How to get rid of the mustyness in XR?

[Baldy_54]

I have tried frebreze and it did not work. It sat for about 5-6 years and it is musty smelling as well as some water got in. Anything short of replacing all of the seats etc.?

[boostfiend]

I have tried frebreze and it did not work. It sat for about 5-6 years and it is musty smelling as well as some water got in. Anything short of replacing all of the seats etc.?

Have you checked the spare tire well? Mine was carrying about two gallons of water when I brought it home.

[Ray]

pull the carpets up, see if the underlayment is wet.

another thing that works if you do have wetness --- take an extension cord out there and put in a dehumidifier for a couple days. you'll be surprised how much water it'll pull out of the car

[Baldy_54]

I have tried frebreze and it did not work. It sat for about 5-6 years and it is musty smelling as well as some water got in. Anything short of replacing all of the seats etc.?

Have you checked the spare tire well? Mine was carrying about two gallons of water when I brought it home.

You are so right Jon, the spare tire well had quite abit of water. I think I have the water under control. Have been opening the windows and letting the hot sun take care of some of the smell, really need something to kill the musty odor.

[deathbypsi]

An old trick I used to do on any used older car I bought was to turn the dash vents on cool,not a/c just cool and spray a disinfectant in the cowl vent while the blower motor was running and let it blow the Lysol through all the heater ducts.I got rid of some stink that way on a few cars.

And if you pull the carpet up and the padding is wet on the back side you would be best off to just rip it out because you will never get it to dry up.I am planning to pull my carpet out and rip the padding off my rug as well,then I will just lay some Dynamat or similar product on the floor to help with heat and noise.Then in the future I can wet vac the rug without fear of it staying soaked.

[jkxr4ti]

If you had that much water in the spare wheel well you should check the tail light gaskets. Odds are they are deteriorated and causing problems back there.

[Ed Lijewski]

I have tried frebreze and it did not work. It sat for about 5-6 years and it is musty smelling as well as some water got in. Anything short of replacing all of the seats etc.?

Have you checked the spare tire well? Mine was carrying about two gallons of water when I brought it home.

You are so right Jon, the spare tire well had quite abit of water. I think I have the water under control. Have been opening the windows and letting the hot sun take care of some of the smell, really need something to kill the musty odor.

Thing is, Baldy, the high humidity in our area (until today) meant very little evaporation of whatver is in the carpeting even with the Sun shining directly on it.

Maybe turn your leaf blower on it, on a dry day like today, or on your shop vac reverse the air flow. Worth a try.

YMMV

[Baldy_54]

Ed, I don't think there is any water in the car now, just the musty smell. Thought that maybe some of you might know of something that could be sprayed in the car to rid the smell. Was thinking of trying spreading some baking soda like they recommend using in the refrig. and then vaccuming it up. Worth a try maybe.

[John Brennan]

Baking soda will help-- leave an open box of it down there somewhere afterwards. Eventually, the smell will go away, since the source of it has been removed.

[Ed Lijewski]

One of my cars came with a tire well full of water, too, as well as years of dog hair on the carpets, as the car had sat unused for two years. I don't remember if there was a musty inside odor then, but my approach re the carpets and trunk liner was to shampoo the crap out of them, using my home carpet shampooer (smaller than but like what you can rent from supermarkets). IIRC, I went over all carpeting twice; did the open door with full sunshine maneuver over 2-3 days, and Voila: clean carpets and no odor.

Worth considering in your situation.

YMMV