Motoring Discussion > Removing unpleasant smells Miscellaneous
Thread Author: legacylad Replies: 16
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 00:09 
 Removing unpleasant smells - legacylad
A friend of mine recently had a sudden bout of vomiting in her car. Nasty. Very nasty.
She was on her way back from work where she had felt ill, on the motorway, so could not suddenly pull over.
Poor hubby has washed everything down but the smell is pervasive.
Any suggestions please, which I shall forward.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 00:20 
 Removing unpleasant smells - rtj70
It's more likely to be a case of not removing the vomit and that may be difficult depending on where it went. Did it get into fabric, vents, carpets?

If you can get an insurance pay out for creosote spilled in a car then perhaps vomit is covered too
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 00:23 
 Removing unpleasant smells - henry k
I thought bicarbonate of soda was the normal answer but

Google? removing sick smell from car
Lots of hits:-(
www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/cars-motoring-611/301459-help-getting-rid-sick-smell-car-seat-car.html

www.ehow.com/video_5146640_vomit-out-carpeting.html
and other things.

I expect our car cleaning expert will be on the case tomorrow with his best method.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 00:36 
 Removing unpleasant smells - rtj70
I think key to this is getting rid of the vomit that may be in places unseen. And then the smell.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 01:24 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Armel Coussine
Puke is the taxi driver's nightmare. A colleague in south London, a Scot, told a story of seeing something on the windscreen and turning on the wipers. Naething happened! It was on the inside! The punter was projectile vomiting! Aaaaargh!

I once had a job taking a very drunk teenage girl home. At a certain point I thought she looked as if she was about to be sick. I stopped the car, opened her door and told her to put her feet outside. She did, poor lamb, and wasn't sick. But she seemed so helpless that I stayed and watched her in through her front door.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 06:38 
 Removing unpleasant smells - L'escargot
>> Puke is the taxi driver's nightmare.

I remember being in a taxi when we passed a roadside demonstration where there were placards saying "Honk if you support our cause". The taxi driver said to me "Woe betide anyone who honks in my taxi".
:-)
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 01:55 
 Removing unpleasant smells - No FM2R
Assuming its got into crevices, or was on absorbent material (like carpet) then nothing you rub on the surface will do anything other than mask it.

If its carpets, then they need to come out, because its soaked in and is underneath. Take them out, and wash them so that the water can soak right through and off the other side.

If its a crevice, then whatever is shielding it needs to be removed.

One of mine threw up in the back. I removed the seats and carpets and hosed down the rest. A nightmare to dry, but it did no particular harm and the smell went.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 10:11 
 Removing unpleasant smells - bathtub tom
>>If its a crevice, then whatever is shielding it needs to be removed.

Couldn't agree more.

I've experienced it a couple of times. The first taught me the lesson. Remove carpets, door card, seat squab and back (spanner job). Then thoroughly wash everything and let it dry. The car may be in bits for several days!
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 07:45 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Dog
Call in a mobile car valeting service geezer.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 12:11 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Stuu
www.autosmart.co.uk/Interior%20Cleaners.html

For things like this I use the Bio Brisk. Its very effective though strong smell in use so need ventilation.

The thing with vomit is not the bits you can see, but the fluid that soaks into the base of carpets and beyond the reach of a scrubbing brush. You do need to get the fabric base wet and then hoover it out in order to rinse the base aswell as the pile.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 15:47 
 Removing unpleasant smells - zookeeper
if your passengers ( children) are prone to vomiting in the car shove a load of opal fruits down them before the journey, that way at least the car will smell like a fruitery should any mishap occur
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 16:00 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Armel Coussine
Children's vomit isn't quite as bad as adults', partly because there's usually less of it.

My eldest daughter threw up down the back of my neck once in a hired Transit. I wasn't best pleased but it must have been forty years ago. She wouldn't do it now.

Merely spilling milk on the carpets and not washing it out can make a car smell utterly disgusting after a few days, just as bad as vomit and not dissimilar.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 16:06 
 Removing unpleasant smells - CGNorwich
My worst spillage in a car was 5 litres of white emulsion which I had foolished placed on the front passenger seat. Sharp braking caused the inevitable disaster.
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 21:53 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Dave_
>> >> Puke is the taxi driver's nightmare

Incontinent passengers were more common when I did it. More unpleasant too.

>> My worst spillage in a car was 5 litres of white emulsion

I saw an Escort van in a salvage yard once with minor shunt damage to the front end. However, it had white gloss paint all over the dashboard, windscreen, carpet, doors and passenger seat - and on the sides and back of the driver's seat. I wonder if he's got it all out of his hair yet.

To the OP: As other posters have said, the only way is to completely eradicate all traces of the liquid content from every surface it came into contact with. Masking it with cleaning stuff won't work.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 1 Sep 12 at 21:54
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 23:18 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Zero
Buy a dog. It will seek out and lick up all the old puke, and replace the smell with one of its own.

A labrador, preferably a wet one, is best.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 1 Sep 12 at 23:18
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New Sat 1 Sep 12 23:35 
 Removing unpleasant smells - bathtub tom
An old memory.

We were travelling back from a corporate booze up event and one of the occupants of the people carrier managed to open the window and deposit his stomach contents outside. The driver later reported that he thought he should at least give it a hose down, but found the local birds had pecked it all off.
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New Sun 2 Sep 12 09:15 
 Removing unpleasant smells - Ambo
A folk remedy is an open receptacle such as a washing up bowl filled with fresh grass clippings and placed in a footwel. Change when it, too, gets smelly. I don't know how long it takes as I have never used it.
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