My Car Stinks. Bad. Help.

[Jax]

You could contact a local professional auto detailer. They tend to have professional-size/rated ozone generators that monitor the level of ozone and can turn off automatically. We would run them overnight in cars that were especially bad with mostly positive results, zero effects on the plastics. Not sure about putrid chicken meat though.

This may help you avoid damage to your car: https://blogproautomotive.com/ozone-...ruined-my-car/

Good luck!

[Timberridge]

Cross post to the "Should I eat it?" thread.

[oftpiste]

That's in the queue of ideas. Hoping to resolve for less $$$ than that, but if ozone/coffee grounds don't work.....

You could contact a local professional auto detailer. They tend to have professional-size/rated ozone generators that monitor the level of ozone and can turn off automatically. We would run them overnight in cars that were especially bad with mostly positive results, zero effects on the plastics. Not sure about putrid chicken meat though.

This may help you avoid damage to your car: https://blogproautomotive.com/ozone-...ruined-my-car/

Good luck!

[frorider]

I did a dumb thing. So fire away. I left two big packages of chicken thighs in the car for 5 days in hot weather .

For our amusement can you share more about the how / why? Was it a stoner move? Or one of those crazy days running around getting things done before you leave on a trip? Or more of a Sous Vide strategy that went wrong?

[warthog]

This is the stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/FunkAway-Auto...yABEgJS4_D_BwE

My girls dance competitively. They had some costumes that came from China. Faux leather Michael Jackson jackets- they all smelled like dead fish. This was the only stuff that killed the stench.

If that doesn't work, have someone do an ear wax candle inside. You'll wish it smelled like funky chicken after that.

Edit- this is the one we used, not the car version-
https://www.amazon.com/FunkAway-Elim...59495886&psc=1

[John_B]

I did a dumb thing. So fire away. I left two big packages of chicken thighs in the car for 5 days in hot weather whilst I was a-boating. They didn't explode somehow, so no juices in fabric, but it fuckin' stinks.

Forgot the crab bait in the car huh?

[oftpiste]

more of a Sous Vide strategy that went wrong?

Well played. See below.

[oftpiste]

Forgot the crab bait in the car huh?

Nailed it. I was doing a last minute shopping trip before heading out for a few days on the water. Grocery store had boneless thighs on sale for .99 lb. in the big package. I bought three packages. One to take as bait, two to take home and freeze.

Drove the groceries and other collected supplies to the boat, unloaded, and left the two remaining packages in the back seat to take home but failed to remove them when I got there. Rode in a different vehicle to the boat drop-off the next morning and off I went for nearly a week. It was the hottest week of the year in the PNW.

Imagine my delight when I got in the car to visit my brother upon returning and noticed the rotting corpse aroma, and turned around to find the grocery bag in the back seat. Fortunately the packages had [somehow, miraculously] not exploded.

[Brownski]

Have you tried Febreeze?

[PNWbrit]

Nailed it. I was doing a last minute shopping trip before heading out for a few days on the water. Grocery store had boneless thighs on sale for .99 lb. in the big package. I bought three packages. One to take as bait, two to take home and freeze.

Drove the groceries and other collected supplies to the boat, unloaded, and left the two remaining packages in the back seat to take home but failed to remove them when I got there. Rode in a different vehicle to the boat drop-off the next morning and off I went for nearly a week. It was the hottest week of the year in the PNW.

Imagine my delight when I got in the car to visit my brother upon returning and noticed the rotting corpse aroma, and turned around to find the grocery bag in the back seat. Fortunately the packages had [somehow, miraculously] not exploded.

During the first summer of lockdown MrsBrit left a gallon of milk in the trunk of her car which then didn't get driven for a week of 90 degree temperatures. As I made the sharp downhill turn on our driveway I heard what sounded like a medicine ball roll around in the back and stopped to check. The thing was literally seconds from exploding and in fact did when I put in the garbage can.

If it had gone off in the car I think I would have had to arrange a fire or let it roll off a dock somewhere.

[stuckathuntermtn]

yeah, pretty much every day, but the stink is still in the car. wait, my own or someone else's?

Yes

[Bunion 2020]

Have you tried dogshit on the door handles as a distraction?

[Talisman]

I have also used used the ground coffee approach to get the lingering stench of vomit and cheap wine out of a car after carefully cleaning the interior of dried chunks. A couple of pounds of ground coffee spread out on newspaper for a few days did the trick. Now I would probably start with Fabreze.

We used coffee grounds once to get the smell of some spilt gasoline out of a previous vehicle. Worked wonders.

[SumJongGuy]

A dead fish under the seat for a week ought to take care of that rotten chicken smell..

[beaterdit]

If you go the ozone route, keep in mind that it degrades plastics. I'd use it 10-15 minutes at a time. I used it to take the stank out of an old tent. Highly recommend.

Electronics too, and pretty much everything. The electronics though, you can literally brick your car if you're not careful. Still safe to use but you wanna kinda know what you're doing to use it in a car. Thus the professionals.

[oftpiste]

A dead fish under the seat for a week ought to take care of that rotten chicken smell..

The dead fish cooked up just as tasty as the chicken but didn't remove the stank.

[oftpiste]

say more please? getting ready to fire up Brit's loaner ozone generator. Thanks PNWB!

Electronics too, and pretty much everything. The electronics though, you can literally brick your car if you're not careful. Still safe to use but you wanna kinda know what you're doing to use it in a car. Thus the professionals.

[PNWbrit]

Electronics too, and pretty much everything. The electronics though, you can literally brick your car if you're not careful. Still safe to use but you wanna kinda know what you're doing to use it in a car. Thus the professionals.

I've used it dozens of times in different vehicles.

30 minutes max just because I didn't want to leave anything running inside a car longer.

Zero problems with plastics or electronics.

[Ted Striker]

Safe to say, the older the car the better RE:ECUs/electronics

[fatnslow]

say more please? getting ready to fire up Brit's loaner ozone generator. Thanks PNWB!

I took have used in a 2005 car multiple times for at least an hour hour without issues multiple times. Let the car air out after running it.

[AK47bp]

Change your cabin air filter too once you get most the stink out

[stuckathuntermtn]

Can someone explain how an ozone machine deodorizes? Is there some kind of chemical reaction between O3 and rot?

[oftpiste]

Can someone explain how an ozone machine deodorizes? Is there some kind of chemical reaction between O3 and rot?

apparently that third molecule somehow deactivates the stank particles.

[oftpiste]

Thank to the ozone loaner from PNWBrit it seems to be remedied. And we had a nice couple beers.

2 hours in the car, and a bunch of time watching YouTube vids on how to do it. No Seinfeld solution necessary..... yet.....

[Core Shot]

Can someone explain how an ozone machine deodorizes? Is there some kind of chemical reaction between O3 and rot?

The extra O atom is reactive and breaks down carbon molecules. It’s an oxidation reaction.

Hence it’s good for organic funk. Doesn’t work on inorganic smell