[Closed] New Car Smell is making me really ill

Drive with the windows open?

Two days later and I still have a fluey head cold,

I’m not really sure what to do now?

covid Test?

PCR'd yesterday and am negative. Have been driving with windows open.

Offer to fetch fish a chips on Friday, or get someone to throw up in the back. Both are pretty hard smells to shift.

Switch the aircon off? Normally the new car smell is the gases being given off by the plastic parts as they fully cure, so it’s not particularly healthy. Maybe there is a component in the aircon system which is gassing through the vents.

Get a tramp to sleep in it

Or spill a bottle of poppers in there

Huge spliff?

I was going to suggest fish n chips but I appear to be 11 minutes too late.

Have you reported this to the Toyota dealership?

This is caused by 'offgassing' of VOC's from the chemicals in things such as glues and fabric coatings in new cars. Some manufacturers even design the fan system on the car to cycle when the door is first opened to clear the air of VOC buildup, I know Volvo do this. Some people will never notice it, but if you have Asthma type lung conditions you could well do.

Also interestingly, if you've had a lot of exposure to VOC's such as solvents in situations like a workplace perhaps, then it's not uncommon to hear of some individuals having an incredibly low tolerance to VOC's as if they've reached a threshold of exposure - and they can react badly to even tiny exposures even in things like cleaning products - though this is not well understood why.

It will wear off eventually. Ventilate...

Plastic off gassing. Terrible. New 'expensive' bar tape on my road bike, good god, stunk the house out for two days after being fitted.

My Hyundai stinks of new car smell - I don't know why some people claim to like it. Still stinks 3 months and 3k miles later, but for me it's just a stink, I haven't had a bad reaction to it.

If you buy a used car from a dealer, you just get overpowering shit air freshener instead. Ugh.

I'm sensitive to this, can trigger my asthma, and have always combatted it by sticking a Neutradol ball thingy in there. They don't add a fragrance to the car but do stop the VOC's becoming overpowering. My current car is 8 years old so doesn't need one now but the Mini has one in it as the new seats and steering wheel are still giving off the smell, especially as it sits unused for a few weeks at a time.

Its the smell of amine catalysts leaching out of the polyurethane components of the car - seats, dashboard, headlining etc. I have 100's of litres of the stuff at work if you want to continue the new car smell when it eventually wears off?

Start a shrubbery on your backseat - ferns will absorb the chemicals and give off oxygen.

Swap you for my ‘07 Avensis.

That doesn’t smell new anymore 😉

See fish n chips has been mentioned.

The other way to stop a car seeming in any way new and nice is to lend it to a surfer/windsurfer/kite surfer etc for a week or so. When it comes back the dominant smell will NOT be the “new car”
smell (mostly wetsuit boots…)

See fish n chips has been mentioned.

The other way to stop a car seeming in any way new and nice is to lend it to a surfer/windsurfer/kite surfer etc for a week or so. When it comes back the dominant smell will NOT be the “new car”
smell (mostly wetsuit boots…)

Or, OP, if you fancy a more "meaty" odour, you can have a dog blanket out of the back of my "02 Golf..?

I used to be able to do quotes on here. 🤔

I can lend you a wet dog for a few days.

The other way to stop a car seeming in any way new and nice is to lend it to a surfer/windsurfer/kite surfer etc for a week or so.

Or simply a family holiday.

Get a mouse to nest in it. The smell will take around 3 years to dissipate.
Spill a pint of milk in the footwell, you'll welcome the 'new car' smell.

Serious suggestion, maybe a really good internal valet would help. Tell them you don't want a load of plastic polishes and treatments left behind.

Look up MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity)

Source is as described by endoverend. Manufacturers do try and avoid it and some of my colleagues test for it (air tight bagged new trim parts in environmental chambers).

Best option would be parking the cars under cover with the windows open to give chance for gases to escape (guess their life so far has been 99% shut up). We have a memory foam mattress topper that warned of this and advised to leave in another room for a number of days after opening - so once free to escape the gases do "go".

We rented a house for a week and as soon as we walked in I asked Mrs Zip what the smell was? She couldn't smell anything. Within hours I was delirious and had to stay in a premier Inn. Next day we fully aired the property and I was ok. Years of painting cars has left me really susceptible to certain chemicals.
I guess airing the car or maybe light some candles in it will help.

Back in the day trucks that carried fish used to get stinky, their solution was to light a newspaper inside and close the door, the smoke fumes the stink and purifies it or something, not sure how you do this without torching a nice new fleet of cars but with some ingenuity it might provide a solution.

Fume the sucker.

We have a memory foam mattress topper that warned of this and advised to leave in another room for a number of days after opening

I'd be leaving that in the shop, god knows what 8 hours of breathing that stuff is doing to you, get it in the bin.

A good handful of coffee beans sprinkled over the seats and carpet will absorb a lot of nasty aromas.

