My interior smells like pond scum

Alright, so maybe it isn't that bad, but the odor is unpleasant nonetheless. My interior has been smelling like mold for a while, so I removed the carpeting and discovered two water leaks. The sound-deadening material underneath the carpet was completely saturated and producing the smell.

I haven't put the carpeting back in, but I reinstalled the front seats and I'm starting to pick up the odor again. It is not nearly as pungent as it was, but you get a good whiff when you open the door for the first time.

I used Lysol on the floorboards and cleaned everything out (can metal even retain a smell?). I've been putting up with the stinky carpet for about a year... in that time, could the seats and/or headliner have contracted the same "stale mold" odor from the carpeting? I sniffed around and just can't figure out where it's still coming from.

One of the leaks is where the heater box and windshield cowl meet. The water was running along the rubber-backed foam insulation behind the dashboard. I haven't removed it, because that entails removing the entire (and I mean entire) dashboard. I thought for sure that was the culprit, but it has a totally different smell. Like a wet dog.

I'm about at my wits end with this. Any ideas?

this may sound really mean and insulting but all that i can say is if something ever gets wet dry it out asap moldy carpet and seats is a aweful smell and a pain to ever get out

My house was in a flood, about 8 years ago. 6 ft of water. After the clean up and drying out, my wife got us a Deionizer from her work. let it run for about 1 mo, in a gravel crawl space. You truely couldn't smell a thing after. I thought it worked great. I was the service manager for a car dealership, I would use one on used cars that had heavy cig smoke or odors. On bad vehicles, I would leave it run inside, windows up, for two days.... hope this helps.

Sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and let it set for a day. Then vacuum it out. Worked like a charm in my buddy's convertible Mustang that the carpet got wet in.

Or something cheap and easy would be coffee (absorbs odors) or Febreeze. Am all too familiar with "the smell". Ours went away after we removed the carpet (and repaired the rust holes from all the water).

Thanks for the ideas. I tried both Baking Soda and Febreze a few months ago, and it didn't really do anything... it was the stuff underneath the carpet that was wet, not the carpet itself.

I like the deionizer idea. Where could I find one of those?

I'm just so puzzled why it still smells, even after the carpet is out...

remove the carpet right now.

take out the foam underneath, you can get more if you like, but the water in there is going to fester until it rusts through. youll regret not taking it out.

you can install the carpet back in afterwards, and its not difficult at all

Carpet??? Herculiner it and be done.

markw said:

Carpet??? Herculiner it and be done.

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Amen.

You should be able to rent one from a good rental store. I was fortunate, my wife barrowed one from the hotel she worked for. Know anyone in the house keeping dept. at a hotel? They use them for removing smoke and such from rooms. Did you seal the bulkhead under windshield? Can it be sealed by resealing under the windshield? Let me know how the Deionizer works for you, if you use it....... r/c-pilot

Some of the plastic trim panels - the kick panels in front and the quarter panels in the back (aka cubbyhole) - are backed with the same material as the carpet is backed with. You might want to pull these and check that they have not gotten soaked.

Also, if you lift the rubber/foam firewall sheet in the passenger footwell, there is some insulation in a plastic bag underneath it that is no doubt waterlogged - pull and toss it.

Do a sniff test of the vents and make sure it's not coming from inside the hvac assembly.

r/c pilot may be thinking of an ozone generator rather than a deionizer. Ozone will eat the smell no problem, but it will also eat your lungs so don't be in an enclosed space with it. A true deionizer is harmless, but does more for eliminating airborne particles, whereas ozone will sterilize the source of the odor.

Headliner is definitely worth checking, as the roof rails are a common leak spot.

I tried to remove as much of that insulation as possible when I pulled the carpet, so the kickpanels are out, too. I sniffed the stuff behind the rear quarterpanel interior plastic, but it seemed alright. I already tossed the insulation bags, too... there's one in the cubbyhole and another on the opposite side, right underneath the filler neck. They weren't waterlogged, but were pretty yucky.

As much as I hate to do it, I'll pull the headliner and see if there are any leaks up there. I'd expect to see it drip through, though. It isn't very thick.

Everything behind the windshield is sealed, except for the heater box. When I pull the dash to fix that, I'll open up the box and try to sterilize it. They make a heater core/evaporator spray that is supposed to eliminate HVAC odors by killing bacteria as condensation forms on the outside of the core. I might try that.

So, would something like a Sharper Image air purifier be considered an ozone generator? I know those are mostly branded as ionizers/deionizers, but they do give off some ozone. Once the ozone sanitizes the source of the odor, is there any chance it'll come back, assuming the material doesn't get wet again?

I just pulled my carpeted there Were pools of water under the Seats. I don't know where it came from but I hope with the herculiner it doesn't stink anymore

i would try deodorizing everything. seats, head linner, everything cloth left.

then wash everything else. glass, plastic trim bare metal. if there is any mold, (even if not) use something with bleach for all but fabric and glass. the bleach will help kill the mold and a possible source of the smell.

if the seats are out, sprinkle the entire seat (back and underside too) with deororizing powder like carpet powder. it will kill some odor and replace with a more pleasant one.

i had to do some of this when i had mold in my cargo area and under the rear seat. i had to physicaly wash the rear seat to get the last of the odor out

hth
stewie

Today I took apart the seats and washed everything individually. I was surprised at how easily everything came apart. The fabric covers are held together with thin wire bars and wire rings. I soaked the outer seat fabric and got most of the surface junk out (you should have seen the water!), and then I washed everything in the washing machine.

It really helped with restoring these pieces. There was a faint hint of something unpleasant coming from the seats, but even if this doesn't help with the other odor, I'm glad to know that my seats are truly clean. It really softened up the material and the vinyl looks a lot better, too.

The seat foam doesn't appear to hold any smells, fortunately. I still steam-cleaned it just to be safe.

I also cut out the rubber-backed foam underneath the dash, or at least as much as I could reach. I'm going to replace it anyway. That really made a difference... I bet that's where the remainder of the odor was coming from.

Still gotta clean all the plastic and fix the leaks.

Go to a janitorial supply store and check with them, there are several options for differant sprays that will fix the problem as long as all the leaks are fixed, if you where closer I could help you out. I think we have some awsome stuff at a decent price made by johnson chemical, leaves a green apple smell for about 4 days though.

Take the carpet to a drycleaning place...........shampoo the headliner and seats, wipe it in (or whatever the directions say, my mom did mine....haha) and then vacuum it......

Febreeze, too....or the ionization stuff works well!

You could also spray lysol into all of the HVAC vents, including the HVAC fresh air intake by the windshield wipers.....

Seafoam.

Seafoam.

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WTF?
Anyways Yea the smell will get into your seats. Even the mold WILL itself get into the seats. Kinda like why they mold spot houses during inspections.

Seafoam? I don't think that's a good idea. It is quite greasy and likes to stain concrete.....