I've got this old XJ6, its been sitting for a long time, some rain got in, possibly some mice as well. Bottom line is it smells bad. It always smelled like old car, not a good smell, and then it smelled like old car+mildew (my bad, left a window open during the biggest storm of the season), and now it smells like old car+mold/mildew+mouse urine.

I left a wrench on the passenger seat for a couple of days, and even the wrench smells bad now. Thing is, I put thousands of dollars, probably $8-10k over the past few years and I don't have any spare $ for re-upholstery now. It now runs like a champ, but smells like a loser.

Anything I can do to kill the various smells that have take over this car, including the old car smell? I know it needs a true reupholstering, but the car isn't even worth $750 blue book.

 

If there is mold/mildew within the seats and carpet, that is going to be a very difficult job. Because it's within the fibers. You could leave it in the sun with all the doors open (disconnect the battery) for 3 days. You could buy 4 to 5 tubs of damp x and leave it in the car for a few weeks, follow the instructions. Again, these are band-aids, because the carpet and seats need to be replaced. The mold is under the carpets.

 

There are risks involved, but in difficult situations like that, I've been known to seal a full-size Ionic Breeze in a vehicle to help kill odors.

That is, of course, after using Damp-Rid repeatedly in hot sun and THOROUGHLY cleaning everything in the car.

 

Ok, folks, thanks so much, leaving it in the baking sun with the windows and sunroof open for a week really got rid of the unpleasant smell. My hope had been that there was some kind of advanced mold-killing spray product that I could buy and blast the interior with, but looks like good old fashioned solar rays and heat have done the job!

 

Hi,

UV light is the best mold killer of all. I have seen it done with an old MK1 that had been sitting in a shed for years.

What they did, after getting it running again, was to exposing to as much sunshine as possible and also used tanning lamps on the inside for some short time.

In the inside of the car, they put small bowls of Sodium Hypochloride (bleach) to evaporate for 1 day in the blazing sun of the South of France.

That brought the whole interior to a, say, non-smell state.

Afterwords, some "new-car-smell-spray" was applied, followed by a thorough interior cleaning and vacuuming.

Worked nicely.

Takeo.