Seeking advice: Normal smell or Interior damaged by Ozone?

Hi all - I'll open up with the fact that I'm a moron that bought a Tacoma off Caravana sight unseen. It was a rare basic SR5 4x4 with tech package (color keyed bumpers) that I had looked everywhere for 6 months. Long story short Carvana sold me a car that I suspect may have been damaged by an overzealous detailer running an ozone machine for too long.

From day one there has been a weird sweet deodorizer smell that I could not isolate. After a week of cleaning the interior fabric and hard plastics with various combos of an extractor, rubbing alcohol, baking soda, vinegar, household dish soap, simple green , detailer interior cleaner - I finally isolated the smell to the same soft plastic that makes up the padded area over the glovebox, the center console lid cover, and the arm rests on the doors.

Pictured below is the top of the center console which was greasy on the underside as if the material was decomposing or was oxidized by an ozone machine, cleaning it and hitting it with Odorcide 210 did nothing. The foam that is glued on the plastic shell smelled even worse. I believe this same foam is in the soft vinyl over the glovebox and behind this arrest.

I would expect that damaged plastic would smell more like burnt plastic or something odd versus this sweet almost musty car deodorizer smell. At first I thought maybe whatever deodorizer bomb they used REALLY impregnated this material, but after two weeks of cleaning baking in the sun with all the doors and windows open the fact that it has not gotten any better made me consider its simply damaged plastic. The situation is sort of like brass, you can wipe and clean it all you want but at the end of the day it's still brass and brass smells a certain way.

Anyone heard of this? I have no clue where to go from here.

 

I have had a few vehicles over the years ozonated to kill interior new smell but never had any damage. Not saying it can't happen but not to me.

 

This is the first time I have heard of this? Are you assuming someone did an ozone job or do you know for a fact? And I'm not sure what kind of advice you're looking for, but if you have definitely identified the source of the odor, then I guess you will have to start swapping out the offending parts.

 

I'm guessing you are only running these for a short amount of time? What is the longest you've run one?

I am speculating the detailers at Carvana would do so, I don't know for sure.

I'm influenced by seeing this happen in houses, contractors running ozones for way too long and causing foam in furniture or rubber in fixtures to break down and off gas VOCs. I've been open to the thought that maybe this specific foam backed vinyl in Tacoma can smell a specific notable way after being baked in the sun + easily gets impregnated by a strong commercial deodorizer smell - but then I'm surprised something so strong like Odorcide 210 didn't have an effect. I think products like Odorcide are some formulation of zinc salt which binds to certain things to truly neutralize the smell and not just mask it.

If I want to keep this truck I suppose my only option is to replace all 4 door shell trims (only sold as complete units), center console, the soft trim over the glovebox, and the soft portion of the steering wheel. I'm out of $2k in that case. I should double check the foam in the headliner didn't break down too.

 

The 3rd brake light had a TSB for leaking. Check behind the back seat for evidence of water damage. It also travels along the headliner to the front so inspect multiple spots.

Lift the carpet to see if there is water damage under it.

If so get a lawyer.

 

I'm pretty sure Carvana has a no questions asked return policy for a week or so after purchase. Did you not smell this odor upon purchase or did it manifest itself after the return window ended?

 

unfortunately, the deodorizer bomb was so strong that I could not smell the real underlying smell until the period ended. Massive lesson learned for me :/

 

Ozone is definitely capable of damaging soft plastics and deteriorating other interior surfaces. I would call Carvana and see if they could help you out in any way

 

My wife’s jeep had a dead rat marinating in it for two weeks, the guy left the ozone machine on for a few days. No damage.

 

I’ve tried to as patiently and kindly explain the entire situation and ordeal to them - my 16 some hours of effort trying to solve it, but they won’t offer any support or any kind.

 

Same. I've been using a. Ozone machine in all sorts of stuff and never had issues.

 

Please post odor.

 

Absolutely.
It doesn't take long for a strong one to do damage in an enclosed environment.
They'll turn one surface to a burnt brown, while turning another into goop, and simply having a bleaching effect on another still..
It's also worth noting that not all ozonators are created equal, by any stretch.

 

Makes sense - looking online I see there is a very wide array of machine strength and capability. from hundreds of mg/h to tens of thousands. I could imagine someone running a unit meant for much larger square footage in a car by accident.

 

Do you mean describe it? The best I can is say its sort of an artificial soapy vinyl almost Hawaiian thick smell, it is not like a high pitch astringent floral smell like a woman's perfume would be.

 

Take the vehicle to a detailer (or two or three). Maybe the will recognize the smell?

 

It’s so innate to the vinyl though I can’t see how they would get it out. I think it’s the actual material. The one thing I haven’t tried is steaming, but given that I left a piece of foam sample in rubbing alcohol and it still smelled like it I’m not hopeful

 

Maybe you can start scouring eBay and the nearby Toyota dismantling companies to see if you could find some replacement parts and save you some coin.

 

I was making a joke. Typically we ask people to post a picture of the issue, but in this case that won’t work because there is no way to post an odor.

 

I thought it was kind of funny.