Does anyone know how to get rid of a musty smell in a car? I've tried febreeze and other obvious deoderizes.

Answer 1

Ther is a chance that you may have a water drain tube clogged in the A/C / heater air intake area in front of your windshield under the hood. If this clogs you'll have a pool of water that can stink up the car. Also your door drains may be clogged and there might be stagnant water pooled up inside your doors. This seems off the wall but I had the same problem as you did. Now my plumbing is happy & so is the smell of my car ;)

Answer 2

I have several suggestions for you that I have used.
(1) Use an upholstery cleaner on your car seats.
(2) Shampoo the carpet on the floorboard. Lots of stuff has fallen on the carpet and over the years it get smelly.
(3) Clean your car mats the same way. Shampoo them extremely well.
(4)Use a shampoo or some other cleaner for the material on the ceiling of your car (that is where the courtesy light is). If you smoke, they majority of your smoke will be there.
(5) Look for any food stuff and other junk that has fallen between and under your car seats. I found a half eaten candy bar between my armrest and car seat once and once removed that sweet smell(almost sour) disappeared from a car I once had.
Frebreeze is all right but use scent designed specifically for a car and deodorizing a car.. OZIUM works rather well. Use that twice a week or so and soon you will discover that your car (or truck) will start smelling good again.
I don't think any older car will ever smell brand new again but using cleaning methods once in a while will keep foul-smelling odors out and away from the interior of your prized possession.
Good Luck! I hope this helps you out!!!!!

Answer 3

I just spray all the soft surfaces with ODOBAN (Wal-Mart by the Febreeze). It kills the bacteria that causes the smells. You can get some Vanilla Extract too and spray it on everything. The alcohol in it will kill any molds or bacterias while the vanilla eliminates the stench instead of just covering it up. ( Vanilla works better on skunk smell than tomotoes too.) An old sock with some charcoal ( without lighter fluid) in it will work well too, your car won't smell like anything.

Answer 4

Clean the upholstery with a carpet cleaner hand attachment. Add Odor Remover to the carpet cleaner. You can also use odor remover with a bucket of water and not the carpet cleaner. I bought a bottle where I rented a carpet cleaner, and it did a wonderful job. Scroll down at this website, and you'll see Rug Doctor Odor Remover.

http://buy.rugdoctor.com/tabid/45/Default.aspx

Answer 5

Try cleaning the inside of the whole car. I have used downy fabric softner sheets. you can just put a couple of dryer sheets in the trunk and a couple under your seats. The downey simply pleasure ones smell really good and work as great freshners.

Answer 6

My grandmother used to put a charcoal in one of the mesh bags from a bag of oranges in the basement to keep the basement smelling fresh. She said the coal would absorb the musty smell.

Answer 7

you may need to shampoo the carpet and upholstery, but you could also try putting a bowl with coffee grounds in it and set it under the seat, the coffee grounds absorb odors.

Answer 8

Leave a bowl of vinigar over night in there. Leave one bowl up front and one in back.

Answer 9

try cleaning the car or airing it out