Disinfecting Interior

[NYCTS]

Here is a weird question.

Is there any way to disinfect my car's interior without damaging materials?

Its FLU season in NYC and I have had several sick people in my car coughing, sneezing...the usual.

You read everywhere about washing your hands or spraying Lysol on door knobs in your home, etc etc...But what about your car?

Would spraying Lysol in my car damage the leather/rugs/headliner etc?

What about germs in the air filters to the cabin?

Yeah Im being a bit paranoid- I just don't want my cars cabin becoming a petri dish for some bacteria.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY FEEDBACK.

[TOGWT]

This is my method of clean up / disinfecting the interior. You could pick out what you’d think was relevant…

Vomit:
Is an organic stain and should be removed with an enzyme type cleaner, and the area disinfected as soon as possible, use disposable paper towelling to blot the carpet, fabric and leather surfaces to remove as much of the residue as you can. Protein Stain Remover HT-67 (topoftheline.com) a highly concentrated, biodegradable powder. Take all necessary precautions when dealing with bodily fluids (latex cloves, and etc) and when disposing of stained items.
Methodology
·You might want to consider removing the front seats to gain better access
·Use hot water and towels; try to get everything as clean as you can, keep the towels rinsed well.
·Hard Surfaces- clean vinyl and other hard surfaces with a 6:1 distilled water / Woolite® solution and then wipe down with a micro fibre towel dampened with disinfectant. Clean the leather the same way (wait until the vehicle has been ‘aired out’ before applying any conditioning products
·Remove mats and remove any residue and then clean with a carpet extractor. Once the mats are cleaned rinse them with a disinfectant (Lysol®) especially the backs
·Clean the carpets with a pre-cleaner and an extractor, once carpets have been cleaned brush with a rubber tipped carpet brush to raise the fibre's and then lightly spray with a disinfectant (Lysol)
·Use a pre-cleaner solution; quarter (0.25) cup Protein Stain Remover/ 1-cup 303™ Cleaner & Spot Remover / one gallon hot water let dwell for 5-10 minutes to enable cleaners to react
·Lightly spray area with a disinfectant (Lysol®)
·Clean vinyl and other hard surfaces with a 6:1 distilled water / Woolite® solution and then wipe down with a micro fibre towel dampened with disinfectant
·Clean the leather the same way (wait until the vehicle has been ‘aired out’ before applying any conditioning products
·Air out the vehicle for as long as possible to allow surfaces to dry and for the odours to dissipate.
·Finally use an air sanitizer/freshener (Lysol Neutra Air®) that quickly removes odours from the air.
·Once fabric is dry apply a fabric protection (303TM High Tech Fabric Guard)

JonM

[Rick]

I think ozone shock treatment is supposed to be disinfectant in the quantities an ozone generator creates in a car. I know it does kill the bacteria that grows in everyones air vents.

[NYCTS]

Originally posted by Rick
I think ozone shock treatment is supposed to be disinfectant in the quantities an ozone generator creates in a car. I know it does kill the bacteria that grows in everyones air vents.

Ozone Shock treatment? can you provide more details please, what is Ozone Shock treatment?

Thanks

[Rick]

You get an ozone generator (~$200 for the machine or find a place that does it), place it in the car with the air vents running on recirculate low speed and let it run for about an hour. It fills the car up with ozone. It's generally used as an odor elimination technique. Ozone is a very powerful oxidizer so it freely sheds it's excess oxygen molecule which kills or neutralizes anything it can get to. Not 100% on how well it would do as a disinfectant, but you know that funky smell you get when you first turn your car on in the summer with the air running? It killed all that off, and thats supposed to be bacteria that thrive under those conditions.

This is what I was told anyways. My dad's shop has one which I can get my hands on whenever I want. Seems to work pretty good. I know a few of the upper end dealerships in the area sell something like "vent disinfectant" services where all they do is run the ozone generator inside the car for an hour or so. Just make sure you let the car air out after using because it will take your breath away really quick on you.

[NYCTS]

Originally posted by Rick
You get an ozone generator (~$200 for the machine or find a place that does it), place it in the car with the air vents running on recirculate low speed and let it run for about an hour. It fills the car up with ozone. It's generally used as an odor elimination technique. Ozone is a very powerful oxidizer so it freely sheds it's excess oxygen molecule which kills or neutralizes anything it can get to. Not 100% on how well it would do as a disinfectant, but you know that funky smell you get when you first turn your car on in the summer with the air running? It killed all that off, and thats supposed to be bacteria that thrive under those conditions.

This is what I was told anyways. My dad's shop has one which I can get my hands on whenever I want. Seems to work pretty good. I know a few of the upper end dealerships in the area sell something like "vent disinfectant" services where all they do is run the ozone generator inside the car for an hour or so. Just make sure you let the car air out after using because it will take your breath away really quick on you.

Very Nice, Thanks for the info, I will be looking into that.

[Rick]

FYI, the dealerships charge something like $100 for their "vent" service. The ozone generator will run you around $200. Click on the link in my sig, he sells the big ones for about the price the smaller units are going for. I looked and looked, he beats everyones price on the uvon air unit.

Your local might varry from mine though. There should be some place that can offer the ozone service. You might check places that do fire damage repair stuff. When a house catches fire and stuff is salvagable but smoke smell damaged they stick it all in a room and ozonate it to get rid of the smell. We had some friends that had a cell phone charger catch fire while they wern't home, but luckily their home was all sealed up so the damage was limited pretty much to the kitchen (it starved itself of oxygen), but the whole house had the smoke smell in everything so they ozoned their whole house to get their stuff smelling normal again.