OT: Car Deodorizers

[J Piroth]

Has anyone used an ionizer, or other form of car deodorizer, that they're particularly happy with? I don't want my Trac to smell like a pine forest, strawberry field or piña colada, but I don't want it to smell like me after a softball game in 90° heat either.



The inside is clean, but it tends to get musty in the summer here in Florida, with the ridiculously high humidity and all. Plus, my wife's new Pilot has pushed my Trac out of the garage, so it'll be spending more time is the hot sun.



Ideas?

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Do you leave your vents open while parked?

If not, you should, it allows some air circulation and will help avoid (not 100%) stale humidity odors coming from the air vents...



You could use febreeze on the seats, if they're cloth, it's good at getting rid of the odors.

 

[J Piroth]

Seats are leather, so Fabreeze isn't recommended.



As for the vents, Florida is prone to unexpected downpours in the summer, so I'm always cautious about leaving any windows open if I'm not going to be near the Trac. A wet interior smells even worse than a dry, stale one.

 

[Travis Munday]

Piro-

Not the windows, the air conditioning vents. Ford recommends leaving the HVAC vents open while parked, to allow ventilation of the interior. Which basically means when you park, flick the HVAC selector knob to any position but off, max a/c, or defrost.



As far as keeping the inerior smelling fresh, OZIUM in the vents does wonders.

 

[William Washington]

And, always run the system with fan on high and the AC off for a few minutes before shutting down. This will dry out the evaporator and vents to prevent mold from growing in there.

 

[J Piroth]

Ah, THOSE vents. That makes sense. (Just left them open when I got back from lunch.)



As for the Ozium, does anyone have a shot of where the air is drawn in from? I'm thinking that running the fans on high and spraying the deodorizer into the other end will help clean & disinfect the entire air pathway. Right?

 

[Travis Munday]

That's correct. Spary the stuff at the base of the windsheild in those vents...that's where you get your air for teh HVAC system.

 

[TRACket Paul]

Air is drawn in from the outside through the cowling vent (where the windshield wipers are located).

 

[Brian K 2]

I use fresh scent....its in a bottle-blue in color...new car smell.........Wally world.....not exactly new car smell....but pretty close. Turn on AC MAX setting or recirc.....spray at bottom where passengers feet would be......I do it 3-4 times a week....when I do smoke in my Trac....I always crack a window and shut off the AC. Once that smell smoke gets in the AC system your screwed..Smells nice not fruity or unnatural.

 

[TomT]

Do you not have a sun vent for the back window? I pretty much leave my back window in the vent position all summer long when parked. (Mainly for the heat.) Don't have to worry about rain getting in.