My '87 IROC has smelled better days.................

Right now, it STINKS... It has a very distinct, nasty odor to it. The previous owner smoked in it all the time.

My question is, how many of you had stinky cars when bought used?

Also, what did you do to remedy the situation. I've already used Fabreeze and air fresheners to no effect.

I have a feeling that my seats contains some of the culprit, as does the carpet... here goes:

When you changed your seats and carpet, did the smell go away soon after? Did the new carpet and new/used seats help too?

I'm not going for a new car scent, just a more pleasant one. Did anyone put anything under their carpet when they replaced it to put some smell good stuff into the interior?

 

eeh....if your willing to and are decent at cleaning stuff like the carpet and seats, and if you have a few days at least, you can do it yourself.......i clean my parents cars inside and out some times.....mostly my dads because my brother constantly is adding crap to my moms minivan to make it disgusting on the inside and theres no way to stop him he's so stupid lol.
But just get yourself some carpet cleaner stuff from wal mart or something, rip the seats out if you can, follow the directions on the cleaner stuff on the carpet, maybe do it once or twice (today and tomorrow maybe) if its a badly stained/smelly carpet.
As for the seats....just use the same stuff proabbly, but not too much of it.....(BTW use a shopvac or a powerful vacume in the whole care before any of this)
After doing that, if you have T-Tops, i'd say park the car in a nice, sunny area, maybe put an old screen door over the roof and take the t-tops off so air can go in and out, sunlight can go in and out, but if you live like where i live, leafs, bugs, and....bird poop lol, kinda get stopped.roll the windows down too....
After its all dry (or close to dry), i'd still go to AutoZone or Wal Mart or any of those places and get some automotive spray freshener.....you can get the new car smell stuff in the bottle....i personally like that smell more than like those 'fresh pine smell' ones, plus you can just take that bottle and spray a bit in the car like every month or so so it stays smelling 'new and fresh', and it will hide any other small odors that you cant get rid of....lol

 

I'll be swapping carpet and seats anyhow. My carpet is RED and I want black.

I just bought a set of '96 SS leather seats.

 

awsome :-D

 

I hadn't noticed the distinct odor of my car because I bought it when it was cold out and odors are less noticeable in the cold. But after sitting in the sun, it really started to stink. I found a leak- the cause of the moldy smell. I removed rear seats and rear carpet. Still stinks. Then I noticed it was really bad behind the passenger seat. OLD PUKE!!! Ripped out all the carpet and got new front seats. I think I got it under control. But all I got is bare sheet metal now!!

 

To get rid of that musky used car after being smoked in smell I had to replace my seats and carpet.

Good luck.

 

I haven't bought my carpet yet, but I took out my center console and seats today... WHOA - Cigarette Central.

Apparently, the previous owner(s) like two things:

Marlboro Lights
&
F*cking up perfectly good wiring to disconnect a feature: The owner cut my power antenna wire, cut the radio harness out, cut the harness off of the hatch pull-down and they also had NO idea how to route power/ground cables for subs.

 

I have not had ANY control of my HVAC system since I bought my car. No temp control, no A/C, vents, Bi-Lev, no defrost... No fan speed control either. The entire panel does NOTHING.

I took the center console out today and noticed a few things:

First, all of the connections to the HVAC controls are there and connected.

Second, I noticed there is a screw that holds the temp cable to the HVAC controls: Mine was missing. Could that explain why my in cabin temps are always HHOTTTT?

Third: Nothing looks out of the ordinary.

As you may or may not know, I am going to be writing up a tech article on the 4thgen center console using a Firebird radio pod in a Camaro soon... I'd like to retain the factory look with the Firebird HVAC radio pod, therefore my question is:

As far as wiring and vacuum lines go, will the Camaro wiring/vacuum lines bolt up and work correctly with a Firebird HVAC setup?

ANYWAY, aside from possibly my entire HVAC setup not working, does anyone have any idea why my controls don't work?