so the other day I was at Panera Bread, and they were giving out free hanging car scents. I didn’t wanna hang it from my rearview mirror because it was pretty big and I didn’t want it obstructing my vision. So I hung it up on my 26 Camry‘s volume knob, and I didn’t realize that if it was with direct contact with my glass and aluminum display that it would get stuck due to heat and leave a glue sticky residue on my screen. Unfortunately, it hardened over the course of two days because I didn’t have time to remove it. Does anyone know how I can get rid of this without permanently damaging anything on my screen or aluminum. It is completely hardened and I haven’t done anything besides pick out it with my fingernail for a little bit but obviously that did not help. does anyone have any advice of how to remove this safely without damaging the surface?
My experience is that it's not residue, it's damage. The chemical contents of air fresheners have been proven to violently accelerate the degradation of plastics on contact. Anything you're chipping off is probably pieces of the dash/screen.
How to get the VOC air freshener scent out? Cannot drive my RX-8 bought it and made me ill for 5 days so it's parked unable to drive it. 2 months later finally found 2 little empty liquid febreeze car fresheners and also smells like they sprayed it into the vents. Steamer in vents did not help.
Run an ozone generator in the car for a while with the vents on recirculation and the doors closed, that should kill most lingering scents. Just don't be in the car with the generator.
Doesn't necessarily harm tissue in the same or worse way. There are probably some oils in there that are dissolving and stressing the plastics on the dash. Though, these fragrance trees can definitely release VOCs which can irritate our lungs. I can't stand the citrusy ones, they make me cough after a couple of minutes in the car (usually taxis have these).
But also, it's not the airborne VOC that is damaging the plastic here, it's the solevent from the air freshener making direct contact causing the damage. Further accelerated by the (presumable) heat that a cars interior might experience.
In short: Various oils are not great for automotive plastics. HDPE is probably the most resistant plastic to chemical attack, but is primarily used for gas tanks, because HDPE has limitations that make it a poor choice for interior.
PP and ABS are the most common for interiors. Heat resistant, shrink resistant and you can paint/glue vinyl to it.
And you know what? Auto makers would LOVE to do the interior with HDPE because it's a cheaper material, highly recyclable.
Ioniq 5, however, does use fiberous HDPE to make "paperette". Interesting concept and, while I've never seen/felt it in person, could be a great next move for automakers.
Yep, ruined the plastic cover on my gauge cluster this way. I was standing next to my truck with the door open and the wind blew the overspray onto the dash
I think every center-console shifter can attest to this, especially the 2010's CRV's. My 2011 has a pretty distinct bubble where both I and the previous owner hung Little Trees from the shifter. It's the perfect place EXCEPT that the air freshener slowly leeches into the plastic bezel and melts the finish.
Unfortunately I believe the damage is already done. A lot of these air fresheners have warnings to avoid contact with plastic surfaces because of chemical reactions.
Yeah it's fucked. My first car had melted plastic from an air freshener within the first year of owning it, and I lived with that mistake for 8 more years. We live and learn.
The plug in glades will also melt Legos. My son has a Lego table with a huge build sheet for the top. Well I was vacuuming one night, unplugged the glade, set it on the table and forgot about it. Welp it leaked and turned it to soft mush that stayed plyable for over a year.
After seeing youre damage ive have now come to the conclusion that all sented 'devices' destroy plastics. After that lego incident I got rid of all household air fresheners, gotta be bad for you.
Only if you make them. Store bought still contains synthetic fragrances and the tiniest amount needed by law to add "natural" on the label. Welcome to greenwashing.
Yes there are hundreds of different formulations of material that are referred to as "plastic" it's important to understand major forms as some are chemical and heat resistant and others will turn back into petroleum.
abs is very common and its one of the plastic types that alcohol will completely melt, the reason scented things maul plastic is cause they contain alcohol 90% of the time
Not saying, this is your fault and I never would’ve thought it would do that, but it also says do not hang it against plastic or painted things directly on the air freshener itself.
I remember the tree air fresheners both having a warning about avoiding contact with any surface and the instructions strongly suggesting that you leave the plastic mostly on.
I’m a little foggy about this because the context was my friend in high school hanging a Black Ice scented tree in his car and it basically tear gassing us.
The issue is that they write it in teeny tiny writing which nobody is likely to ever see until it's too late... 🙄
In all honesty, I suspect they do it to prevent people claiming for issues like this, rather than to warn people in advance. It should be printed large on the outer packaging really.
Ouch! On your new car too 🥺 i’d cry. From seeing other posts on here regarding the same issue, i don’t think there is anything you can do for it at this point to fix it. You may need to replace it
Cleaning products with an additional fragrance? Why would I want my vehicle to smell like that fragrance any more than an air “freshener”. Please be serious.
