Hi all-- I'm going to try and say this as seriously as I possibly can. But in the past month or so, I've noticed, on occasion, a funky "odor" when I first get in the Prius. By now, sadly, that "new car" smell is long gone, and so is the smell from the last time I had it detailed. So yesterday I decide to sniff around a bit, and oh boy, those farts are in the driver's seat. It's really embedded in the cloth, I think. I'm already using seat covers - but what can I use to get that embedded smell out?
I have always wet-cleaned my vehicles. They come out looking great and smelling great. I have a worry or two about lots of water in the wife's Prius and in the new C. To now I've been pretty cavalier about how much water I've used in the washing and rinsing, but I'll really have to start paying attention when cleaning the Prii. I have a pump sprayer that I used to spray a water/carpet cleaner solution onto upholstery and carpet. Then I vac it out with my shop-vac. Then I spray with rinse water. Then I vac that out with the shop-vac. After that's all done I leave the car out in the open with the windows down for several hours to dry out. Perhaps this, and a change of diet or habits may alleviate your problem.
get the car detailed advising the detailer your concern. then when you get it back, cover the seats in plastic, THEN put on your car seat covers...
This is an even more thorough solution than what one can do with an upholstery cleaner... except that the cleaning solution is often heated in many professional cleaners. A wet cleaning is the way to go for odor removal! I've used Nature's Miracle in the past (since I was out of upholstery solution) and it did a surprisingly good job at removing both stain and odor... http://www.ilovenaturesmiracle.com
I'd go with Fabreeze for a temporary fix. Use an upholstery cleaner that contains baking soda or some other natural odor remover. And I'd also suggest a change in diet.
For the rinse I would often pull out the garden hose. Nothing high pressure, but plenty of fluid to carry away soap and dirt into the vacuum canister. It really worked like a charm. I won't be using anything so robust on the Prius cleans, to be sure. I'd bet a person could find some charcoal lined pants from a chem-gear set from an army surplus store. We had a ton of jokes about the charcoal absorbing "odors." For some of the guys, even full immersion in a vat of Jack Daniel's filtering charcoal would not have helped, though we all agreed it would be very entertaining.
I used an upholstery attachment when I had to shampoo some carpet recently. You can borrow them when you borrow the shampooer down at your local grocery store.
