Car Maintenance Tips - Removing Odor From Your Vehicle’s Interior
Remember that time that you had just bought your car and it still smelled “new?” Now that your car has been through so much – rainstorms, cigarette smoke, endless fast food dining inside the car, long road trips- it probably smells like, well, everything that was mentioned all rolled into one. Although a lot of people say that any aroma you smell triggers different sorts of memory, the smell inside your car is, in all possibilities, something that you would not get sentimental about.
If you have somehow left a window open and rain or any moisture got to your interior, the smell that will permeate is one of ripeness, like the inside of a towel you used to dry yourself off after a swim, folded, and forgotten inside a knotted up plastic bag. If that is the case, check all the rugs, seats, mats and carpet and air conditioning vents for any sign of green and slimy life forms called mold. If you had the sense to check your car right after it got wet, good for you, you just have to find the wet spot.
When you find the spot that is causing the odor (wet or moldy), pat it dry with a towel or spray with a bit of water and then pat dry. Get your hair dryer and dry that spot completely. Get your floor mats out and dry it out in the sun. The sun’s heat is one of the best deodorizers, free of charge. Rub in baking soda onto the carpets and leave overnight before vacuuming. If the smell comes from your air conditioner, get Q-tips or cotton tip applicators and clean the vents out with a bit of window cleaning solution. Turn on the air conditioner full blast with the windows open for about ten minutes. Lastly, get a mold and mildew eliminating spray and spew a generous amount into the car’s interior.
Cigarette smell is one of the hardest smells to remove from a car; so the real solution would be not to smoke inside. However, if you cannot help it, you will need to get your car mats and seat covers regularly washed. Wipe all interior surfaces with a damp sponge mixed with a bit of car shampoo and then wipe down with water. Clean all windows with a glass cleaning solution as well. Create a deodorizer that absorbs cigarette smell with charcoal (placed in a jar, lidded, with a few holes on the lid) or sprinkle baking soda all over the carpets and leave in for a whole week before vacuuming. If you use the ashtrays inside the car, put a little bit of baking soda there as well after cleaning it out, kitty litter works well too. Get your air conditioning cleaned frequently as the smoke gets into your vents and filters, and pretty much into the whole system.
After doing all of these and your car still smells funky, you had better take it to an auto interior detailing shop to get everything shampooed and dried well.
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Tags: car, cigarette, dining, fast, food, from, inside, interior, maintenance, new, odoe, rainstorms, removing, road, smelled, tips, trips, vehicles