my own (fabric interior) car and the change is significant. This will remove smoke, b.o., wet dog funk, vomit smell…basically anything that your nose can detect. The best thing of course is that it’s free and brainless. No more cheesey Christmas trees or My Shaladens from here on……

How to De-Odorize Any Car for Nothing / Nada / Ziltch

1) Look in the kitchen cupboard
2) Find that bottle of vinegar that gets lightly used once every 2 years.
3) Find an old Cool-Whip container. Or anything that can be tightly sealed when you’re not actively de-oderizing
4) Add a ½ inch worth of vinegar to the container
5) At nite, with the windows wound up, open the container to let it vent. While driving, close tightly to prevent spillage.
6) Within 4-7 days, you (and others) will notice a big difference in the car's steady-state odor.
7) Viola! Enjoy your newfound sense of nasal freedom.

Why does this work

Vinegar is an acid.
Odor is from bacteria ****.

To quote a fellow m3’er from another board.
Most odors people consider bad, like from decomposing fish, result from what chemists call "amines" which are typically produced by bacteria. The reason you smell them is because they are volatile (ie evaporate). An easy way to remove them from the air (and thus your nasal passages), is to convert them to "salts," which are usually solids and thus not very volatile at all. From a chemistry point of view, amines are basic and can be converted to salts through the use of acids, like acetic acid (ie vinegar) or citric acid (found in lemon juice). This is also the main reason that people put lemon juice on fish and like the taste of water with lemon in it.


I will also add: If your car is really bad, you will have to wipe down all surfaces and do wet extraction from the carpets/etc.

 

I might add...this process does not do damage to an interior like an Ozoner does.

Adding reactive o3*'s tends to destroy everything in it's path....Scortched earth style

 

you should post this in cosmetics/appearance also, since this is information people in that specific forum will find really useful. i'll be sure to try this out since im a smoker but imma still rock my JDM air freshener that cost me 8 bucks for a refill that last 4 days, hahahaha

 

I know a guy who bought a smokers car and used this technique. Smoke smell is 100% gone. The secret is : wiping down every surface including the headliner real well. Also not smoking with the vents going.

 

what about cloth seats? the smoke really sinks into em and febreeze sucks ...also care to explain why not to smoke with the vents on?

 

Cloth seats should work fine. That's what i have in the accord.

When you smoke with the vents on, the smoke particles get trapped in the system. So whenver you run the a/c or vents, those particles are going to be ejected into the cabin.

I'm sure there's a method you could use to clean your vents. Perhaps running the vents for a few minutes with a cup of vinegar near the intake. I would say pour some down the intake vents...but i won't be held responsible for that....

 

hmm...i might try putting some vinegar in a spray bottle and misting it into the intake vent? you think that would work? because sometimes my vents just smell like *** and **** for the first 10 minutes they are on.

 

That sounds like it would work. I would have it running full blast to help it work it's way deep inside.

The vinegar should evaporate after awhile anyway.
You just need to get it down there.

 

just to be sure....the vent intakes are the one right in front of the windshield right?

 

Yup! - I would probably go easy at first too. Maybe 2 or 3 pumps. And see how that works for a few days.

Then go hog-wild.

 

I like the tutorial. My sister's car needs this badly. She's got like 800 different perfume smells in there.

 

Just to add, this does work. And it smells real gross at first. Make sure you aren't taking someone out the next day. The vinigar sould become very dark in color, then you know it's done it's job. If it doesn't, it probably still has if it's been an there for any significant period of time.

 

when you are driving around you want to have inside air on, right?
just double checking.

 

I wonder if it's better for your health than a regular air freshener.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MooGoCow3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I wonder if it's better for your health than a regular air freshener. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well..techincally, air fresheners (like fabreeze) generally mask odor with another odor or deaden the nasal nerves so yes - it's healthier. Vinegar, while an acid, is actually pretty straightforward chemically.



Less chemicals &gt; More chemicals

Organic &gt; Non-Organic

Coke &gt; Pepsi




Modified by RotaryBzzzz at 9:16 AM 9/8/2006

 

awesome and just so you know i saw this in the A/C forum and clicked the link so you should get some followers from over there

 

 

post pics

Odor Bump

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pos_cd5 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> because sometimes my vents just smell like *** and **** for the first 10 minutes they are on. </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha i thought i was the only one. but mine smells like pubic restroom in the city. I never could find out how to get ride of it..lol

 

Spraying lysol in the cowl with "fresh air" on and the fan on full blast will take care of unplesant vent odors (remove a/c filters before you do this if you have them)

 

Excellent, I might have to give this a shot. Once all good I'll go get another squash JDM air freshener. Woot woot.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FATBOY SPEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">post pics

Odor Bump </TD></TR></TABLE>

of a stinky car?

 

gotta try this one. im getting sick of 15 year old civic smell

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alaskan_teg00 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Excellent, I might have to give this a shot. Once all good I'll go get another squash JDM air freshener. Woot woot.</TD></TR></TABLE>

haha..yea, they sure are worth the $8-10 refills every week arent they? heh heh

for JDM air fresheners

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dmurphy2k3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">when you are driving around you want to have inside air on, right?
just double checking.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah sure. Even for ppl who don't smoke, getting the vinegar fumes into the venting system isn't a bad idea to destroy odor causing amines stuck there too.