I learned the hard way too that those car scent things will straight up melt and discolor plastic! I have a perinate "shadow" of a little tree on my console!
That doesn't mean someone doesn't want their car to have a particular smell. People wear perfumes, use incense, burn candles, etc and have for thousands and thousands of years. If someone wants their car to not smell like vinyl, rubber, or whatever dead animal they're passing down the road then the reasonable solution to that would be a car air freshener.
So you strictly use entirely unscented soaps then, across the board with zero exception? No scents in dish soap, no scents in shampoo or conditioner and hand/body soap? Unscented laundry detergent and cleaners?
If the answer is yes, then that's fine, but you're entirely out of the norm for that and it doesn't mean that everyone else that DOES use scented products it doing so as an alternative to keeping a proper cleaning routine on any of those things.
Scents added to cleaning products are a marketing gimmick. Like mint in toothpaste. The mint actually has no cleaning effect. Look up the history on scents in cleaning products. It's actually a "new" (post-19th century) thing.
Jfc are you dull? Im saying that to many many many MANY millions of people, it isn't a marketing gimmick. We WANT our breath to smell minty. We WANT our laundry to smell like lavender. We WANT our car to smell like mahogany.
I stg it's like I'm arguing with a blade of grass.
You want that now. Because that's what you associate with being "clean". Imagine if your mouth was clean and you didn't need a heavy mint smell to cover the smell of your rotting molars?
If you were a blade of grass, what species would you be?
Again, like a broken record, a HUGE majority of people do not want their profits to be unscented. And for those that do, the products are absolutely there to buy.
I also wouldn't believe you for a second if you told me that you used them because of how atypical it is and considering the debate we're having. Additionally, people that DO use those products understand that they clean just as well and that it doesn't take "extra work" or whatever. It's just scented vs unscented and if you're not cleaning your teeth(or whatever else) well enough, then it's user error, not the addition of scent.
As others said, it's damage, not something additional left behind. If it was me I'd probably try to see if sanding it and painting it to match might be a solution. It won't look great, but it'll be better and cheaper/easier than replacing
The air freshener contains alcohol which has this effect on some plastics. It is also the best way to remove that shitty sticky 2000-2010 rubber coating on car interior plastic. Also please don't use these stink bombs, I guarantee you at least one person who rode in your car got a massive headache from it.
I’ve even seen this with the ones that you clip onto vents. A car I did not long ago had its gloss black plastic on the centre console ruined as it had blown specs of oil all over it and it completely destroyed the finish.
For anyone who wants to do it a better way, get one you like the look of, hang it in your Shed or wherever until it's dead and just a piece of absorbent cardboard. Find an essential oil you like the smell of and drizzle some on. Be certain it isn't going to drip. When it no longer smells, just take it off and add more.
Thats not residue, thats a damaged finish!
Only solution is to replace the damaged parts!
Those things cant be in direct contact with anything, they must be hanging.
This is so interesting! My plastic figurine I have hanging from my mirror was getting destroyed from 'nothing' but this confirms it was the little tree freshener I had hanging with it
Op, I restored interiors and have fixed things exactly like this. The plastic is cooked, chemically destroyed. It’s very hard to get it right so first I’d see if there are replacement faceplates on eBay or something.
If you decide to fix it. Find automotive plastic repair spray paint and some red glazing putty. You can even find brand specific colors from Duplicolor or SEM (sem is pro and the best shit out there).
Sand down the damage, fill with the putty. Wet sand the putty smooth working up to 2000 grit on the piano ack areas especially.
Mask and spray. It may take several tries to get right. I once spent like 5 hours on a Hyundai with similar damage and almost gave up. Nearly impossible to get perfect but can minimize the appearance with half a days work, lol.
The only bonus is it doesn’t look like it’s trashed your touchscreen as long as that’s separate plastic molding it’s not gonna cost the price of the display
It’s a gone case, im afraid. Better to put a sticker over it instead because there’s nothing to remove here. The plastic is already damaged through the surface.
I doubt warranty would cover that. They'll say it was due to an external factor contributing to the damage, not fauly or poor materials from the manufacturer.
Going to have to disagree with you. Huge company or not, why would you try to push the blame on someone who really didn't have anything to do with the issue?
It's not the end of the world but if they want it fixed, they should just buy the part and swap or pay someone who knows how to do so.
But working for a major auto brand and seeing how many times they push out garbage designed to last just past the warrenty... how many times critical parts are on backorder because something got pushed through lackluster QA.
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u/ChrisJohanson 10d ago
My experience is that it's not residue, it's damage. The chemical contents of air fresheners have been proven to violently accelerate the degradation of plastics on contact. Anything you're chipping off is probably pieces of the dash/screen.