Smelly Rubber car mats ewwww…
Fresh cut rubber does have an odour to it, some customers don’t mind the smell and some find the smell obnoxious. Replacing the mats will not eradicate this odour. This smell does fade with time, but there are a few things that can be done to speed this process up.
1. Use a Neutral pH cleaner as a rubber odour neutraliser.
2. Cleaning your new rubber mats immediately can help to minimize the odour.
3. Clean each mat individually – if you have a stack of mats, be sure to pull out each mat individually. Allowing the mats to remain stacked will cause them to retain their odour, rather than prompting that odour to dissipate.
4. Use a neutral pH cleaner such as Mild Dish or hand soap (If your dish soap is labelled mild, gentle, or great for hands, chances are its pH level is somewhere right around 7.)
5. Thoroughly clean both sides of the mat
6. It’s ideal if you can do this outdoors, rather than bringing the mat inside first.
7. Allow the mat to thoroughly dry before you install it
8. Sunning Will Speed Up Out-gassing for Rubber Smell Removal
9. Lay your mats outside in direct sun light, you may want to move the mats around during the day to get the maximum sun exposure. (This can take hours or even a couple of days depending on how much of the smell you want to irradicate.)
10. It’s important to place the mats in a position that so that the air can circulate beneath then, ideally pegging them to a washing line.
11. After sunning the mats, check the smell level and if its not satisfactory then re-sun.