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What kind of smell is it? Like Pine Sol or Fabulooso?
I’d remove the front seats, and then clean the carpet really well with an extractor.
Hard to describe - it's just a really strong deodorizer scent. I never smelled anything like it before. Not so much a cleaning product, but a deodorizer. Hell, it's been 3 weeks and my wife still can't even ride in the damned thing!
When I had my truck detailed they put some greasy crap all over my truck. It had a very rubber like smell. Took weeks to get it to go away. In the beginning I would find it hard to breathe in the truck. I didn’t drive it for a few weeks due to that. The smell went away on it’s own
This. A couple years ago I, 1) took my cat somewhere and she pissed a little bit on the floor during transit, and not long after that, 2) I spilled a bit of vinegar on the passenger seat. The combination of the two inspired me to get my car detailed, because it smelled pretty strong in there (especially the vinegar, I got most of the cat urine smell out myself). The detailers rubbed some sort of oil all over the interior, which had its own strong smell that took at least a month to go away. But finally it did. Now, more than a year later, on occasion if my car sits in the heat for a long while, I can still very faintly smell the vinegar, but otherwise it's OK. So, try getting the interior detailed.
Try this.
Get damp rid from home depot or local hardware, it comes in a small container ,with a cup to hold the damp rid crystals. Let it sit in the car with the windows shut, just leave the container in the car for a few days. The product will suck out any funny smells in the car.
After that, there is an AC coil cleaner, its foam in a can. You can also use fabreze or Lysol anti bacteria spray. You will clean out the air ducts doing this.
Finally, change the in cabin air filter. It is located under the glove box.
We bought a used car a few weeks ago, in fantastic condition. For some utterly inexplicable reason, the previous owner drenched the interior with some sort of horrible, nauseating cleaner-deodorizer-whatever crap, and we just cannot get the stench out. So far I've tried baking it out by leaving it in the sun with the windows cracked, and bombarding it with an ozone air purifier - but nothing works. I'm reluctant to try shampooing it out, because when I've previously used products like that they just leave a different sickening soapy-perfume smell.
I figured if I just waited a while, it would clear up on its own, but I'm running out of patience here. Has anyone got any tricks I should be trying?
I think you have more going on than ozone. We've used various ozone (quality) air cleaners for years. They don't smell like soapy-perfume - that's an extra that never existed before.
Best I can suggest is what we had to do with my 10 year old Subaru. Using baking soda, air out the car for some days and vacuum thoroughly. Keep using the ozone but use it after the baking soda and air and close the car up for a bit.
Good luck. It worked for us.
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