wilhelm

The interior of my 95 coupe has an odor that smells like old vinyl, like you get on older cars. What could be causing the smell and how can I get rid of it? The car stays in the garage with windows down all the time and only driven about 3k a year. I use Lexol on the seats once a year and Meguiars #40 on everything else several times a year.

H2

I wish I had a good answer for you. I've used the smelly things you can buy but never found a smell that I can stand. The leather deodorizer I bought smelled like earthworms. Let us know how you conquer this problem. I'd start with a TOTAL interior detailing...including using some of the shampoo like carpet cleaners. Clean every little thing and that should help. I'd take out all the carpeting that can be removed and give it a professional cleaning.

H2

911Syncro

I can't speak for direct experience, but during the SoCal fires there was lots of interest in the Ozone generators that apparently do a good job eliminating odors. For example here is an article discussing it.
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-a...me-282281.html

But I am not sure how it would work in a car. I guess my first instinct is if it might do damage to certain materials like rubber. Again, I can't recommend this path but wanted to surface it as something possibly promising.

Roland

wiseman

They work great. Most used car places have one. Had a company car that the former guy smoked like a fiend. Smelled like crap!!! Ran and Ozone machine for 24 hours with everything closed up. Smell absolutely gone.

Damian in NJ

You may want to try Larry at www.carcareonline.com he would have a good recommendation.

ehall

Start my having the carpets steam cleaned.

tone3721

Ozone generators work pretty good. Serious smells, have to be exposed for a while. Basically it chemically alters the ions, so your sniffer cant smell them anymore.

ryan@usaimage.com

Could it be the heater-core going bad? You may have a pin-hole leak that is letting coolant stink things up. Just a thought. There is also the drain for the A/C . If the thing gets blocked you could get mildew or stale water smell. Got to find the source before you get rid of the smell.

CurtP

Old vinyl smell is caused by old vinyl. Only permanent solution is to get replace all of it. The best you can do with the old material in place is to mask it, which is only temporary.

Ozone generators do not work, and may actually may make things worse: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

I'm in the process of going through my interior and the three smelliest things I've encountered so far is the carpet, the dash and the headliner. The smell from the carpet is by far the worst - I'd start there.

tone3721

"Ozone generators do not work, and may actually may make things worse: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html"




Well, I guess if you wanted to get technical about it, it would depend on the composition of the odor. Formaldehyde(CH2O) not surprising that it proved tough to eliminate. Ive seen them eliminate alot of odors. My uncle owns a couple lots in IL, uses them on the cars quite a bit, says they dont work on everything, and sometimes require really long exposures, as in a week or more. But overall do work, in most cases.

As far as safety, well dont sit in the car......haha. Its not hard to keep yourself from getting exposed, use the same caution as if you blew off a bug bomb in there and youll be fine. Key is proper ventialtion.

I guess ultimately, if you really want to get rid of the odor, replace what stinks.

ryan@usaimage.com

I have not heard of vinyl getting a smell as is gets old. The only case of this was caused by mildew growing on the vinyl that had gotten moist and not dried. I work with vinyl everyday and as new vinyl gasses off it smells and when it is old it has no disearnable odor.

CurtP

PM me your address and I'll send you the vinyl off my sunroof headliner. It reeks of old car smell. It doesn't seem to bother some people, but it makes me nauseous.