CL02 Odor Treatment?

Is anyone experienced in CL02 odor treatments? I am at the end of the rope with my Tundra`s interior smell. Was a used construction truck-interior was a nightmare. Used a bissell on the seats, carpet and what was left was a slight must smell mixed with a Mequiars odor bomb(never again). I also pulled the carpet, pressure washed it, re-extracted the seats again, tried ozone machine-it`s still there. You can go around and smell each surface and individually there isn`t any major areas that are too bad-but getting into the truck in the morning the smell is there and really irritating.

Another forum suggested CL02 tablet to create vapor. Has anyone had luck with that method? Any other advice would be appreciated.

Headliners are often the culprit and can be most difficult to clean thoroughly.

Sorry this had to happen to you..
I have had a little experience with this...
In each case, I had to remove the awful, makes some people sick, odor of those bomb things...
First, I had to find the source of the original smell, and it turned out to be a really bad smoker`s car..
Cleaned with much carefully applied steam through a white towel on a triangle large brush head made for the steamer.
Sprayed Meguiars APC+ carefully, gave it the steam treatment, then carefully wiped the surfaces..
Every square inch of the BMW 5 Series.
After that 10+ hours, I had no more bomb smell, and I removed a LOT of sticky, sickening, Nicotine from every square inch of the car..
I used only white towels for wiping and all of them had that light brown color of nicotine - especially from all the glass..
That bomb smell is everywhere...
I had looked at ozone machines over 10 years ago and decided that nothing can really remove the source of a smell without physically removing it first, so I just did the work and never needed one.. Still don`t need one..
Headliners as has already been correctly stated above, are very delicate in some ways, and you do not want to damage the glue that is holding it all in place, if it is a traditional cloth headliner... I do not know what is in a Tundra truck..
You are on the right track with what you have done, but you have to be absolutely sure you have really cleaned every square inch of the entire Interior.
When you pulled the carpet out, did you pull the padding out and clean them both, and then the entire floor???
Some surfaces will give up the odor causing substance easier, like most plastics, leathers metal..
The inside glass I found to be totally full of nicotine, especially the driver side glass and the back glass on that same side..
This BMW smelled so bad from the bomb that the owner could not even drive it for a year because the bomb smell made him sick and gave him bad headaches..
After I finished the work, he was able to drive it for the first time since he bought it, and he was so happy..
The seatbelts especially the drivers and the front passengers are always really dirty from just body oils, etc., dirt, etc., that come off of the people who drive the car... If you clean them, and steam them, then wipe them really good, both sides with white towels, you will be amazed at the color of the dirt that comes off on the white towels...
I only use white towels, so I can first, see what is coming off, and what color it is. And then, when nothing comes off any longer on the towel, I know that part is clean and I can go to the next place...
Good luck with this !
Dan F

I just ordered a whole chlorine dioxide setup.
I`ll chime in once I`ve had a chance to use it.
It`s not too expensive to get into

You have to figure out what is the cause of the odor and remove it or change its chemistry. Stokdgs is right about cleaning everything, but you never said it was cig smoke. I have several ozone machines, ultra sonic misters and industrial cleaners and deodorizers from my Servicemaster buddy, but heavy cig smoke with a sun roof is hard to remove, as you can`t get between headliner and roof. Sun heats it up and it still smells.

Thanks for the input. When I pulled the carpet I dismantled a good portion of the interior. Cab floor was cleaned with bleach/water solution. Carpet was pressure washed-both sides-and set out in sun for 1 week on both sides to make sure the pad was 100% dry. I can bury my nose in the carpet and it does not smell. I wiped down all plastics with APC-no smell. I have not taken off door panels-I suspect if there is any insulation material it will have the odor bomb smell. Headliner has been cleaned with P&S Carpet Bomber and rag gently. Again, each individual surface ranges from smelling 100% fine to the slightest of smell-but the sum of those slight odors build overnight.

If I had to guess what was left that absorbed the odor bomb and is holding onto any must it would be the seat foam cushions, any insulation behind dash, door panels and possibly the headliner-that got the brunt of the odor bombs as it`s in it`s direct line of fire. I don`t see how I can clean the seat foam-can`t replace it as it`s too expensive. I was hoping I could neutralize it somehow by nuking it with CL02? Even thought about Odorcide, but afraid that might make it worse.

