How to get the smell of previous owner out of cloth seats (150k miles worth of smell)

I bought a 2.5 gen SR5 with 150k miles. It's a solid truck, well taken care of, and the Interior is near mint.

The only thing that bugs me is the smell, it smells like someone else's house who hasn't been aired out. It's not a stinky smell, just a strong smell of someone else.

I tried spraying the seat with a carpet cleaner, using a wet vacuum, and wiping it down with alcohol wipes. I left a box of baking soda inside hoping it'll soak up the smell. Air fresheners only mask the smell.

What else can I do?

 

I was a mid level supervisor for a company for years. All my company trucks were hand-me down from the company president who always traveled with a couple dogs. I would use my company credit card to buy high quality seat covers. Super clean the interior with bleach and alcohol wipes, vacuum repeatedly for several weeks and spray a bleach solution into the cabin air intake with the air set to recirculate. This worked well

 

I’d try ozone… change the r cabin filter as well. Or run an extractor on the seats and carpet…

 

I second full interior extraction followed by ozone and should be gone

 

Buy leather Katzkin replacement seat covers.

Mike

 

Could the headliner also be causing this? I know back in the day smoke/smells were harder to get out of the headliner than the seats.

 

Fabreze

the extra strong one. Unscented

 

Stop being such a princess for a few days? LOL

Seriously, it's a self solving problem. Just air it out. You got a garage? Park it with the windows open with a big ass fan blowing into one of them. Drive around with all the windows rolled down.

You'll come out the other side of this a better, stronger man.

 

This. Ozone generator from Amazon. I've done it in vehicles and it can work. Might take more than 1 cycle of 30 minutes at a time and then let vehicle air out for a day after treatment. Ozone is poisonous so do some research on it. On the upside, if there are any critters in there, it'll dispatch them. This is the one I have used.

$100 Enerzen Ozone Generator 60000mg Industrial O3 Air Purifier Deodorizer (60000mg - Black)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JAP7388?ie=UTF8

You can also try sprinkling several boxes of baking soda on the carpets and cloth seats and then vacuuming it after a couple of days of all the windows up. Another method I have used that works good is plain old charcoal in tubs sealed up in the car. It also absorbs odors well.

 

I'll try that

I want to get rid of the smell before throwing any seat covers. Last thing I want is the new cover smelling.

I want to be a princess. Do you want to build a snowman?

 

I've used these in my work truck that has several different people driving it..
My wife bought a MKC that had the smell of a smoker we didn't notice when we test-drove it.
It took a few weeks, but they seemed to help..

$12 Ozium 4.5 Oz. 4 Pack Odor Eliminating Gel for Homes, Cars, Offices and More, Original Scent, 4 Pack

Amazon.com: Ozium 4.5 Oz. 4 Pack Odor Eliminating Gel for Homes, Cars, Offices and More, Outdoor Essence, 4 Pack : Everything Else

Also sprayed this into the cabin air intake outside the windshield and damped the cabin filter after replacing it..

$13 Ozium 8 Oz. Air Sanitizer & Odor Eliminator for Homes, Cars, Offices and More, Original Scent, Pack of 2

Amazon.com: Ozium 8 Oz. Air Sanitizer & Odor Eliminator for Homes, Cars, Offices and More, Original Scent, Pack of 2 : Health & Household

 

I'd get all of the seats steam cleaned then put nice covers on if you feel the need.

 

Freshly ground coffee in an open container. Change weekly for 6 or so weeks. Unless the smells are incredibly severe this will work.

I hate chemical "smells good" scents. This has always been my go-to.

 

I had a car many years ago with the same issue; only thing that worked was having all the cloth surfaces steam cleaned by a detailer.

YMMV

 

I’ve had success with thorough cleaning, multiple ozone treatments, and letting it air out for extended periods (leave open in the garage for a week or two). Ozone degrades plastic and rubber over time, but it’s really helpful after the cause of the smell is removed (clean).

 

X2 on lots of airing out.

Also, remove the seats. Put them in bright sunlight for as long as possible.

 

Time to upgrade to some Katskins

 

Prices have gone up, but you can still get a Katzkin factory equivalent set for $780 as of today:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1739274697...sYcueRTR0W&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Install is tedious but not horrific and there are a couple of really helpful walkthroughs on this site. I did it a couple years ago ($550) and absolutely love it.

AlmightyCrash did the best write up I found, and there are a couple others you can reference on this site to get even more detail.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/leather-heated-seat-front-and-rear-installation-write-up.35837/

You may not want to tackle this, but if that stank doesn't go away, it will be one of the few options left. Plus, you can add heated seats easily while you're doing it- if you live in a cool climate, another nice upgrade- great for after building snowmen!

 

^^^^
I’m not sure if the OP understands the Katzkin covers are ‘replacements’ for his OEM seat covers… if the OEM cloth covers are the cause of the smell, the new Katzkin covers will solve the issue.

I’m sensitive to smell. I bought my Tundra pre-owned. The original owner had a dog that traveled with him. In the PNW, that means wet dog and smell. I had the dealer replace the factory cloth OEM Seat covers with Katzkin to remove the smell. My truck no longer smells like wet dog.

Mike

 

$100 Enerzen Ozone Generator 60000mg Industrial O3 Air Purifier Deodorizer (60000mg - Black)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JAP7388
I purchased my fj trail teams sight unseen since I’d had an fj before and it was a good deal with great service history. Only thing was that it was heavily smoked in and wasn’t disclosed to me prior to purchase and shipment. You live and learn but to remedy the smoke I bought something similar to the link attached. I ran the machine for a few hours inside the fj with it on and off with air circulating and it removed the smoke smell. I remember reading about it back in the fj forums but yeah man it worked for me.

 

This was a dumbass comment that provided zero help. Great job.

 

The smell is in the foam/cushions in the seats. Take the seat covers off spray everything down with Lysol for a couple days in a row leaving the truck open, do the same with carpet,,, spray and clean that. When you are done you can put the OEM covers back on provided you cleaned them thoroughly. If not get Katzkin leather and replace the OEM covers.

 

Adam’s polishes sells a scent bomb kit that I used to get a smoke smell out of a RAM I bought used. Only smelt like smoke when it sat in the sun. One of those bombs and I never smelt anything bad in the truck again

 

Damn right it was. Thanks for putting me in my place!

 

Coffee beans or grinds for a few days while it is closed up, supposedly that can get strong smells out!

 

I purchased the Adam scent bomb, will update once I done it.

 

I rescued my current pup, Magnus, and on his inaugural trip home we got stuck in Ft Worth traffic. I noticed a smell comin from the back seat and saw an extremely happy dog sitting opposite from the largest pile of dog crap I'd ever seen in my life (I've seen large piles before as I was raised around cattle). He then proceeded to piss the largest amount of piss I'd ever seen come from a living organism on the opposite side of the pile. It was bumper to bumper and not moving....I rolled all 4 windows down in a truck that was probably only a few months old at that time. It was probably 95 deg outside.

I got home and put him in the back yard then shoveled out the mess and scrubbed with soap and water and some stuff I got off the shelf at O'Reilly's (blue can with a scrubber on top). I left the back windows down for a week and no joke it was like it never happened. Never had a smell and zero stains. I'm sure the TX heat helped.

 

Great thread here -
highly suggested

https://www.tundras.com/threads/interior-detailing-helper-thread.71041/