Can I Use "odor-killing" chemicals, deodorants, or ozone to get rid of moldy or other bad car smells?
Generally we do not recommend car deodorants - they only cover up the smell, the do not get rid of the source. It will be back.
Ozone generators produce ozone gas, a strong oxidant (and dangerous to breathe) that temporarily fills the car interior to try to "oxidize" or "kill" mold that your car cleaning company couldn't reach - such as sound insulation padding up high inside the front fire-wall of the car, under the dash board.
Watch out: Be very careful if you're going to permit someone to ozone-treat your car. If the ozone treatment is over-done, the ozone can oxidize other car materials, causing a more horrible odor than ever. Details about over-dosing with ozone are found at OZONE for MOLD OR ODORS.
Field Report: Unsuccessful Try at Removing Car Odors: "Chemical Cleaner" followed by "Ozone Overdose" Ruins Car?
Question: The Dealer's Attempt to Deodorize a smell in my car's A/C vent system made things much worse. Is it safe?
I took my automobile to a Chrysler dealer to have the evaporator (AC vent system ) cleaned due to a bacteria/mold smell which I was told is common in Chrysler products.
The dealer used a chemical “cleaner” which on the market which was supposed to remove this material. It apparently worked however I was left with a terrible perfume-like odor that would not go away.
This went on for a few weeks until they finally had a company come in and ozone treat the interior.
I need to point out I have severe emphysema and asthma.
The individuals there at the dealership including the service man from the company all said the equipment was used “over the weekend” for an extended period of time to remove the perfume smell and allowed to run over the weekend.
They used 2 ozone generators inside the car: one in the trunk and one in the interior cabin area.
The “expert” from the cleaning company said what he smells is “CLEAN AIR” – MY REPLY IS SIMPLY BULL.
NOW I have a serious odd “chemical odor” in the car which is more (and then some) irritating than the perfume odor. This smell has now persisted for over 30 days now with the car left running with the AC and fans running, sitting in an open area with the windows down and so on, they even cleaned the upholstery and rugs.
Question is what the dickens is going on?
Is my car ruined due to ozone treatment?
Has a chemical reaction started or occurred? And most significant is this dangerous? I need to get rid of the Auto but cannot dump a car on someone that may he harmed by this odor!
Please advise me about what has happened here! - M.R.
Reply: It may have been less expensive and more effective to do it right the first time.
OPINION: With just an email naturally no one can accurately diagnose nor cure an odor problem nor really assess its level of risk, but here are some thoughts based on our experience and your report:
What you describe does not sound like the most effective approach to a car odor and worse, as if it has indeed made things worse. We can only guess from so little info, but
Chemical deodorants for cars? It is common for people to try to "treat" an unwanted odor by using (by spray or other means) a "deodorant" chemical (perfume?) that does not actually remove anything. Rather it superimposes a new odor that drowns out or disguises the old one. "Air fresheners" often work this way.
Because under continued exposure our brains eventually tune out odors or smells - at least to some degree - the perfume deodorant is first covering up and then desensitizing the human being's nose rather than removing or cleaning up a problem.
This is not so horrible if the original problem was not health related, though not effective as it does nothing about finding and removing the original odor problem. In this case the original odor may later return, or if it's a "new car smell" or an odor from new materials it may eventually outgas, dissipate, and thus become much less noticeable.
A related problem is that some people are or become sensitive to the new "deodorant" chemicals themselves, suffering from asthma attacks or other complaints.
Shampoo plus chemical deodorant? A similar approach to car odor reduction is to wash or shampoo carpets or seats hoping that that step removes an odor problem (if those materials were even the original problem source), combined with an odorant or "air sanitizer" chemical as we described above.
Heavy dosing a car interior with with ozone, as you describe, risks oxidizing plastics and fabrics inside the automobile, making a new horrible smell that frankly, is unlikely to go away unless the car is gutted.
Worse, the odor from an oxidized material, say a carpet, often penetrates and is absorbed into other materials such as a headliner or seats, so we no longer have the option of just replacing the smelly oxidized carpet, seats, or whatever the offender is.
The new odors are themselves respiratory irritants to some people, especially people who are chemically sensitive, asthmatic, etc. The new odor is not going to be ozone itself (which is certainly dangerous at high levels) because ozone is so volatile that it doesn't stick around long after the ozone generator machine has been turned off. Rather the new odors are, in our experience, from oxidized materials in the car. We don't know the actual risk in any given case as individual sensitivity varies widely.
These reasons are why, even though it sounds like a lot more trouble, it is actually often more effective and less expensive to find and remove the original odor source in the first place, along with finding and fixing its cause.
Now, we are afraid, it may be too late for this car and it might have been rendered unusable. And we agree that what you smell is certainly not "clean air" - if the air in the car were clean - odor free - it would not smell.
Before giving up on the overdosed, over-ozoned car, you can try the next suggestion we list below:
Air out the car and let it bake in the sun with its windows open (and watch out for rainstorms). Otherwise, to restore the car now may require identifying just what in-car components are smell sources, they have to then be removed, the car aired-out, and new materials installed. These might include:
Car carpets
Car seats
Car headliner
Car door liners
Car sound insulation padding
Trunk carpeting or sound insulation padding
We do not advise just passing on the car to someone else before these problems are fixed - you wouldn't want to be responsible for some future car-occupant's health or respiratory problem that might be caused, contributed to, or blamed-on the smelly car.
