"Old Car Smell"

[Dr_Snooz]

My car spent many years baking in the sun through the hottest part of every day in Fresno's hellfire summers. The paint is completely had, but the interior is in surprisingly good shape. The only problem is "old car smell." It's that distinct smell of old, deteriorating plastic. I've looked around on this site and the web for an answer. Most people say it's the carpet. I'm wondering if anyone here can confirm that before I spent a bundle on new carpet?

Thanks!

[2ndGenGuy]

It's probably everything. My car had old car smell. I pressure washed the carpets, put in different seats, removed the back seats, repainted much of hte plastic and simple-greened EVERYTHING. And it still smells bad. :(

[Hash_man_Se_i]

My old sei had old car smell, and wierd people smell when I bought it... leather doesnt absorb smells too badly though so after a good cleaning, and carpet cleaning it was ok. I removed my seats and vacuumed and scrubbed though as there was some funky shit in there.

New car has wierd ... I live by the ocean and wet smell. Not wet though, so I am thinking it is insulation and such and carpet maybe. Grey interior will be swapped in this weekend to hopefully get rid of that though.

Your best bet is to clean, clean, and clean some more. Use good products that have a nice scent lol. And if you can, try shampooing the seats... it's the fabrics/carpet in the car that will absorb most of the smells.

[Vanilla Sky]

The carpets do hold a LOT of your odors. There's also some sound deadening behind the dash that gets funky after 20 years.

Anything porous will hold smells. Fabric, foam, carpet, hardboard (the door panels), and some of the soft plastics. Steam clean what you can.

[Hazwan]

The carpets do hold a LOT of your odors. There's also some sound deadening behind the dash that gets funky after 20 years.

Anything porous will hold smells. Fabric, foam, carpet, hardboard (the door panels), and some of the soft plastics. Steam clean what you can.

Never thought of the sound deadening stuff behind the dash. I guess thats what causing the smell in my car. I've pretty much washed/cleaned up everything, seats, carpets, headliner and every plastic panel and it still smells.

I dunno but I think all old car smells the same lol. I wonder what caused it anyway?

[russiankid]

I had a weird odor in my trunk before. I took the carpet out and scrubbed it with simple green and then pressure washed it. Tons of dirts came out. Since then my trunk smells great :)

[2oodoor]

let me clarify, old Japanese car smell. all of these toyotas, nissans, and Hondas have a distinctive odor, I think it is the polymer based materials (plastics in the door panel, headlliner , carpets..add mildew and you have it magnified.
You should shampoo the upholstery and carpet and get an ionizer ..deionizer whatever those are, they suck the smell out of anything if you let them run a couple of days. They really work good.

[Dr_Snooz]

Thanks guys. I did steam clean it and that helped a lot. I'll give it another go and try the ionizer too.

[Strahan]

Funny, when I got my hatch and I got in I was thinking "ahh, the smell of an old Honda, I forgot that smell" hehe. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pleasant or anything, but it doesn't bother me. My Peugeot 505 also had a unique odor, something like diesel + leather hehe.

[lostforawhile]

carpet isn't expensive. go to autocarpetoriginals.com tell em tim yoak sent ya,i don't mind reccomending them because i've seen their stuff in person and it's excellent , and reasonable. plus the owner is a really nice guy. as soon as i get my tax money i will be ordering mine from there. i figure if someone has a good product for our cars at a reasonable price i don't mind mentioning it. as far as the old car smell, the carpet will kill the funky smell, theres a lot of heavy padding under it and it soaks up smell like crazy. a lot of it is mildew in the padding, if you go to a yard where the car has got wet the smell is much worse.

[MessyHonda]

yeah i noticed that most of the junkyard car have that same nasty smell....i like to call it the junkyard smell.

[Dr_Snooz]

the carpet will kill the funky smell, theres a lot of heavy padding under it and it soaks up smell like crazy. a lot of it is mildew in the padding, if you go to a yard where the car has got wet the smell is much worse.

Do I need to buy padding too or does that come with the carpet?

[Blkblurr]

Don't forget the headliner. Clean it too

[87roach]

Do I need to buy padding too or does that come with the carpet?

I'm wondering about this padding too.

I noticed in my parts car that the "padded liner" if you will(against the firewall in the cabin), was damp when I was stripping everything down. I think probably once it gets wet at all the bacteria will start to molest it quite quickly, this would be a source of smell among the other things.

[Dr_Snooz]

Incidentally, I shot some Vinylex in the A/C vents and that killed the smell. For a while at least. It still comes back when the car sits in the sun.

