My truck smells like a**

[Trunk Monkey]

So, here's a little tip for you all. When your wife goes to the store and buys groceries, when she comes home and can't find the milk, when she tells you she's pretty sure she left it at the store, she didn't. It's sitting in the 3rd row seats, on it's side, where it will sit for a couple of days and slowly leak out.

I've got most of the stench out of the carpet, but the seat still reaks. I've fabreezed the hell out of it, but it still comes back. Any thoughts? Burn it and bury the ashes?

[erics_bruisers]

ew --

maybe take them to an upholsterer and get them dis-assembled, cleaned, and then re-assembled --

-- or chuck 'em and buy someone's set for cheap --

e

[Doc]

Ewe Ar skrewd.

Pull the carpet, wash it, try it again.

Milk is one of the worst smells you can possiably try to get out.

[Kaderabek]

Put a couple haddock back there, after a day or so you won't notice the milk smell anymore.

[archie]

Put some charcoal brickets in the truck. Charcoal usually absorbs odors so this might be a simpler solution for now.It might cure it. Keep us up to date on what works.

[Junk]

Toss yo mom back there it may help.

OK, seriously now, definitely try the charcoal. Can you park the truck some place where you can leave all the windows (including the rear sliding windows) open for a few days?

Dang that is nasty.

[Doc]

Sidenote: I used to do this to people's cars in my more mischevious days. Find an open sunroof, pour in the milk.....


Ugh... glad the 80's sunroof is really too high for most kids to reach.

[Kaderabek]

Originally Posted by Junk

OK, seriously now, definitely try the charcoal.

I hear that Matchlight works a little faster.

TJK

(Sorry -- this sucks.)

[TX_TLC]

I second the idea to let it air out...once you seal up the windows...it just lets it bake in there more....

This reminds me of my old frat/college days...we used to cover our pledges with this nasty stuff...it could be worse...imagine this:

55 gal. drum...filled with milo...filled with rest of the way with milk...like a milo milk shake....then cap it and open it ever month to remoisten with milk...(we could get free spoiled milk from the grocery store)...this was a continual process...there had to be some rotten milo/milk in there from years back...

It would get into your pores and hair follicals....and even months down the road...if you started sweating..you could smell IT!....

Good luck...

[Trunk Monkey]

As I've checked around the net for tips, the NPR Car Talk guys mentioned in an article that the smells you'll never get out of a car are cigarettes, fish and milk.

As soon as I found it, I took all the carpet out of the back, took the seat out and opened all the windows. The carpet is good now, but I think it's in the foam of the seat, which would mean it's pretty much ruined. I'll try the charcoal.

I feel like that Seinfeld episode with the valet that had BO.

[Junk]

Repeat, air it out. If that means you need to take out the seat, then do it. This happened to my folks years ago. Milk came from the local dairy and still used glass bottles. One broke in the truck and it smelled bad. We let it air out for like as long as we could without rain and it was fine. Now quit crying and air it out

[Big_Moose]

Go to your local pet store & purchase "Granulated Carbon" from the tropical fish section. Place the carbon underneath the seat cover / against the foam to remove the odors. You can also crush the carbon and place the dust on the carpet for a day or so, and then vacuum (dust could leave a black residue). Another, method would be to try "Baking Soda" to adsorb the lovely aroma of putrified milk

[Doc]

I'd pull the 'infected' seat and take it to an auto apoulstry (sp?) shop and have them strip the seat, and treat the foam with something.

[wob]

Also, don't ever assume that the dumba$$ at the register forgot your two pound package of ground beef. You could take a corner too fast on the way home, where it can slide out of the bag perfectly into the cubby hole on the passenger door. Then, after three days of 90 degree heat, you discover that awful smell isn't your old shoes in the back of the truck, and the girl at the register isn't as incompetent as you think. At least that was on plastic, and relatively easy to clean up.

[Trunk Monkey]

Seat hasn't been in the truck since it happened. Just put the carpet back in last night. The 3rd row seats look fairly easy to pull apart, I prolly do that, see if I can get the foam out and take it to an upholstery shop to see if they can make a new one.

As a side note of bad car smells, we opened a can of tuna, drained it, and put it inside the door panel of my friends car. Sent him off on his honeymoon that way. Got a call a couple days later - he was PISSED.

[mabrodis]

I'm not sold on the let it air-out thing. I would pour lots and lots of water/soap on/in the seat, to throughly soak it, then try to squeeze as much water out as you can (or suck it out with a shopvac), keep doing that. IMO air drying milk will never smell good, but if you can get the milk out or atleast diluted alot, then air drying the water in there will be fine. I'd use lots of water and the strongest cleaner you can handle on the seat, preferably bleach, but I wouldn't try that, many ammonia, then atleast it'll smell different.

Good Luck. In college my friends would leave Fritos laying all around my car, kept smelling worse and worse, I didn't drive it much (on campus) so just baked in the sun...when I finally investigated there was a handful of chips under the back seat (which flipped up thank goodness) all covered in green mold, looked about 3 times their normal size, nasty!! And smelled...even left stains in the carpet, not like I cared in my cool Ford Escort...

[MoJ]

Hotels use an electric odor neutralizer to de-funk non-smoking rooms that have been smoked in. IIRC it produces ozone. It works wonders. If it's in the foam of the seat just have the seat stripped and foam replaced.

As a side note - the worst car prank I ever pulled: I once placed a frozen turkey head (left over from a hunting trip) under the seat of a "friend's" truck. Wedged it between the sinuous support springs. After a day the car was undriveable. That was 10 years ago and I have yet to experience anything that smelled worse.

