de-stinking a car interior

I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
need to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an
eyeball inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate
enough to pull the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining
quarter-bottle of Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual with
these things, smell is worst after van has been sitting closed for
several hours. Smell arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.

Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up,
or windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect part
of carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from
the dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped
over)

Does simple mold ever smell like decomp?

If I leave it parked outside for a month and drive the spare car, will
the problem eventually solve itself?

--
aem sends...

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:25:25 GMT, aemeijers > wrote:
>I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
>best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
>need to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an

You need to locate where the smell is coming from.
Open it up and air it out then come back and go a sniffing.


you can clean the carpets effectively with boiling water and a shopvac.

"aemeijers" > wrote in message
...
> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
> best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I need
> to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an eyeball
> inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate enough to pull
> the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining quarter-bottle of
> Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual with these things, smell
> is worst after van has been sitting closed for several hours. Smell
> arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.
>
> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up, or
> windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect part of
> carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from the
> dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped over)

You didn't happen to have a leaking baby bottle in it, did you? That can be
ghastly.

Cheri wrote:
> "aemeijers" > wrote in message
> ...
>> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what
>> the best recommended product was. I think something died in my van,
>> and I need to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did
>> an eyeball inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate
>> enough to pull the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining
>> quarter-bottle of Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual
>> with these things, smell is worst after van has been sitting closed
>> for several hours. Smell arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.
>>
>> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows
>> up, or windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect
>> part of carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent
>> from the dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I
>> flipped over)
>
> You didn't happen to have a leaking baby bottle in it, did you? That can
> be ghastly.

Nope, I'm a single male. No little ones ever ride in there. (I needed a
hauling vehicle, and a pickup won't fit in my garage. The removable
seats usually aren't in it, but I had to put them back in to make room
for the snow blower in the garage.)

--
aem sends...

StepfanKing wrote:
> Push it over a cliff.
Only if you are standing at the bottom.

On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:49:10 -0700, Cheri wrote:

> "aemeijers" > wrote in message
> ...
>> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
>> best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I need
>> to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an eyeball
>> inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate enough to pull
>> the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining quarter-bottle of
>> Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual with these things, smell
>> is worst after van has been sitting closed for several hours. Smell
>> arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.
>>
>> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up, or
>> windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect part of
>> carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from the
>> dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped over)
>
> You didn't happen to have a leaking baby bottle in it, did you? That can be
> ghastly.

LOL! We had a car come into the detailing shop as a trade in, a nice Lexus
300, IIRC, and did a good cleaning. But it had this awful *smell*. We used
an extractor on the seats and the carpets, and set off a 'stink bomb' that
is supposed to remove (or at least cover over) smells, and then ran the
ionizer on it for hours. Next day we came in and opened it up and it STILL
stunk to high heaven. We cleaned it with everything we had, and ran the
ionizer overnight, all night. Smelled good when we came in, but an hour
after removing the ionizer the smell was back again. I went for lunch, and
when I came back the shop foreman, who had started on the car originally,
said, "Hey, JJ, check this out!" On his desk was a milk carton. He just
opened it up on his desk and we all almost gagged! It was shoved *WAY*
under the seat and could only be found by crawling in the back seat with
your head to the floor...

PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:25:25 +0000, aemeijers wrote:

> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
> best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
> need to de-stink it.

Did you try checking the undercarriage? You might have some road kill
wedged in somewhere.

How is the weather in your location, warm enough for flies? If so, maybe
their comings and goings could lead you to the source of the stench.

> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up,
> or windows down?

Assuming dry weather, windows down, I would think.

--
Tony Sivori
Due to spam, I'm filtering all Google Groups posters.

aemeijers wrote:
> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
> best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
> need to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an
> eyeball inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate
> enough to pull the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining
> quarter-bottle of Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual with
> these things, smell is worst after van has been sitting closed for
> several hours. Smell arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.
>
> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up,
> or windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect part
> of carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from
> the dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped
> over)
>
> Does simple mold ever smell like decomp?
>
> If I leave it parked outside for a month and drive the spare car, will
> the problem eventually solve itself?
>
> --
> aem sends...

Did you check the trunk and under the hood for dead animals? Take
carpet out of the trunk to wash? If no animals, it is most likely
spills or dropped food...had a leaky package from grocery store? One of
the worst food smells, from my experience, is rotten potato. If no
material is found, I would flood the carpet on the floor a couple of
times, let it soak an hour or so, and remove thoroughly with wet vac.
Then keep car open on a nice sunny day to dry out.

In article >, aemeijers > wrote:
>I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
>best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
>need to de-stink it. I pulled the removable seats loose and did an
>eyeball inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate
>enough to pull the carpets and interior panels.

Might need to pull the ventilation ducts under the dash.

>Used up my remaining
>quarter-bottle of Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped.

It didn't.

>As usual with
>these things, smell is worst after van has been sitting closed for
>several hours. Smell arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.

After the corpse thawed out, probably...
>
>Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up,
>or windows down?

Down, of course -- how else do you expect the smell to leave?

>And what is best product to saturate the suspect part
>of carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from
>the dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped
>over)

You're going about this wrong. You need to locate and remove the source of the
stench, then thoroughly clean the contaminated part(s). Soap and water will do
just fine. Randomly spritzing odor-"removal" products (which really are simply
odor-*masking* products) isn't going to help.

Activated charcoal (available anywhere that sells aquarium supplies) actually
absorbs odors. Find the source of the stink, remove it, clean the affected
parts, then spread activated charcoal around the area. Vacuum the charcoal up
in a week.
>
>Does simple mold ever smell like decomp?

No.
>
>If I leave it parked outside for a month and drive the spare car, will
>the problem eventually solve itself?

Oh, eventually, sure -- but I doubt a month will do it. Two or three years,
maybe...

On Mar 19, 10:25*pm, aemeijers > wrote:
> I'm sure this has come up on here before, but I can't remember what the
> best recommended product was. I think something died in my van, and I
> need to de-stink it. I pulled the *removable seats loose and did an
> eyeball inspection, but found no little corpses. Not yet desperate
> enough to pull the carpets and interior panels. Used up my remaining
> quarter-bottle of Febreeze, too soon to tell if it helped. As usual with
> these things, smell is worst after van has been sitting closed for
> several hours. Smell arrived with the warm spell a couple days ago.
>
> Will it dry up faster if I leave it parked in sunshine with windows up,
> or windows down? And what is best product to saturate the suspect part
> of carpets and end of floor heater ducts with? (No stink apparent from
> the dash ducts, or seating surfaces, or underside of the seats I flipped
> over)
>
> Does simple mold ever smell like decomp?
>
> If I leave it parked outside for a month and drive the spare car, will
> the problem eventually solve itself?
>
> --
> aem sends...

I saw an air filter that had a animal nest in it, Ive had squirrels
under my hood, find what stinks or it maybe many many months for it to
go away, what does it smell like.