Car has a stink

D

Dogbert

500+ Posts
My dad bought a used car from Enterprise Rental last week and it has a very definite and strong stink in the cabin. I took it to Finish Line for a complete interior shampoo and ozone treatment and the stink seemed to diminish at first, but then returned. I took the car back for a second ozone treatment and it seemed better again at first, but alas has returned.

Today I replaced the AC cabin filter, but it had little effect. The carpet and upholstery appear clean and don't seem to smell. The stink is possibly in the AC, but wouldn't the ozone treatment kill anything there?

What the heck is wrong? It smells like an old fridge that was left unplugged and things spoiled. The car is a 2008 Toyota Camry so it is well worth saving, but I really need to get the stink out. Any ideas?
 
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I'm not sure what an OZONE treatment is , but is probably the evaporator. Most Auto parts places will sell you a can of stuff to spray into your vent intakes to kill what is growing on the evaporator.

If it interior smell that is fading after every cleaning, I would go with extra cleanings, a lot of air freshener, lysol, baking soda and leaving the windows open when possible.
 
I had a car that suddenly developed a stink--kinda ammoniacal (pissy). After much checking, it was determined that the catalytic converter had failed.

Replacing said converter got rid of the smell.
 
After doing more research on the Web, the likely source of the smell may be mold in the AC evaporator area. The car is only 1 1/2 years old and has 50,000 miles on it. Being driven that much in Texas means that it has probably had the AC on and hardly had tme for that area to dry out before it hits the road again.

Thinking that it might just be mold in AC, I squirted bleach up the AC drain hose today to see if that had any effect. Will know more later I guess -- no immediate dissipation of the smell.
 
I see where you're going, but I don't think squirting bleach up the condensation line will solve anything. You would have to pump enough bleach up there to submerge the entire evaporator. Probably for an extended period of time.

You found the cabin air filter. Try removing the filter and squirting lysol into the air intake with the AC running. Lots of it.
 
This is typical in cars where you never run the AC on the fresh air setting. If it is always on recirculate, which produces colder air, you never get any fresh air into the car, and the air gets stale and moldy from smells inside the car.
Try using the AC in the morning for five minutes each day on fresh air.
Then buy some BG products "FrigiFresh." Some parts stores may carry it, like PepBoys, but it is mainly sold as a commercial product to repair shops. Turn the AC on high speed, fresh air setting, and spray the FrigiFresh into the air intake at the base of the windshield (make sure you remove all the leaves and stuff from there first). Do this every couple of days, probably will cure the problem.
Changing the AC filter every 30,000 miles and running the system on fresh air tends to prevent the smells, but not many people run the AC on fresh air in Texas in the summer.
 
An update: We took the car to Champion Toyota to have the evaporator and AC air vents cleaned. I think this was a good thing to do, but it did not affect the stink. The cost was $154.

So it was not the evaporator or vents being moldy even though a strange smell still emanates from the AC when it is set to recirculate. Two ozone treatments at Finish Line have not done the trick either. Now I'm just letting it sit in the sun with the windows rolled down.
 
I'd be tempted to thoroughly wet the bedliner with a spraying of Febreze. People seem to forget about the headliner as a holder of odor.

I have also cut up a bunch of apples and tossed them everywhere inside. I have no earthly idea why it seems to work.
 
Could you have mold in the carpet padding, upholstery or headliner?

Could the car have been in a flood or had a window leak that let water inside the car?
 
Still has a stink after almost a month of sitting in the sun with windows cracked. Have Fabreezed the interior several times and now have a "Fresh Linen" air freshener inside. It smells better, but still has a noticeable funk.
 
Someone stuffed something organic up under the dash, under the seats or in some easy-to-overlook crevice. Bbut I'm glad I'm not the one to pursue this and stick my hand around the interior.

If your lucky, its a Taco Bell Burrito Grande.
 
I once got ****** over by Dollar on a minivan and then forgot to take home a bunch of trout that I was storing in the spare tire well. We aren't talking about a minivan from Colorado are we?

If so, is there still a bunch of dish washing soap in the windshield wiper reservoir?
 
I always had an evil revenge idea where I would drop some "Catfish Charlie" ( nasty as hell stink bait that tell you to use a stick not your fingers to apply) down my victims car AC vents.
 
Dead mouse somewhere in the cabin? Have you pulled up the back seats? Have you checked every nook and cranny under the front seats or dash? Or like someone said, perhaps there's some roadkill under the car somewhere??? If the fabrics have all been cleaned, then some object must be causing the smell. That is unless some dog pissed down deep into the seats.
 
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