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I did a search but couldn't find anything . . .

Has anyone had success in removing pet and smoke odors from the AC/heating vents and ducts? A person cannot really smell it upon getting into the car (after the car's been aired out), but turn on the vent, AC, heat, etc. and nausea sets in right away.

I've heard it works of you spray Lysol or some de-odorizer into the intake in the footwells where the car sucks in air for the "Max AC" option. It will basically run through the entire system and de-odorize it.

(or your girlfriend's favorite scent of Axe brand body spray for instant car happyage)

Try running febreeze through a couple times, drying it well between applications, then some axe body spray(rawr)

BINGO!

Pets and smoke? My car smells of ATF, mmm.

Spray all the above in the cowl intake vent area(where the wipers mount). I use Frigi Fresh bought from subaruparts.com. http://www.subaruparts.com/catalog/?section=355
See Frigi Fresh here:
http://www.bgprod.com/products/climatecontrol.html

There's some stuff made by interdynamics that is kick ass. I tried lysol...didn't try fabreeze. I'll get the name of the interdynamics stuff. It's the ONLY thing that worked.

hot box it, and injoy.

Ozone machine.

My car was owned by a heath nut yoga instructor, and smells like Vitamin E

I found about 25 caps from liquid vitamin bottles throughout the car, and a coupe empty bottles. I have not been able to vanquish the smell, vitamin E is a goddam antioxidant and molasses-like, so it can sit there and smell for ages

So, when I finally went to pick, up my OLD tranny from Matt, I ended up driving around a couple days with it in the back until someone could finally help me unload it. Only problem is I took the last corner too fast, and didn't know the old tranny tipped on its side in the back-it was dark. Next day I got in and was like "WTF is that bad aweful smell" Looked in the back, and big puddle. Cleaned it up. I can't get rid of the ATF smell, which was some pretty old nasty burned ATF.

I used engine degreaser with the Orange scent-
I used a bucket of laundry detergent and rag-
I used fabrize
I used carpet deoderizer
I took out the side panel to get any possible drips.
It still smells BAD.
My dad says to get "activated charcoal"-so I still have to do that,

Wow! What great suggestions! Thanks everyone!

corsair and Laurel, axe body spray, huh? Sounds like strong stuff . . .

Josh, looking forward to the interdynamics' product name.

nico, hot box it???

Your suggestions are great and one or more of them must surely work but just now I realize I've got another challenge. I transport people to their doctor's appointments and some of them are chemically sensitive. A whiff of some strong chemical residue is enough to retire them to bed for days or weeks! I'm concerned that any remaining traces of the chemical deodorizer may send them to the hospital (seriously!) One lady gets seriously ill if someone wearing cologne or perfume walks by her.

So, will any of the products you all so graciously mentioned work? I think the ozone will work but doesn't ozone destroy rubber parts? Perhaps I should ask if there are any rubber parts in the passenger compartment that can be destroyed?

BTW, in case you're wondering how I transported people in my car and had odor problems . . . my car didn't have any odor problems. But in my search for another Legacy, some owners have told me that they have odors in their car and a couple of them don't know how to describe them so I don't know what to make of it and if I should purchase such a car. If I can get rid of the odor(s) then fine; if not, then that's not too good.

Maybe Josh is talking about Pure Air: http://www.id-usa.com/product.asp?CID=9&PID=101

It's possible that in some cars the source of the hard-to-describe odor is debris in the HVAC system... This is what Josh's evaporator core box looked like before he cleaned it out when doing his A/C retrofit:

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... P_2073.JPG

Also, when I removed the blower motor from a friend's Impreza, with it came an entire ecosystem of plant life.

In either case, a thorough cleaning might go a long way towards getting rid of the odor.

Yuck.

[quote="vrg3"]Also, when I removed the blower motor from a friend's Impreza, with it came an entire ecosystem of plant life.quote]

What can I say, Vikash, you've got a way with words!

I don't have time now, but I've got to search to see how to get to the evaporator core box. I imagine that's going to be a project and a half.

And thanks, too, for the Pure Air referral.

Josh briefly discusses removing it in his retrofitting thread:

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=1083

Thanks for the link!

vrg3 wrote:Maybe Josh is talking about Pure Air: http://www.id-usa.com/product.asp?CID=9&PID=101

yup, that's the stuff.