[redaztec]

My carpet (from stockinteriors.com) came with the padding. It's been a while since I ripped the old carpet out, but I think that some of that old car/dirty car smell went away with the old carpet (which was absolutely filthy). More of the smell went away as I have cleaned more of the interior. Even after all that some "old Honda smell" still remains, but I don't really mind as long as it's clean!

[Dr_Snooz]

Thought I'd bring this one back from the dead. The car doesn't smell anymore and I don't know why. It smelled like decomposing plastic for as long as I've had it and then one day the windows turned cloudy and it stopped smelling.

My hypothesis is that using Zymol vinyl conditioner on the interior did it. Their marketing literature mentions something about the formulation helping to bring the destructive chemicals out of the plastic so it lasts longer. I know the Zymol makes the plastic look brand new, but now I suspect it brought out something foul that clouded the windows and made it stop smelling. I'm not sure if it will come back, but I'm pretty happy for now.

[Civic Accord Honda]

my cars smell like that for about a month then it turns to a smell of fastfood... or like my 4g and turns to a smell of fast food, mildew , baby dipers, and curdled milk ><

[lx-i coupe]

my cars smell like that for about a month then it turns to a smell of fastfood... or like my 4g and turns to a smell of fast food, mildew , baby dipers, and curdled milk ><

my wifes sentra was like that. if you're not super anal about cleaning, family cars do develop some "unique" smells

[2drSE-i]

I think you just got used to the smell :kekeke:

[MessyHonda]

dr snooz car is super clean in the inside

[Civic Accord Honda]

my wifes sentra was like that. if you're not super anal about cleaning, family cars do develop some "unique" smells

haha yeah they do , and im definitly not anal about it lol and nether are my parents

[DBMaster]

I get these air fresheners at Wal Mart in the area with the other air freshening stuff.

http://www.citrusmagic.com (http://www.citrusmagic.com/)

Unfortunately, the site is down right now so I can't post a link to the solid air freshener I am talking about, but if you try tomorrow maybe the site will be working.

I keep one under the passenger seat at all times. The "Pure Linen" scent is unobtrusive and nice. This freshener also has activated charcoal in it and they last a REALLY long time.

[lostforawhile]

I kind of really like the old car smell. if you want to kill a lot of it, get a 10 pound bag of charcoal cut it open longways, put it in the car with the windows closed for a couple of days. it will absorb everything. when you are done, have a cookout.

[Dr_Snooz]

dr snooz car is super clean in the inside

You raise a good point. It was after the latest steam clean of the interior that it stopped smelling. I got the seats, under the seats, the door panels and everything. Even the speaker covers. I think this is the first steam clean since I replaced the headliner, which was definitely decomposing. That could have been the source of the smell and the steam clean got the last of the residual smell.

I guess the moral of the story is that old car smell can come from any number of sources and you may never know what it was even if you get it. Nevertheless, you can get rid of it with thorough cleaning and brute persistence.

Not exactly the magic bullet I was looking for when I started this thread, but whatever.

(BTW: I don't use chemical fragrance of any kind. Chemical perfumes are great in theory but their persistent, neurological effects should give you pause.)

[Civic Accord Honda]

this thread inspired me to rip out my seats and clean my carpet up good only did the driverside tonight but just doing one side made a huge difference! i found like 10 years worth of green moldy mcd fries :| and a ton of change :D
also found a tag on my carpet saying " 90-93 accord cpe brown" so my carpet must of been replaced at one time and who ever put it in didn't cut the hole for the under seat air vents so i went ahead and did that wow made a nice difference
wish i could fully get the mildew smell out tho ><

[ghettogeddy]

just go get those air fresheners that come in the pop top can put one behind each vent on the pass and driver side
then one under the front part of the seat and one under the back then one in the back window
you will get the smell gone after a few go around
run the ac and you will be smelling w/e flavor you buy

[lostforawhile]

the reason you put the charcoal in the car, is it absorbs the odors like a sponge.

[MessyHonda]

clean clean clean...my coupe has a leaky windshield...i still need to take off the dash to look behind it because the windshiled guy said it was not from the seal

[LX-incredible]

clean clean clean...my coupe has a leaky windshield...i still need to take off the dash to look behind it because the windshiled guy said it was not from the seal

Where is it leaking? Passenger footwell?

[MessyHonda]

Where is it leaking? Passenger footwell?

yeah...carpet is wet after heavy rain

[DBMaster]

Funny thing is that since I have been the only owner of this car it never developed the "old car" smell. My 72 Pontiac had leaks galore and it never developed it, either. I pretty much never have food in the car. Maybe that's it. I really like the solid air freshener I use as it combines a light scent with charcoal. Several people have remarked how nice it smelled in the car. Part of that may be that it's always been garaged. I certainly understand the reluctance Dr. Snooz has to using chemical air fresheners, though. If you have an issue with mildew maybe you could try buying some sizeable dessicant pouches along with the charcoal.

