I just thoroughly inspected every crevice under the seats. I see nothing. I wiped every surface down with rubbing alcohol as well to get any residues off. The car, including the leather, really doesn't have much of a smell. It hits you in the face from the drivers seat and the center console area. I have the windows open all day today, trying to air it out. That damn thing still stinks though. I tried removing the plastic inside of the center console but a drill wouldn't even budge those screws. I was wondering if somehow an air freshener got stick inside or under the center console. I may have to look into removing it.
05 Denali XL- remove odor coming from center console
- Thread starter itsgoofy
- Start date
Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.
Years ago we had a disgruntled former employee stick a sealed pound of bacon up under the manager's seat in his pickup (shame on him for leaving it unlocked). Guy managed to work it up tight to the underside of the seat cushion and it took us a little while to find it. You might want to pull a seat or two for further inspection.
When I bought my Hoe the dealer had detailed it, and I can still smell that perfumy odor a bit each time I get in it. I should do the ozone thing....
When I bought my Hoe the dealer had detailed it, and I can still smell that perfumy odor a bit each time I get in it. I should do the ozone thing....
You usually have to pull the console to dismantle it which means pulling both seats first since the console brackets are under the seat brackets. It’s not as hard as it sounds though. I can pull all 3 on mine in an hour or less.Here's pics of my center console, if anyone knows how I could remove it, that would be wonderful. I noticed there actually is a slot where you could easily drop something, I wonder if an air freshener or such fell into there.
Good news. I spent the last 48 hours with the car out in the sun, windows and doors open, and sprayed down the interior with white vinegar multiple times. The smell has noticeably dissipated. I am getting zero odor out of the vents, the remaining lingering smell should be baked out of the car by the sun hopefully. This is how I used to air out old furniture, sure enough it's working. I'll give it a few more days, if smell still persists I'm hitting it with the ozone machine. I
Update:
So I managed to get my dash off today. Turns out, I found on the edges of the air vents, some sort of greasy, chemical smelling fragranced cleaner type stuff. I don't know what it is, but it was definitely at one point sprayed in the vents- possibly by whoever detailed the car before selling it. I wiped down the exterior, but couldn't figure out how to get into the two main air vents. When It's sunny out tomorrow I'm gonna take it off again and do this properly, get deep in those vents, clean them out with rubbing alcohol. I can see they are dusty and have a film on them when I shine a flashlight in there. While I have gotten a lot of the smell out, it still smells too much near the drivers seat and I think the vents are to blame. I'm getting almost no odor if I sit in the back seat of the car, but definitely in the drivers seat. For what it's worth, I think whatever chemical I just wiped up was the same stuff all over the inside of the center console. An oily, fragranced type spray. I threw out the rubber piece in the center console because it was coated in this stuff, and now I see that the same stuff was in/on the air vent. I think once those are deep cleaned with alcohol we should be good to go. If that doesn't do it, then I'm removing the center console and either replacing it or putting it out in the sun for a week.
So I managed to get my dash off today. Turns out, I found on the edges of the air vents, some sort of greasy, chemical smelling fragranced cleaner type stuff. I don't know what it is, but it was definitely at one point sprayed in the vents- possibly by whoever detailed the car before selling it. I wiped down the exterior, but couldn't figure out how to get into the two main air vents. When It's sunny out tomorrow I'm gonna take it off again and do this properly, get deep in those vents, clean them out with rubbing alcohol. I can see they are dusty and have a film on them when I shine a flashlight in there. While I have gotten a lot of the smell out, it still smells too much near the drivers seat and I think the vents are to blame. I'm getting almost no odor if I sit in the back seat of the car, but definitely in the drivers seat. For what it's worth, I think whatever chemical I just wiped up was the same stuff all over the inside of the center console. An oily, fragranced type spray. I threw out the rubber piece in the center console because it was coated in this stuff, and now I see that the same stuff was in/on the air vent. I think once those are deep cleaned with alcohol we should be good to go. If that doesn't do it, then I'm removing the center console and either replacing it or putting it out in the sun for a week.
If anyone knows what I need to do to remove this vent here so I can clean it out, I'd love to hear how. I removed the five 7mm sockets but don't know how to pop up the dash so I can get it out. Maybe it's the screws on both sides of the car seen here?
Last edited:
That whole trim piece around the cluster and hvac/radio comes off, just put the shifter down to 1st gear, tilt the steering wheel down and just grab the lip edge of the trim piece and pull towards you it just has clips comes off by hand easy, then you can get vent out it just pops off or it may have one screw.
Thanks. I got that main trim piece off no problem, however, there's another 7mm bolt that is hidden behind the main piece of the dash which is holding the vent in. I think maybe I need to pop that up slightly, by removing the screws on the left and right of the car? These ones? And then pull up the entire dash cover to access the bolt that is holding the air vent in?
