Automotive Blogger

Maybe you have a habit of taking “doggie bags” home from restaurants, and forgetting to remove them from your car, or perhaps you had a passenger who smokes, or were transporting a sick dog (accidents happen). Whatever the cause, your car has that “less then fresh” odor going on, and you need to get rid of it. Here’s how:

1. Clean your car as thoroughly as possible, removing all loose items and trash from inside. Make sure you check in the back seat cushion, and under both front seats. Remove the floor mats, if you have any.
2. Vacuum the entire car, including the upholstery. Use a crevice tool where necessary. After you vacuum, use a rag or paper towels, and clean off the hard surfaces: dash, center console, windows.
3. Shampoo the rugs and upholstery, and let the car air dry with the windows open. (If you can do this outside, where air can circulate, so much the better.)
4. If your odor issue was caused by mildew, be certain to find and stop any leaks, or the smell will return. Then spray the carpets with an antibacterial cleaner. Lysol is good, but if you have a different brand that you prefer, it’s probably fine.
5. Park your car in a well-ventilated, flat area, and start the engine. Set the air flow on your air conditioning system so the source is “outside air” or “fresh air,” and set the fan and air conditioner to their highest power.
6. Go to the front passenger side of that car, look under the hood, generally along the bottom edge of the windshield, and find the air intake vent for the air conditioning system. It’s also known as the cowl vent, and it will have some kind of filtering screen or louvers. Spray room deodorizer, such as Oust, Febreze, or Renuzit into the intake.

7. Get back in the car, and smell the air. You should be able to detect the deodorizer moving through the system. Let it run for a few minutes, then switch from full cold to full heat and spray the intake vent again.

You may need to repeat the deodorizing process a few times before your car smells as fresh as you want it to, but even one time through the process will make last week’s leftover tuna salad a distant memory.