[Gumby]

I had swamp water smell in my 80 after the last couple of trips to the Cliffs. I have no idea how it happened. That's the story the wife gets and nobody's gonna tell her different. i got some Maguires car deoderizor stuff. Works like Fabreeze only better. You spray it on and it gets the smell out. Doesn't just cover it up. Rotten milk is a long way from swamp water, but this stuff is designed for organic smells so it might help.

[Exiled]

Originally Posted by MoJ

Hotels use an electric odor neutralizer to de-funk non-smoking rooms that have been smoked in. IIRC it produces ozone. It works wonders. If it's in the foam of the seat just have the seat stripped and foam replaced.

As a side note - the worst car prank I ever pulled: I once placed a frozen turkey head (left over from a hunting trip) under the seat of a "friend's" truck. Wedged it between the sinuous support springs. After a day the car was undriveable. That was 10 years ago and I have yet to experience anything that smelled worse.

Good one!
When I was in high school (a LOOOOONG time ago) we put 1/2 pound of raw ground shrimp (shells and all) behind the chrome trim strips of our principal's Malibu Classic. Two days of 90 degree weather and you couldn't even come within 25' of the car! He, he!

Cory, I've used the charcoal bags to get fish smell (cooler full of fish slowly leaked some of the "juice" during a 17-hour trip back from the outback) out of a Land Cruiser. Park it in the sun, with the windows closed, with two or three bags of charcoal throughout the truck. Spread out some trash bags on the carpet and spread the charcoal out to get maximum coverage. You might also want to try a de-humidifier, Park the truck in the sun, put the dehumidifier inside it, plugged in, and let it run as long as possible.

Good luck! An ex-girlfriend once dumped a whole glass of guava juice down the A/C vent of my first FJ60, and two years later, it still smelled of sickly sweet/rotten fruit....

[mot]

I've used this de-odorizer thing that you just add water in the container and leave it in the car with the windows rolled up, aircon/heater on full blast in fresh-air (not recirculate) mode for 10-15 min. It smokes out the bad smell, so-to-speak, I guess.

It worked pretty well, but I can't recall if there was a similar product in the US or not.

Yeah, I'm a big help.

Good luck!

[Poriomania]

I would try going to whole foods or some hippie type place and getting some tea tree oil or a combination and using that. If you have the seat out already put it in a plastic bag and put some essential oil a rag and toss it in with the seat. Don't add directly to the leather. Try this before the turkey head thing.

[scottm]

Wife uses a lot of Oxi-Clean here for messes from dogs, kids, husband. I'm amazed at the stuff, never noticed any smell after cleaning stuff that gagged me from the stench.

[bkgiii]

Cory:

Here’s what I did after buying two ‘new’ complete seats off eBay that were not identified as having come from a fire-damaged LX…

1. Install seats;
2. Notice ‘burn’ odor a week of hot days later (with the windows up);
3. Remove seats;
4. Clean leather 2x with Lexol cleaner (not conditioner);
5. Douse seat foam (all) with Febreeze, let dry / air out for 3-4 days;
6. Repeat #5 one more time (we were having clear / hot weather at the time, so I left them outside);
7. Clean / Condition leather;
8. Reinstall seats (See Note Below)
9. Notice ‘slight’ odor (may have been imagined) about 2 weeks later;
10. Buy ‘odor eliminator fogger’ (like an aerosol bug-bomb) from chemical supply house. Said to eliminate, not mask, biological / organic odors.
11. Set off bug-bomb in vehicle, close windows / doors, leave vehicle running with AC on Recirculate for about 15 – 20 minutes.
12. Immediately air out vehicle for about an hour.
13. Repeat #12 the following week, just for good measure.
14. Enjoy absence of odor.

NOTE: before I reinstalled the seats, I took the opportunity to remove / pressure wash / air dry the carpet and remove / air dry the pad (made necessary from an earlier event).

Finally, regarding the tuna / milo / frito / ground beef / milk - - nothing compares to a freshly – shot rabbit placed strategically under front seat of best friend’s Heep Cherokee while at hunting camp….he (finally) located it 2 weeks later….I think the maggots tipped him off.

[Nay]

Your wife has given you the perfect excuse to open up the wallet. Rip out all the seats. Install an internal cage with racing seat and harness tie-ins. Remove all the carpet (offroad used carpet always ends up smelling like a$$ - you may be used to it, but that's like thinking your house doesn't smell like dog sh$t when you own a couple of big dogs). Install duramat xtreme for sound deadening and then durabak or rhino-line the interior bed. Install racing seats with five point harnesses.

Really, it is the only safe thing to do .

Nay

[acf]

Originally Posted by FZJFillmore

As a side note of bad car smells, we opened a can of tuna, drained it, and put it inside the door panel of my friends car. Sent him off on his honeymoon that way. Got a call a couple days later - he was PISSED.

HAHA!!!! We did the same thing to a buddy who got married. The best part is they drove the whole way from RI to Maine with the tuna can under the seat. My buddy said he just leered at his wife the whole trip but never said anything! BWAHAHAHA!

[BOUNDER]

Wet sponge, a medium brush and some...

[sseaman]

my kids ave spilled milk a couple times, or left a sippy cup under a seat leaking milk for days. febreeze, and time will help.

[Grolar]

Happened to my folks with a French cheese "forgotten" in the trunk for days. Not pretty. You would have to sell the car to a Frenchman.
On the tech side: wholefoods hippie stuff indeed often works amazingly. But in yr case I would just douse the stain with a non bleach spray and wait and vent.