Car Smells - Cleaning

Sully

Hey,
Posting this here rather then AH as its a specific motor question! I brought a large box of empty alcohol bottles to the bottle bank last night and they were in the boot for a while before I got rid of them. This morning, the smell of drink in the car is so bad it would knock you.

I don't drink myself, but I had two lads who had a good few drinks in them in the car last night for a short while also. I cant see the strong smell coming from them, so I assume the bottles in the boot played the major role!

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the smell? I have the windows down a small bit to let air in - hoping it might help.

(Mods: If you feel this is better in AH, or elsewhere, move away. )

crosstownk

I'll assume that you have a carpet on the boot floor. You could try leaving the boot open - the smell will disappear in a short while. I'd a similar problem a while back where the empty bottles fell over resulting in the carpet getting wet with beer and I simply left the boot open for a few hours a day in the yard in work and the smell went after two days.

If you want rid of the smell ASAP (imagine if you get stopped at a checkpoint and the Garda sticks his head in the window ), the best thing to is to remove the boot floor carpet and wash it using a power washer and leave it out to dry. If you do this be sure that the carpet is completely dry before putting it back, otherwise you could end up with a horrible musty smell.

Sully

Sound. I got one of those smelly thingys for the car, as well as an odur spray. Id use the power washer but the weather is hardly any good for drying! Ill probably leave the boot open also. Thanks!

patrickc

the blue neutrodol air freshners are great at removing most smells i find.

Lpfsox

bicarbonate of soda will get rid of the smell - sprinkle it liberally in the boot, leave overnight and then hoover it up. Works on carpets/smelly trainers/upholstery no bother; cheap and environmentally friendly too.