Start by wiping the dash, inner windows and all of the plastic interior trim pieces with Windex Vinegar Multi Surface cleaner. The odor will stick heavily to the carpet and upholsterd surfaces. For the carpet, you could try using a spray-on upholstry cleaner, allow to air dry then follow with a powdered carpet deodorizer such as "Love my carpet". Leave it in with the windows up for an afternoon, then vacuum it out. The seats shouldn't hold the odor as bad as the carpet, so simply treating them with the spray on upholstry cleaner should be suffice. Avoid spraying or scrubbing the headliner and pillars. These panels are very delicate and will begin to sag if they're not already. You could try gently vacuuming them with a soft brush attachment, but I'd leave them alone. Simply driving with the sunroof and windows open for a couple days should help remove some of the odor and hopefully the fragrance from the carpet cleaner will soak in and mask the residual odor. And finally, your cabin filters and vents should be cleaned. One of the first things that anyone should do when purchasing a used car is replace or at least clean the cabin filters. They're accessed through the engine compartment and there's plenty of info on this located in the knowledge base section. I cleaned mine with simple green, rinsed with fresh water, blew them out with an air compressor and then let them air dry. A lot of odor and dust gets trapped in your vents. Fortunately most of them are pretty short. I'm not sure if the upper vents are easily removable, you may end up breaking them. The center vents are removeable, a feather duster works well in cleaning the dust out. One thing to consider is that odor sticks to dust, just as well as it sticks to surfaces. Remove the dust, remove the odor. |