Hello
I have a Mustang that I bought. It was a repo car and I bought it from the bank.
It has this terrible smell in it. The smell is terrible. I used charcoal, helped a little. I used new car scent, car dealer odor destroyer, Tuff Stuff, etc.
The smell is not as strong, but it is still there. On a hot day when you get in the car, it is over powering.
I have never experienced a smell like this before. Anyone got any suggestions? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I'd be checking to see if there is a fuel line issue (rotted out and leaking outside, affecting interior? maybe a rotted return line?) giving you that scent inside the passenger compartment to rule out that potential problem. Next leave the windows cracked open and if some was spilled inside, the odor will dissipate if you give it time. Good luck!

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NICK-SWCA-NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE

I'd call the local car dealer and see who their detailer is. There are methods to remove most smells found in cars. Don't know how much it might cost.

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Support Israel!

I Bought a mustang the the previous owner Smoked in

I had the interior Detailed
then kept some Activated Charcoal in it
(the kind for Aquarium Filters)

it took a Long Time , but the smell subsided

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

I have checked to see if anything is leaking anywhere and I do not see anything.
I tried the regular charcoal but i will try the type mentioned in this thread.
Thanks for the replies.

Smoke is the worst, it gets into cloth and is nearly impossible to get out, especially the headliner. In some old cars it is responsible for that old car musty smell, especially old cars with cloth/mohair type interior with natural fabrics and stuffing. Mice are also responsible for old car smell, a car that has been moused it very difficult to clean up, a new interior usually solves the problem.
In a way I love old car smell, as long as its normal...like the way your garage smells when you put new tires on your car.
Some folks have had good results with baking soda, it takes a couple of pans, roll all the windows down and leave it set. I once borrowed a car that was so bad stinky trees didn't cut the stink, if your using stinky trees stay with the green ones, avoid scents like vanilla or your car will smell like a cookie fart.

Probably has a dead rodent or two in it.Put an open box of baking soda in there,it should help

It could be the car from that Seinfeld episode.....

Seriously, you might try a plug-in ozone generator. It plugs into the cigar lighter plug and puts out small amounts of ozone.

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On the Oak Savannah

Put some dryer sheets in all the seats and park it in the sun . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

People LOVE to keep their car closed,,,

The best way to get rid of a smell is to open the car,,, and blow a couple fans in it for a few days.

ALWAYS park the car with the windows down an inch,,, as a minimum,,,

Yea,,, you gotta run out and close the windows if it is going to rain,,,,

Diluting the smell with lots of air will resolve most issues,,, even dead mice,,, eventually,,,

Cut a couple of apples into slices and put in car. Keep windows as tightly closed as possible. A few days and smell is gone.

This stuff is good for the AC system under the dash....
How To Apply Klima-Cleaner Professional
Assuming air conditioner-equipped. Be sure that condensate drips from the rubber tube under the car after running the AC. If no water drips, it means that the drain is clogged and the water could be backing up and soaking into the carpet padding. To unclog, take a long piece of plastic like a zip tie and slide it in the AC drain hose coming out of the dash between the firewall and engine. This will clear the blockage and will let the condensate run out. Then you can use the Klima Cleaner.

Check on uses for vinegar. It's cheap enough to give it a try.

Smell in the car? Don't fart when the heated seat is on. Sorry I just had too.

What you have is a mold problem. Wash everything with apoholstry cleaner. Let it soak then vacumne. Try a area that's not seen first. Incase it stains. Check for a water leak too. Then leave the doors open to dry out.

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Plant garlic in the fall

A bar of Irish Spring and a hot day.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Manly yes! But I like it too!

Don't forget to change the cabin air filter. Might want to sprinkle a little of that fish aquarium charcoal on it too.

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God, Country, Family

#14, mold. Try to pry up the carpet someplace low, and look under it. Could the car possibly been salvaged?

Ozone generator will kill all the smells. They run between $60 and $110 for a good one - can be found on Amazon.com.

Let it run in the car for 24 hours with all the windows closed. If the smell comes back, then you have something inside that needs to be removed.

Hope this helps.

Pete99004

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Don't tread on me

Wish I could have read this advice on two different occasions when I lost track of a mullet in a fender well and a gallon of milk on the back seat floorboard that exploded after 3 days in the August heat.

Both times a bowl of ammonia each night for a few made it tolerable and the stink faded in time.

Fixed it for you

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Spray that thing in the gray bottle that they always show on tv. Fabreeze!!!

But the best way to get rid of the smell is to sell the car ;D

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

1. remove the cabin air filter
2. spray some Lysol into each vent so it gets a good soaking.
3. with the engine on and the a/c blower on high spray an entire can of Lysol into the inlet where the cabin air filter goes.
4. install a new cabin air filter.
5. open a box of baking soda and secure it in the vehicle so it does not spill.

Also, some car dealers have a ionizer that can remove odors.

Several years ago, I worked for a string of used car lots for a couple years, mostly in purchasing and financing, collections and management. I too think you have a mold issue. Having bought thousands of cars at auction for resale, and hundreds of them having a foul smell in them after detailing, 9 times out of 10 it was mold. Normally, but not always, from a flood vehicle.

It's hard to find and even harder to get rid of. Look under the carpets and on the bottom of all seats, front and rear. The headliner can have mold too, as can pretty much any soft surface in the cabin.

I dealt with enough of those "it smells like ***" phone calls in my time at the car lots to last me a lifetime plus ten years. Just the nature of cars bought at auction.

Good luck diagnosing and curing the issue.

TRE

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Fine guns and fine smokes.

