I have a ‘17 Silverado, I drove through some very rancid smelling stuff by a beef packing plant. They must have washed out a trailer or something and the run off was in the road. I drove through it and now it has been over a month and I can still smell it through the vents. I replaced the cabin filter and set off a deodorizer bomb in the cab. It help a little bit the smell is still there when I turn in the heat or a/c. How do I get rid of it?
the inside of your wheel wells might be coated with scuz. and perhaps your undercarriage?
Perhaps there’s a place near you that rents steam cleaners.
Cavell has suggested one crucial area that probably needs to be steam cleaned. The wheels, undercarriage at the edge of the unibody, and anyplace else that seems logical would also be good bets.
Good luck.
One thought: have you spoken to the plant manager to try to find out what they did?
Or perhaps even a state agency. Whatever they did probably violated a regulation or two.
I’ve ran it through several car washes and that didn’t work. I have not used a pressure washer on the under carriage yet.
Thanks I will have to try the steam cleaning.
It’s not clear if the car washes you did included an underwash, but you certainly want to do one or more of those if not.
The self service car wash place near me has a special wand with a wheel on the end and a turned up nozzle so you can blast the underside of your car Find one of those and go at it.
The air comes into your cabin through a vent under the cowling. The cowling is the cover immediately in front of the windshield. Lift the hood and you will see the cowling underneath all the leaves and pine needles that collect there.
You will need to find out how to remove the fasteners. Some just pry up, some have a center portion that you pry up, those will have an indentation to either side of the center to get something in there to pry with, and some you just push the center part down about an 1/8" to 1/4" and pop out.
Lift the cowling and you will see a snorkel shaped vent on the passenger side. Clean all around it and inside as far as you can reach. Also run a garden hose down the area all the way to the fender just in front of the windshield. You will see this gap, it is to drain water from the cowling area to the ground. Make sure water flows freely through this. Do not put the hose down the snorkel or you will get a lot of water in the cab of your truck.
I will have to try that this weekend. Thank you Keith.
Talk to the car wash and see if they have undercarriage wash and what wash packages offer it. The basic wash probably does not, but a more expensive one will if they have it. Also ask what the pressure of the undercarriage wash is. You may have pressure washed the underside already with the car wash and don’t know it.
If nothing else works, take your truck to a detailed and see if they can get rid of the odor.