Waste of coffee beans

Unfortunately my back needed the foam topper and the natural fibre options weren't working. The product had been compressed and vacuum packed at the factory so never has a chance to off-gas before use - it was something we knew before purchase and just allowed a week to air. And of course the released VOCs just magically disappear into the atmosphere..... 🤔

Out of interest, those fancy additional internal fabric treatments that the salesman are always trying to upgrade one to are often notoriously bad for VOC's - they will differ, but some even warn so in the small print. These are particularly bad as they will tend to have been freshly applied just before you go to pick up the car. I remember driving a car home that had this treatment and even after only 30mins exposure, had a headache and nausea for days.

Those comments above regarding paint exposure and the issues around MCS are very interesting. I've had long term exposure to low level solvents in what I do, often in spaces that are difficult to ventilate, and definitely hit a point where I couldn't tolerate it anymore - and have heard many similar stories from people with similar exposures who've experienced the same thing. What you then discover is that modern life surrounds one with things that 'offgass' or that will trigger sensitivities; new carpets, some MDF treatments, perfumes, cleaners...

Must admit only having bought a new car recently I’m enjoying the new car smell 🙂

Not a humblebrag I’m still in shock over buying new after a lifetime of owning old cars.

Don't spill milk, or end up with a cat peeing on the back seat (it was in a carrier and didn't like car trips). Good god that took months to get rid of it.

This thread must have been in my head when I opened a bag of nitrile gloves today, the smell was toxic, I emptied them out and went to make coffee, came back and..smell gone, half an hour in the sun and all non stinky, it's true it just goes.

So to destink the car I'm thinking hot day, leave a window open just a bit, let the heat build up but escape..because in my head toxic gas want's to escape to the upper atmosphere or something..and voila no stinkieness.

My advice is chop up an onion and leave it on a plate on the seat overnight. It absorbs all the smell. Worked for me anyway.

Just get a friend with minging feet to leave wet running shoes in there for a week.

After five years or so of driving around in ex-Motability cars, I’ll take the new car smell, thank you. The stench in some is almost unbearable. Some platers carry cans of Febrize with them for that reason. We had a repossessed car at work, that stank like a kitchen waste bin in hot weather. I just about managed to move it a hundred metres or so without throwing up. The usual stink seems to be a mixture of fags, dogs and other things best left unidentified.
They get a thorough wet valet, then get put into storage, and in hot weather the stink often comes back, it’s that ingrained into the fabric, and most of those cars are at most a couple of years old… 😣

I can recommend 🤔 having a front wheel blow out in the 3rd lane on a motorway. Got to the hard shoulder, changed the wheel then pulled into the next services to have a walk around. Thought I was ok, so set off again. Unfortunately I then had a stress reaction which involved quite a lot of vomit. The car did smell different for a few weeks after that.

If you'd like to borrow my children for a few months they'll happily fill all inaccessible receses with cheese and onion crisps, skittles and Lego. They'll also provide a sulphurous misting that should mask your problem odours

Just spill a steaming hot latte in it.

Or I can lend you some wetsuit boots that have been immersed in the mud of Langstone Harbour a couple of times?

You might beg for your new car smell back after!

When working at a butchers,we once hid a fish fillet in the newton mearns shopping centers enclosed tractor they use to go around picking up the refuse. After use the tractor sits in the sun.
We could tell it had the desired effect by the gigantic tin of air freshener they started storing in the cab.
I wasn't the instigator, but it made for a good laugh every time the tractor passed the shop and you could see the tin propped up inside.

When working at a butchers,we once hid a fish fillet in the newton mearns shopping centers enclosed tractor they use to go around picking up the refuse. After use the tractor sits in the sun.

What did they ever do to you to warrant this act of evil?

Cant remember, but probably nothing more than a bit of banter.I'm sure they caused their own misfortune somehow 😆

Well since we're doing smelly car stories - I was moving house once as a youngster, back in the days when I could fit my stuff in a few boot-loads of my VW polo. I packed the deep fat fryer forgetting it was full of used oil, and I put it on its side. When I found out I only noticed a small spillage and thought it had been empty, but the whole lot had run down past the boot lining and into the spare wheel well where it congealed. Car smelled of chips forever then. Funtimes.

Your liver is struggling. The liver removes toxins from the body, when you get into the new car you are overloading and so you get ill.

I would suggest you stop driving the new car if at all possible and do everything you can to help your liver. As to why it is struggling, that will be more difficult to ascertain. It could be some sort of underlying illness, e.g. long covid, rotten tooth, digestive issues etc etc. Or it could just be that you have reached the happy point in your life when the years of excess/neglect have caught up and you are now paying the price (some people call it old age).