I have found if you house 5 or 6 cats in your car for two weeks, you will never be bothered by the smells and odors in the car prior to this treatment. It is almost guaranteed to make it impossible to detect those old orders.

Some things I've used: Make the offending party walk home from Taco Bell, drive home with your hand out the window. As young punks we would put old fish under/inside certain peoples hubcaps. In college I forgot about a dead rabbit in the back seat of my VW bug, never noticed it until it thawed out in the spring.

I recall a similar case where the smell was overpowering. Turns out the previous owner had died in the car, and wasn't found for a week or so. Hope your problem isn't that serious.

You never said what kind of smell. There are many things that can make a car stink.

Without knowing what it is it is impossible to know how to remedy it.

For example if the carpets got wet (windows open in the rain) than mold mildew under the carpet will never go away unless you pull the carpets.

Heavy smoker? The the whole car needs to be scrubbed down Headliner carpets vinyl etc to remove the tar /nicotine.

Dead animal? Gotta find it.

Just spraying something only masks it for a hours or a day.

The list goes on

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Still Running Against the Wind

I think the worst is that stale weed masked with cheap air freshener-common cause around here for traffic stops turning into full bore vehicle searches One of my most asked questions in suppression hearings " Was it fresh weed or stale weed that you smelled".

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Forum consigliere

Sprinkle baking soda all over the carpets (leave the open box in the floor of the back seat for extra help). Leave it like that for a couple of days, vacuum it out and repeat if necessary. That, plus a good airing out, should get the majority of any smells out for very little cost.

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Been up since before breakfast

I've been buying and selling cars/trucks for over 40+ years. Nothing worse than either a smoked in car/truck or one that the detail shop let sour.

I use a product named OdoBan. Get it at SAMs Warehouse Club. I buy it in gallons. And you can dilute the gallon about 8-10 times. It's about $16-17 a gallon. So that comes to less than $2 a quart

I mix it in a quart spray bottle (70-30% water) and spray all cloth material such as seats, carpet, lightly spray the headliner! Not too heavy on on the headliner! Or it will sag. I spray the sun visors, like stated, all the cloth in a vehicle. Even under the seats and the carpet under the seats.

If it has a fabric/cloth or carpeted trunk liner/mat, I spray it extra well. Load it up!!!

And then either let it sit fully opened Doors/Trunk (after disconnecting the battery) in the sun for a day, maybe two or if it's raining or real humid, I put it inside with a fan blowing in/on it.

OdoBan works! And has saved me thousands of dollars. It will remove all cigarette smoke smells, and like I stated the awful putrid sour water smell from the detail shop NOT changing their water in their extraction carpet cleaner. Or they didn't let the vehicle throughly dry before shutting/closing it up.

And after I use the OdoBan and let it dry. A simple light spray of Renuizit Fabric or Freebrezze fabric spray on the cloth. And it smells like a Brand New Vehicle, worth hundreds more!!!

It's also great on pet odors and stains in homes or just to spruce up after cleaning. And they say it kills 99% of all germs? And follow with Freebreze Fabric spray. Gets rid of that awful home vacuum cleaner smell!

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Live From Music City USA

But seriously, i bought some stuff in a spraycan at a Volvo dealer
worked like a charm in my Diahatsu, the former owner had dogs in it
Wet dogs, and as soon as the car got warm the stench was ****
The can worked, but it took a few times.
Cant remember what the name was though,

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Jamie wants big boom

I love OdoBan. Great stuff. Home Depot sells it too.

My wife went on a trip one time and left her new Honda Element at home. If you're not aware, the Element has back seats that come completely out in a snap leaving a cavernous interior.
My old Ford pickup was not working that weekend and I had my two best breeding goats come into heat at the same time. There's only about a 12 hour window where they'll take a buck. I needed to get them to another breeder whose buck I'd chosen, about 50 miles away.
So I popped the seats out and loaded the girls in the back with a paint dropcloth down to catch their poo and pee and off we went. Left them for the night with their boyfriend.
Went back the next day to get them. If you have ever been around a healthy buck goat in full rut you'll know that his perfume will make your eyes water at ten feet. He'd had his way with my girls and they stunk to high heaven. Put them back in the Honda and took them home.
Fortunately the Honda has an all rubber and plastic interior. No fabric or carpet anywhere. A mop-out with OdoBan and a day of airing and all was well. I waited about 5 years to tell the wife.

Then there is allways the one who goes the extra mile

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Jamie wants big boom

Sell the car.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I may have walked up and asked her where she dumped the body . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Gets all of the tobacco, spilled beer and pot smells out of the car.

One time I took some bags of oysters out of my trunk. I was sure I got all of them. After a while I started smelling something. I even looked in my trunk. Nothing there. Kept stinking. You know it is really amazing how far a paper grocery bag of oysters can get shoved up behind the back seat.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Yeah, especially when said cats like to mark their turf in your air conditioning intake vents.

DON'T ASK

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The Last Standing Knight

I'd like more information on the lost mullet.

Mullet as in hair or fish? Lmao.

When I was prepping used cars for dealers. We used the big brush and washed the carpet, seats, headliners, let it soak and repeat till the new car smell was back.

Check your heater fresh air intake for holes in the screen where mice can get in.

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Plant garlic in the fall

While both will feed on detritus, the one I lost had a gizzard.



Had I lost the ugly one maybe I would have left it alone with a few pounds of quicklime.

I thought it was a trick question at first, but I was going to say just drive with windowsdown and ssoon you smell nuttin.

Only wear "Duluth Buck Naked Underwear".

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Had water leak and the rugs in touch mildewed.Had it sealed and carpet replaced.Still had terrible odor.One good spray with Fabreeze cured it!