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The back wall insulation sheet which is rubber on one side, felt like on the other, really has quite a bit of odor bomb smell. I guess APC and and extract would be best?

Rocko9999 -

Tks for your reply and the pics! Wow ! You really had it all apart ! Great job !

I`m glad I did not have to go to that length on that M5...

The only difference I can think of is that I used a really good Steamer the VX5000, and for sure, steam will always help loosen to remove most things faster and easier, in my experiences..

My Extractor is the Mytee HP60 Spyder which has a lot of water lift, and that helped me get my Meguiars APC+ and Steam deep into any cloth/carpet areas (and then inject really hot rinse water, and extract it all out..

The more you inject into those areas, the even more you have to extract, if you want to get all that stuff out at the very bottom of the area..

Since you will never be able to extract all the moisture, I had to use 5 small Air King Blower Fans, to help dry out that moisture from the floors of all seats, and one in the trunk to help dry that carpet there...

I needed it to dry fast so I could see if I needed to do any rework...

It looks like the headliner on that vehicle is the type that is glued onto a hard piece of foam, is that what you have? That might be easier to clean, but you still have to be very careful to not disturb the glue that is holding the headliner to the hard foam...Perhaps that entire piece can come out ???

Extracting water from foam ? Yes, it can be done, but you need a really big, strong extractor, and it will take hours and hours... Foam is like lake bottom clay... It will take awhile for it to absorb water, but when it does, it will absolutely absorb a lot of water and will really not want to let it go... I did that seat foam extract on another BMW that had sat out all night in Seattle with the windows down and well, you can imagine, how that turned out...

I was able to get perhaps 95% of all the water out of all those foam seats with my HP60, , extracting from the bottoms, but it was very laborious and took hours and hours... Blowing a lot of air across those foam seats after extracting also helped get them drier...

You have made great progress !!! Great Job !!!

That rubber piece on the back of the upper back seat - I would use my process the same there, spray cleaner, steam it in carefully, wipe it down carefully, looking to see again, what is coming off, and what color it is, etc...

Door panels - I never had to undo those, thank goodness..

Something I just thought of -- The only other cleaners I used were the old Einszett -1-Z Deep Plastic Cleaner, which is now called Nextzett, from Germany...But you cannot use this particular cleaner on any of the clear dash gauge clear plastic lenses, Nav Screens etc.. Instead for those delicate things In my experiences, I have had great results with Nextzett Cockpit Premium... The cleaners from Europe - Great Britain, and Germany, have always worked so much better than most stuff here, in my experiences..

Be sure to find the inside Cabin filter usually behind the glove box, and change that one out too, wherever it is...

You are almost there ! Every square inch ! :) Good luck !!

Dan F

check cabin filter also

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 65chevy

check cabin filter also

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Oh yeah, that has been done many times.

One other thing that is a PITA to get to and clean beside the cabin air filter (esp Audi) is the evap coil which may also be holding onto junk. I have used the Klima Cleaner: Nextzett Klima-Cleaner Air Conditioner Treatment on my SUV and it seems to work pretty well. Easy way is to crank up the fan to see if it is coming from the vents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grungy

One other thing that is a PITA to get to and clean beside the cabin air filter (esp Audi) is the evap coil which may also be holding onto junk. I have used the Klima Cleaner: Nextzett Klima-Cleaner Air Conditioner Treatment on my SUV and it seems to work pretty well. Easy way is to crank up the fan to see if it is coming from the vents.

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No bad smell from AC or heater thankfully. I have heard good things about Nextzett though.

So I did a 20g CL02 treatment for 24hrs. There is an improvement, but not total resolution. With a fresh nasal palate I did the sniff test again and as Stokdgs GearHead_1 said the headliner stinks. It`s that same old odor bomb/must smell. I had previously cleaned it with microfiber cloth and limited amounts of P&S Terminator mist, guess that didn`t do a thing. Taking out the headliner would be a major undertaking. I don`t own a steamer so with these products how would you proceed?
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Pull that headliner, you can see the discoloration in the pics, ew... Even just as a test to see how it smells without the headliner for a few days...

Have you tried one of the ozone generating bulbs? I posted about one probably six or so months ago. There isn’t an odor they haven’t knocked out for me yet. It might take a few weeks to treat it nightly but it will kill any smell I’ve throw at it, including mold.