Getting rid of Air Freshener Smell

I bought a Fit a few months ago. When I first got the car it reeked of some sort of terrible drakkar noir stink. I cleaned it, drove around some with the windows down, and the smell was gone... UNTIL I started using the face-level vent blowers in the last few weeks!

Again, the car smells fine, until you turn the blower on and route it through the face-level (as opposed to foot- or defrost-level) vents, then it smells like a bad junior high school dance.

What should I do? I am willing to pay a pro detailer if that will get rid of this smell!

TIA

Get a smoker to ride around with you?

sounds like one of those fragrance sticks is down in the heater box....

Ranger50 wrote: sounds like one of those fragrance sticks is down in the heater box....

Do you think I could get to it if I pulled the blower?

All Star

Eggs basted medium.

Smothered, covered, peppered...topped if you really wanna knock it out.

Skip the waffle and go for biscuit & gravy.

Double bacon.

You're welcome.

petegossett wrote: Get a smoker to ride around with you?

Thats the spirit......

It is honestly just as hard as getting the smoke smell out. Osmosis machines some detailers have should be able to do it.

Is that Onion?...Onion and Ketchup?

If WH fails you, try my patented "Dead Hooker Stink" air freshener. Now available in the online store!

I was going to suggest just firing it up in the driveway and leave it idling with the blower on for awhile, just to see if you can "blow it all out", but considering gas prices these days? Maybe not such a great idea after all.

Once I was in Maine and we stopped at a drive-in and got huge lobster rolls to go. Then we drove to Portland, parked the car, got on the boat and spent the weekend on an island. When we got back, I discovered that an entire lobster claw had fallen under the driver's seat. This was in July.

In the battle between air freshener and lobster claw, lobster claw wins.

Woody wrote: Once I was in Maine and we stopped at a drive in and got huge lobster rolls to go. Then we drove to Portland, parked the car, got on the boat and spent the weekend on an island. When we got back, I discovered that an entire lobster claw had fallen under the driver's seat. This was in July. In the battle between air freshener and lobster claw, lobster claw wins.

When Logan was in chemo, he puked on the cloth interior of the black Corrado on the way home. On a hot day you can still catch a trace of it.

Someone want to tell me more about this osmosis process? When I Goog, all I get is the water filters. My G-Fu is berked on this one.

I have used cut up apples to absorb odor, it works pretty well.

Not sure about smells stuck in the ventilation though, perhaps some lysol into the fresh air intake vent at the base of the windshield, some towels over the interior vents and fans on full blast?

friedgreencorrado wrote:

Woody wrote: Once I was in Maine and we stopped at a drive in and got huge lobster rolls to go. Then we drove to Portland, parked the car, got on the boat and spent the weekend on an island. When we got back, I discovered that an entire lobster claw had fallen under the driver's seat. This was in July. In the battle between air freshener and lobster claw, lobster claw wins.

When Logan was in chemo, he puked on the cloth interior of the black Corrado on the way home. On a hot day you can still catch a trace of it. Someone want to tell me more about this osmosis process? When I Goog, all I get is the water filters. My G-Fu is berked on this one.

I'd shampoo the berk out of it with a rug doctor and maybe use vinegar too. The vinegar smells but it doesn't stick around once it dries. My kid puked all over my preforated leather seat and I cleaned what I could at the gas station but couldn't really clean it until after it had been baking in the sun all day. I took the leather off the foam to clean it, it's a little stiffer now, but no smells.

I'd have it ozone treated. I have a creepy inlaw.... but for 25 bucks he puts his industrial home ozone treater in a vehicle and you crank up the AC for 20 minutes and it smells like absolutely nothing permanently. It's great.

He owns #%^* Clean (carpet business) i already get a family discount so I'm not going to advertise for him. He always eats the last of the fried chicken at get togethers.

I would replace the cabin air filter, especially since it is so easy to do on that car. Google cabin air filter replacement honda fit and the first hit is a short video that shows how to access the filter through the glove box compartment. You can likely pick up a filter at advance pep zone and have it installed in seconds.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Great idea. Yes, you just squeeze in the sides of the glove box & it opens further to reveal the cabin filter behind it.

Maybe spray the new filter with some other scent while you're there to try and mask the odor?

It's either that or shotgun. That's all I got.

Get some hydrogen peroxide and a spray bottle. Set the blower to recirc and mist the peroxide into the air where the intake is, usually in the psgr floor board. mist a little, let it run, mist a little, repeat. The idea is to pull the mist through the system without soaking any of the surfaces with standing peroxide.

follow up by changing the cabin filter.

In the lab where I work we design deodorizers and cleaners. Peroxide is a go-to for a lot of odors - the H2O2 oxidizes most molecules that we smell, breaking them down into chemicals we can't detect. The trick is that the peroxide molecules have to contact the odor molecules, so getting the mist into the vent is critical. Letting it sit on dash surfaces for long periods could be bad though.

Leave a large order of Mcdonalds fries in there. Those things will kill ANY smell.

mndsm wrote: Leave a large order of Mcdonalds fries in there. Those things will kill ANY smell.

This. Or eat BK onion rings, wait approximately 57 minutes, let one go in the car. Of course, that will leave you praying the original smell will return.

OK, what do we collectively think about this:

Pull the cabin filter, ala ECM's suggestion, then while it is off and before a new one goes on apply ultraclyde's H2O2 mist there at the filter.

Does that make sense?

BTW, if I just wanted to obscure the smell with flatulence I DO have a little brother, so don't worry about that angle.

Don't forget you have a fresh air intake usually right by the windshield wipers.

That's your fresh air intake whereas the intake at the passenger's seat is the recirculation air intake. You'll need to do both.

I find it easier to use the fresh air intake outside the car so it's easier to clean up. I've used Fabreeze to good effect.

How did it go? did you get rid of the stinky?

poopshovel wrote: If WH fails you, try my patented "Dead Hooker Stink" air freshener. Now available in the online store!

I have to get one. It would free up a lot of trunk space.

I recommend vinegar to get rid of all stank. I use it on my hockey equipment. Spray it on, leave it in the sun, and the smell is neutralized as good as anything. No trace of the vinegar either.