Car stinks!

[MikeT]

I recently acquired another Xantia and it has been used as a dog taxi judging by the state of it - and the smell! Ewww!

I'm going to leave the doors open while I work on it. I'll be soaking the pollen filter in scent too but I doubt this will be a sufficient long-term solution. Does anyone have any good tips for de-odorising a car?

[Penguin]

Give it a damn good clean everywhere with a carpet cleaner (Vax type thing). When it dries have good go with Fabreze.

[Gammy leg]

Mike,

Replace all carpets and soft fabrics or sell the car. Dog smell will not shift.

I would love to be proved wrong with this but I tried EVERY cleaning, steam cleaning, de-stinking product to no avail. You can mask it but not remove it IMHO.

Gammy

[MikeT]

That's the only option I could think of but I wanted to play taxi today and doubt it would have dried in time. As the car doesn't want to start, it's no longer a priority so will do a proper job at a later date. Cheers.

[myglaren]

Give it a damn good clean everywhere with a carpet cleaner (Vax type thing). When it dries have good go with Fabreze.

Or even a professional valet.
My BX estate had been used to transport dogs and I (stupidly) presumed that the smell would dissipate on its own.

Despite numerous cleanings and being drenched in Fabreeze it never really got much better. I used to leave all the windows open all day every day too.
The only thing that fixed it was it died in the Lakes, cracked cylinder head, and was scrapped.

[XantiaMan]

Good shampoo, dry off and Neutrodol is great stuff for killing odours, and there is such a thing called an Ozone generator that also works. Fag smell is far harder to get rid of IMO.

[MikeT]

Like the first valet I ever purchased, I wasn't impressed with neutrodol either but anything's worth a try, I hate the smell of damp dog/ bone marrow. Almost made me stop and heave on the way home yesterday

[rabenson]

Try one of the Comma aircon deodoriser aerosols - it worked a treat on a ZX that I had (which didn't have aircon). just set the heater / ircon to recirculate and fire the aerosol. It sprays upwards unattended until it is empty and does a really good antibacteria/deodorising job on the whole interior - including the aircon!

Ron

[reblack68]

We got very good results on our old Mazda with Simoniz foaming cleaner followed by Febreze when it had dried. Not 100% but the smell only came through a few times after that.

It was fags, not dogs but I bet it would have beaten your car in a stink-off.

Clean all the hard surfaces too.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

Mike-T

Buy yourself some ammonia from your hardware store and put it in Hot water in a spray bottle spray liberally whilst using a wet and dry vacum cleaner to remove the liquid, after about three days drying time have the car proffessionally cleaned, you can have an estate done internally using their most powerful,cleanning agent for about £40.

My estate had been used as akennel for hunting labradors by a farmer who couldn't be botherd to change the suspension spheres.

The dryed dog druel is the hardest to remove hence the amonia solution.

works a treat , oh and don't smoke in the car it seems to make the smell of dogs linger even more, I smoke a lot but never ever in my car not since the tip off by a friend, the dog smell has either gone completely or I'm used to it, another good thing to do is change the pollen filter this will harbour nasty smells and it could give you legionares disease if you don't change it regularly anyway. I am sure that if you follow this guide you will exterminate the doggy smel pretty quickly. all the best and good luck, be careful with breathing in amonia fumes it can be nasty stuff to breathe in not quite so nasty in Hot water.

Regards Nigel.