My car smells strongly of cheese. I emptied it out and found no cheese so I guess I must have spilt some milk at some point. But I can’t pinpoint the source of the smell. So how do I get rid of the smell?
There’s no point crying over it.
If you can’t pinpoint the smell, and if there’s no obvious staining on the mats anywhere, it may not be a spillage - it could be an item of food tucked into one of the door pockets or something.
This might be one of those occasions where it’s worth paying to have the car valeted.
A professional cleaning job might be the best option (other than leaving cooked beef in there for awhile and renaming your vehicle The Cheeseburger).
I once had a Dodge Colt that got partially flooded in a parking lot during a big rainstorm, and it smelled swampy forever after, despite liberal use of rug shampoo and other cleaning efforts.
I’d just like to say that I read this as “How do I rid my cat of the smell of cheese”, which raised many other questions.
Check for products like Febreeze or those with baking soda or activated charcoal to control the smell with the windows up. Otherwise, on non-rainy, non-humid days, leave the car outside with the windows down until the stink goes away.
Sometimes a prankster will rub or place a piece of aromatic cheese on a friend’s car engine. When it heats up the cut smell is even stronger. So you might check under your hood too and powerwash if there’s evidence of that.
Put a drink cup full of coffee grounds in the drink holder and leave it there. Roll up the windows as much as possible and over a few days/weeks the smell will go down and eventually go away. It worked for me when I spilled milk in my car.
I’ve found a very thorough cleaning works out well for most of those car smells.
Vacuum everywhere you can possibly reach
Clean insides of all windows
Wipe down appropriate areas with ArmorAll type stuff.
Don’t forget the trunk!
Have a look inside the vents where the ventilation system sucks in the cabin air (often just below the wipers - maybe some prankster poured milk in there.
Leave a dead pig in there all summer.
I had a body shop do a thorough cleaning of my car once to get rid of a smell. I was taking a tray of baked beans to a food bank after a party, and it…well…leaked all over my trunk. The body shop took a bunch of stuff apart, carefully cleaned it all, and reassembled. Presto Change, no Smello.