Best things you can do to help your liver is resolve any underlying health issues (especially digestive ones), eat very well (I mean at least 5 portions of veg + fruit a day, 10 is a good target), regular cardio, remove enviromental toxins (including alcohol), a bit of intermittent fasting is good, along with regular full sleep of course. Supplements/herbs can help but you would need to seek expert advice there and it sounds as though you can probably reverse the problem with lifestyle changes, seeing as you say you have no other health major issues. Modern life is very hard on the body, you must look after it. Speaking from experience, when your liver starts to struggle you will find that more and more health problems will sneak up on you, so best to make changes as soon as possible and heal any damage. On the plus side it is very much reversible if you can remove the burden and aid detoxification by eating well and exercising.

Or it could just be that you have reached the happy point in your life when the years of excess/neglect have caught up and you are now paying the price

Yup, but what a ride 😀

Your liver is struggling. The liver removes toxins from the body, when you get into the new car you are overloading and so you get ill.

I was expecting the rest of that post to be a word for word quote from 3 Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome. But it seems you're serious.

“With me, it was my liver that was out of order. […] I had the symptoms, beyond all mistake, the chief among them being "a general disinclination to work of any kind."
What I suffer in that way no tongue can tell. From my earliest infancy I have been a martyr to it. As a boy, the disease hardly ever left me for a day. They did not know, then, that it was my liver. Medical science was in a far less advanced state than now, and they used to put it down to laziness.”

VOCs are adsorbed onto carbon, so you need an "activated carbon" filter in there. The molecules bond onto it and wont let go.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Activated-Carbon-Odour-Filter-Joseph/dp/B07XLP7RKG/ref=asc_df_B07XLP7RKG/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=394356404556&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=975645953021314208&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006707&hvtargid=pla-892120557047&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=81584088186&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=394356404556&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=975645953021314208&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006707&hvtargid=pla-892120557047

Infact you could even stuff some in the air vents, and then run the blowers to cycle the air. Should work.

(source: i used to deal with domestic heating oil spills, which included controlling odors when someone had lost 1000L of kerosene under the kitchen floor)

Never had it with 1000's of new vehicles through my hands but i have heard of the gassing from plastics. As everyone else has suggested just combat it with something else. We have some of those cartridge things which neutralize smells in vehicles, maybe they would work. TBH i would just put a bag of my families smelly trainers in a foot well for a few days, that would combat any new smell.

This reminds me of a situation i had a few years ago. I deal in vans and i had some getting plylined by a supplier. He had a delivery of ply as normal but i believe they use some rather nasty chemicals to preserve the wood. There had been some kind of issue and i believe it involved Formaldehyde. Anyhow i managed to drive the vehicle a few hundred yards before i could hardly see and a further few hundred yards before i got our retching. I was not very polite or understanding in my call for him to come and replace it.

Oh and there was the time i had a 25litre drum of diesel spilt in the boot of my 12mths old Mercedes C Class. I couldnt wait to hand that car back. Hot days were the worst.

VOCs are adsorbed onto carbon, so you need an “activated carbon” filter in there.

OOH this is interesting information.

^ Activated carbon for the win, destroys all smells. I should know as I used two large activated carbon filters for my grow room air extraction, no more smells but you do need to replace the activated carbon pellets every few months as they get saturated with the off gassing volatile organic compounds and lose efficiency

New car off gassing - yummy.

Indoor air quality in the modern world is a much neglected topic. Pretty much any soft furnishing and plenty of hard furnishings off-gas to some degree.

Cars are a more concentrated version of the same thing, with a much higher percentage of man mades, a really small air volume and in practice, poor ventilation for short periods of time before being closed up for long periods.

Maximum ventilation in warmer temperatures will maximise the speed of off-gassing, but its still going to take weeks/months to subside to an acceptable level. Adding perfumes and alot of the 'neutralisers' are just attempting to mask the problem with something that smells nicer, but are actually adding to your burden.

He had a delivery of ply as normal but i believe they use some rather nasty chemicals to preserve the wood. There had been some kind of issue and i believe it involved Formaldehyde

All plywood and MDF contains urea formaldehyde, hence why the edges need to be sealed in domestic use, it's carcinogenic, and most kitchens and camper van interiors are made out of it, sealed/painted is fine.

I used to have a dog that offgassed then jumped up wondering where the smell came from.

All plywood and MDF contains urea formaldehyde,

Yes, but in the tiniest proportions.
From my bookmarks heres a table -
0.1 Level expected to cause symptoms in sensitive individuals
0.75 OSHA worker exposure limit(Construction occupational health and safety)
0.01-0.14 Sawing and sanding MDF in ventilated dust chamber
0.19-0.78 Sanding particleboard under laboratory conditions
0.035-0.45 Newly constructed, unoccupied home
Not detectable–0.6 Buildings in which smoking is permitted
0.48–5.31 Indoor air while cooking fish
0.08 Urban background during heavy traffic

Sod frying fish 😆
All hardwoods have carcinogenic dust, its to give you the short version easiest to understand. Trees dont have bums, so all toxins are put into the internal 'dead' bit in the middle, known as the heartwood.