Why does my car always smell kind of gross in the summer when it rains? I know nothing is getting wet (no leaks in floorboard, weatherstripping, etc.), but when it rains and is warm, I'll get in my car and it will smell pretty gross. I febreze and vacuum reguarly, and there' nothing in there that will make it stink. No cardboard or food or anything like that. no pets ever go in there.

Does anyone have any general upholstry cleaning tips other than vacuuming and febreze?

Thanks

 

MELDEUUU or...meldw or whatever...lol

maybe you have some fungus growing somewhere and somthing DID get wet...or there is a hidden morsel of food rotting somewhere that cooks and gives off an unpleasant smell when it heats up...or... maybe you have a pet that cant control it's bladder during the rany season because of all the water pouring down around the poor thing?? dunno...those are my very...very probably never going to be correct guesses :p

 

Check to see if its coming from teh vents, if it I have some tips for you.

 

I have herd of nasty stuff growing in you AC system. Shut off the AC a few miles before you stop to allow the system to air dry in order to prevent this. Not sure if that's your problem though.

 

I recently found mold growing on my sunroof visor-cover-shield-sliding thingy.... it happened because I used to drive in the rain with my sunroof vent cracked open and the moisture never was removed.... a hot iron and a blow dryer fixed this.... if I were you, I would smell the sunroof visor-cover-shield-sliding thingy to make sure its not the cause of the smell. It made my car smell like wet shoes.

 

Maybe its a gas problem? lol ... no not that kind, but crappy gas?

 

What I meant to say was at one point in time (summer I think) when I had a Pontiac grand am, I filled up with apparently crappy gas and it just reeked. kinda like road kill. But another thought... have u checked the bottom of your doorsills to see if there plugged up with dirt maybe smelly mud and such? just a thought... hope it helps.

 

Raise your left arm .. take a big whiff .. If it smells bad, take a shower and get some deodrant. ...

 

My 4Runner had 2 miles when I bought it new and it stunk from day 1. There are couple of different types of stench that car has. One that comes in from the vent (not much you can do, but air it out. Other is the untracable ass smell that linger in your car. That's a mixture of your B.O. from your sweaty back saturating the seat, and water, soda and other crap spilling on your seats and carpet throughout the years rotten away. Basically, the stench is deeply embedded into your upolstery. You need.. WE all need to get our soap and sponges and scrub the crap out of our carpets and seats then dry it out in the hot scorching sun. Then get Ozium (I think that's the way you spell it) and spray it regularly when you you're not going to be driving it for a period of time. That stuff is strongest crap I know for car odor.

 

Have you looked in the vents on the outside by your windshield wipers? I parked my rig under a tree in my front yard that was dropping these small yellow seed packets and for the next week the would shoot out of my vents like confetii Maybe you have some leaves and stuff that are hung up and they are breaking down over time? I handn't even considered that those vents are where my fresh air comes from, so it could be something either leaking in from there or stuck in there and rotting.


Erich

 

maybe it was caused by a valet with extremly bad BO. I don't think anyone can get that out.

 

My runner has a nasty smell like that too. It's only done it since the alarm place didn't plug the gromet in the firewall and EVERYTHING flooded with smelly ass water.

I've steam cleaned/extracted the carpet three times, and I still get that smell every now and then. I'm beginning to think I want new carpet. My A/C smell has gone away over time now tho.

Shampoo, shampoo, shampoo!

Even the smallest amount of water from your shoes will track down into the doorsills and mildew.


It's kinda funny that both of our trucks have a smell, and both of them have that WEIRD noise when backing up under a heavy load!

 

That is weird.

Anyway I'll check the vents, otherwise I guess I'll shampoo EVERYTHING with some heavy duty stuff this weekend. It's not really that bad, it is just gross when you first open it. after that it's fine.

 

Saturday night i was in a movie and came out to rain. I had my top and sunroof off, im pretty much guaranteed to have your problems. haha what can ya do O well

 

That sucks... what did you have to do when you got the truck home?? like how did you get it dry.... just let it sit, blow dryer, sun....?? just incase somthing like that happens to me i'd like to know what to do

 

If that was meant as a Seinfeld reference, I salute you.

 

I would suggest RENTING a commerical upholstery shampooer. They work great, and only cost about $30 a day. Then you can do everything and leave behind a nice pretty smell of soap!