Interior Chemical Smell Removal

AutowerxDetailing

AutowerxDetailing

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I have a client that brought me a used Acura TSX they bought used from a dealership in town. They wanted an interior detail and odor removal. The car was fairly clean but had a VERY strong citrus/lemon chemical cleaner smell. It wasn't like any cleaner I have smelled before and it was very overpowering.

Long story short I performed a full interior detail (cleaned all surfaces thoroughly including shampoo/extract carpets, clean & condition leather, steamed door panels, etc, etc. The vehicle then dried over night. The following day I ran an ozone generator with the interior sealed for approx 6-8 hours (30 mins with ac/heater running). By the end of the day the smell was probably 90-95% gone and they were happy.

That was about 2 months ago. Today I received an email from them that the smell is back. I am redoing a full interior detail for free to try and resolve the problem. I am planning on using CarPro So2Pure after steam cleaning all the surfaces again.

I have read all the So2Pure threads and am familiar with how it is supposed to work. I am looking for any feedback from anyone who has used it to remove a chemical cleaner type smell.

Feed back please
 
My thought is that some of is still in the ventilation system. Have you tried blowing steam through the vents? I have seen this done to kill some of the smell that comes from them.
 
You will be quite happy with SO2 Pure. I havent had any odor survive it. Spray it in the vents too!
 
also the return for the a/c filter might have to replace the iner cabin filter if the dealer put the stuff on that the smell will keep coming back
 
rider9195 said:
My thought is that some of is still in the ventilation system. Have you tried blowing steam through the vents? I have seen this done to kill some of the smell that comes from them.
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It seemed like the smell was mainly coming from the carpets but I will definitely try your suggestion.

Old Tiger said:
You will be quite happy with SO2 Pure. I havent had any odor survive it. Spray it in the vents too!
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I am glad to hear this. I haven't used it before but I need something that won't leave any smell behind. This ruled out an odor bomb or any sort of air freshener. I will definitely spray it in the vents.

axel06 said:
also the return for the a/c filter might have to replace the iner cabin filter if the dealer put the stuff on that the smell will keep coming back
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I will check on that as well. Thanks for the tip!
 
I used so2pure it removed some of the smell in my car but it left these white residue all over my black trims which were hard to remove.
 
bmwgeek said:
I used so2pure it removed some of the smell in my car but it left these white residue all over my black trims which were hard to remove.
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That's weird... I hope that doesn't happen to me. IIRC the interior is gray for this car.
 
Do you think a single 120ml bottle will be enough to coat the entire carpet, seats, headliner, vents, and possibly door panels of an Acura TSX?
 
Yes 120ml is enough. I used it in my caravan and still have some left.
 
I understand So2Pure is UV activated and is recommended to leave out in the sun, once the surface has been coated, to serve as a catalyst for the odor neutralization process. My question is, what if there is no sunlight available? I am looking for a way to make sure even on an overcast day the coating can do its job. Would a black light work to "activate" the coating?
 
Nicholas@Autowerx said:
I understand So2Pure is UV activated and is recommended to leave out in the sun, once the surface has been coated, to serve as a catalyst for the odor neutralization process. My question is, what if there is no sunlight available? I am looking for a way to make sure even on an overcast day the coating can do its job. Would a black light work to "activate" the coating?
Click to expand...

Bump for morning crew... any insight? The job is tomorrow and the weather is destined to be overcast with rain nearly all day.

Sent from my LG-VM701 using AG Online
 
Nicholas@Autowerx said:
I understand So2Pure is UV activated and is recommended to leave out in the sun, once the surface has been coated, to serve as a catalyst for the odor neutralization process. My question is, what if there is no sunlight available? I am looking for a way to make sure even on an overcast day the coating can do its job. Would a black light work to "activate" the coating?
Click to expand...

-Even though I've "heard" of black-lights serving as catalysts in some 'settings'...
I have doubts that they would be a replacement for the Sun's rays...

-I.R. lamps, on the otherhand, would---to a much better extent.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Side Bar:
I wonder what was the chronological-age of the previous owner..
Sometimes "Old Man Smell" is difficult to remove/live with...
According to my Dear Spouse, that is.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anyway...
-Here's wishing you success...these interior smells are an enigma at times.
May have to pull the seats and carpeting/padding out...
The Padding for both locations may be the culprit.
Clean (but don't pull-out) the Headliner also.


:)

Bob
 
So, I just finished up the odor removal job on this Acura...

I steam cleaned EVERYTHING including the carpets, headliner, leather, door panels, etc. I even removed the seats to make sure I could steam clean under them. Everything was wiped down with APC+ 10:1. Leather was treated with Pinnacle cleaner/conditioner. After allowing the carpets to dry I coated everything with CarPro So2Pure. I used an entire bottle and coated every visible surface with So2Pure. I also did the trunk... The vehicle is currently sitting outside in the sun, with the heat on, to let the coating go through it's photo catalyst process...

Question: How long does it take for the bad smells to go away??? I still smell a faint chemical smell from whatever was in the vehicle before but it isn't completely gone yet.
 
Long term So2Pure update!!!

My client that had the weird chemical smell in their Acura just handed me the keys to their ML 350 for another interior job. We got to talking about the Acura and they said that after about 1 or 2 weeks the smell was COMPLETELY gone. They were so happy.

CarPro So2Pure is the real deal!!! :dblthumb2:
 
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