I did a quick search and you can find silica gel dessicant packs in numerous places. It will basically pull moisture from the air inside the car and prevent growth of mildew.

Also, one thing often overlooked. This came on a dealer provided instruction sheet with the car when it was new. If you use the RECIRC position on the climate control system always switch it back to FRESH before shutting the car off. This prevents mildew growth in the evaporator housing. That has always worked very well for me.

[Dr_Snooz]

You can buy Calcium Chloride for relatively little at the hardware store. It melts ice on your driveway, but also pulls moisture from the air. Just put a little bowl of it out and it will be full of water before you know it. Pulling the moisture out of the air sometimes makes the mold cells release all their spores and it creates a heck of a moldy stink for a while so be aware of that.

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm digging this old one up. I noticed months ago that my headliner was cracking and flaking away. I replaced it and the old car smell is completely gone from my car now. So I guess, if you have old car smell, look for the thing that is disintegrating and replace it.

[Demon1024]

So flat air freshener under the liner at the light fixture. Got it!
I wonder if anyone would notice if i just painted the inside roof tan lol

Mines always been the carpet. Grats on finding it :)

[A18A]

i get nostalgic in cars with that old smell

[frantik]

when i bought my car it had some weird funky smell (owners had a kid) but i just put my vent shades on and left the windows cracked all the time.. now theres not much smell at all

[Xaisk]

Thought I'd bring this one back from the dead. The car doesn't smell anymore and I don't know why. It smelled like decomposing plastic for as long as I've had it and then one day the windows turned cloudy and it stopped smelling.

My hypothesis is that using Zymol vinyl conditioner on the interior did it. Their marketing literature mentions something about the formulation helping to bring the destructive chemicals out of the plastic so it lasts longer. I know the Zymol makes the plastic look brand new, but now I suspect it brought out something foul that clouded the windows and made it stop smelling. I'm not sure if it will come back, but I'm pretty happy for now.

I know its off topic but I seen this post..

It cleans the plastic and makes it look new? Sounded like an amazing find but I just googled zymol and their products are crazy expensive...

about 250 bucks for the kit for that covers the whole car.. then 30 bucks for each individual piece. I guess all I really would want is the plastic one though and if it worked that would only cost 30 bucks and be well worth it.

I seen a kit specifically for Bugatti Veyron and it cost 8500.00$

I :lol:

[gp02a0083]

yah the zymol stuff is very expensive. My father used to use a wax, it was light blue colored from them, but again it was not cheap. You can use a lot of different products and have the same results.

[Dr_Snooz]

GP, I'd be interested to know what you are using. I've tried all manner of products and nothing, I mean NOTHING, has worked like the Zymol. It doesn't get greasy and slimy, it doesn't attract dust, it doesn't give off fumes that make me sick, it just makes my stuff look perfect. Lexol is reputed to be the bees knees of leather conditioners but it always left my BMW seats feeling like dry leather smeared with a slimy film. The Zymol penetrated and made the leather feel younger, softer and more supple. Same way with the plastic and the rubber conditioners. The wax gives results that are out of this world, though it is a real pain to work (takes about 85,000 towels and day's worth of rubbing). I will confess that the vinyl preservative did make the cracking on the tops of my 3g door panels worse. They really opened up when I put that on.

Everything else I've used has been an external and separable improvement. People get in the car and go, "Oh, what do you use on your dash?" With the Zymol, they get in and go, "My god, your car looks amazing." It's a subtle but absolutely qualitative difference. I haven't found anything cheaper that comes close, but I'm always willing to try new things.

(BTW, they sell some Zymol at Target for pretty cheap. I use the cheapest of what they offer and it works great. No Bugatti packages or anything.)


^^^^ edit: good grief, they should pay me to rave like this.

[RAZR]

i kno u dont like it but i love the smell of old car i love the smell of my interior. i hate that new car smell :(

[2oodoor]

I'm digging this old one up. I noticed months ago that my headliner was cracking and flaking away. I replaced it and the old car smell is completely gone from my car now. So I guess, if you have old car smell, look for the thing that is disintegrating and replace it.

I think that remedy goes for the "old fart"
smell as well. A truck at work I use alot has that OF smell and I have cleaned and sanitized everything in it, it also uses a full rubber mat instead of carpet so I got it good... next day still OF smell. Has to be the felt headliner...

[MessyHonda]

the week i went to hawaii i left my window a bit down on the passenger side and it was parked under a tree so the mold started growing on the carpet. so what i did was took it out and parked it in a sunny spot. washed the carpet and dried it out now the old smell is out.