Cabin smells like pee

[bushbean]

On rainy days, the cabin smells like mild pee. On good weather days, it just smells like B.O. The upholstery has been cleaned twice with profession cleaning machines. Although the odor was reduced, I can still smell both the B.O. and the pee. I guess I need to attack the carpet next. I was advised to sprinkle baking soda, let it soak in the odor, and vacuum it up. I thought I might as well go all out by taking the carpet out of the car completely and hosing it down with super-hi pressure jet washing and plenty of soap. How difficult is it to remove the entire carpet? At a glance, it looks like a lot of trim pieces and the seats will have to come off.

[Blkblurr]

Mix in some white vinegar in your rinse water to help neutralize the odor. Let it sit for an hour or so then rinse with clean water.I know it works on pet urine.

[Estimated Prophet]

The baking soda is a good idea. Maybe it had a heater core leak and you have some mildew under the dash.

[MessyHonda]

yeah you would have to take out the seats, center console, the plastic door moldings keeping the carpet in place. its not that hard it just takes a bit of time. i did it to my dx when i painted the carpet.

[DBMaster]

Do you leave your air handler switched to the "REC" position (vs "FRESH") a lot? When mine was new the dealer advised always switching it back to fresh before shutting off the car. The REC position keeps the evaporator housing closed up and mildew develops. That is most likely what you are smelling.

[bushbean]

How hard is it to clean the evaporator? I assume I would have to remove it first.

[bushbean]

I asked the previous owner about the heater core, and he said it never leaked. So, I think the stink is probably coming from the evaporator.

[DBMaster]

Actually, I recall that the dealer just sprayed something into the housing that was a type of disinfectant, like Lysol. Getting into the housing is quite a job.

[frantik]

when i got my 3gee it had a distinct mildew smell.. i left the windows cracked for a few weeks and it went away.

the previous owner had always left it on "rec" because it leaked so much oil that "fresh" would just fill the cabin with smoke lol. fixed all that crap now though

[DBMaster]

That wouldn't hurt as well. If you make sure to switch to Fresh and give the vent doors a couple seconds to cycle the evap housing should dry out as well.

[2oodoor]

Another suggestion is you can use a ionizer, put it in the car and leave it on overnight. Those things kill the sheeott out of odors !!! just what ya need

[AccordEpicenter]

time to start using depends

[DBMaster]

I just realized that there is one more thing to check. Make sure you get a good amount of water dripping under the car when you use the A/C. If not, you might alslo need to clean out the condensate drain. It's a short piece of rubber hose sticking straight down from the front passenger floorboard.