Don't wanna add the COVID-19 hysteria but let's face it, the inside of your car is a problem.
Especially if you drive or take rideshare and even if you don't family cars are essentially the same thing.
You're in there your kids are in there your kids friends are in there your teenage kids are in there and doing God knows what with God knows who in the back seat.
So let's clean that thing up.
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I recently showed you some new technologies that are coming that will kill bacteria and viruses in your car in real time.
But until that arrives, the store shelves are full of things that can do a pretty good job.
If you choose the right ones, first let me tell you about one I can't even show you.
It's not legal to sell in California.
It's an ozone generator.
It's a machine that generates colorless ozone gas, which is three, instead of the more common otu.
We breathe in air.
That third oxygen molecule, it loves to break off and interact with or oxidize things.
And when that happens with viruses they're dead.
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But I couldn't even get one to show you here on the To set because Amazon won't send one to California.
We banned these things here in 2009, because they can readily create a density of ozone in the nearby atmosphere, that isn't just killing bugs.
It's killing the lining of your lungs, and also attacking your mucous membranes.
Remember, oxidization is not a good thing.
That's why we're all Gaga for antioxidants these days.
So you got to take my word on this, but at least take some comfort that the EPA agrees, this isn't just a California nanny state thing that at the level at which ozone is safe for you, it's not effective at killing things.
So we turn instead to the endless aisles and shells of cleaning solutions, right, but you got to choose the right one.
Now the owner's manual on the Crown Vic Basically says use nothing except a damp rag.
Okay, that's not going to kill any Corona virus.
We got to do better than that.
On the other hand, don't just go for the harshest chemical you can find that can really **** up your interior certainly over time.
Now some of the sprays and cleaning things out there.
[SOUND] Let's talk about killing 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.
That sounds great but they do so, read the fine print with sodium hypochlorite is their active ingredient.
What that is?
That's household bleach.
And we know, bleach is pretty harsh and can do a number on things and have a nice
Colored finish.
So the concentration's different, this is less than 2% bleach.
This is about 6% dilute solution.
Either way, I'm not gonna roll the dice on bleach inside my car.
I think it's a risk, if not immediately, over time.
So I'm taking the bleach-based products off my list.
Instead look for products that use, as their active ingredient, benzylconium chloride.
Here's the claim again, 99.9% of bacteria and viruses killed.
I doubt any of these have been specifically tested against the current coronavirus, but we're in the zone Several lab studies suggests this ingredient can actually be more effective than those alcohol hand sanitizers.
We're all slathering ourselves with so this is good stuff.
Now, whatever these products you use, you got to read the label in terms of how to use them.
I know you know how to spray and wipe.
It's not about that.
Look at some of these directions here.
Let sit for at least 10 seconds.
Allow to stand for 45 seconds, 30 seconds for viruses.
It'll vary, I've seen up to one and two minutes on some of these products.
You've gotta Wet a surface and let this stuff work.
You can't just spray in white.
That's basically just antivirus theater.
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Before we actually use these in the car, what do we do about the air inside your car?
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First, there are forgers sprays you can unleash in your closed unoccupied vehicle while the HVAC is running to spread it around.
And you can also spray it in advance.
I literally could not find a can of this to demo because it's not anywhere in stock, anywhere near today's shoot date, credit Corona virus.
There is a slew of HEPA filters you can use in your car as you drive JVC has one coming out and there's a ton of no name ones on Amazon Now know that HIPAA filters do not necessarily trap viruses effectively, as those particles are very small, often smaller than the point three micron level that HIPAA is designed to be really good at getting rid of.
Now I bet your car has a cabin air filter.
I bet you've never changed it.
We're about to change the one here in the Porsche.
You're going to see how dirty it is after just 12 months, but while I'm in there, I'm going to take that opportunity to blast the air conditioning system with duct cleaner.
Now this particular one.
Because it's not intended for use on humans, none of these are doesn't apparently have to say what the ingredient is it's active, I'm going to guess is tryethylene glycol.
If you find one that says that that's a good thing that has long been known to be a pretty effective bacteria and viruside Doesn't mean it kills everything and I'm not saying it knocks out Coronavirus.
But it is generally used in that respect and it's concerned safe around where humans breathe unlike the ozone, we talked about earlier.
Let's change the filter first.
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Now in most cars you're gonna find that you got the cabin air filter somewhere here near the cowl probably under the hood So you take away a panel or whatever it might be, every car will be different.
Here's my filter down here.
Let's compare.
I pull this guy out, and he's normally sit in like a little airbox.
You can just see without comparing that it's pretty dirty.
There's the back side, the front side, it's gray all the way around.
Here's what a new fresh one should look like.
And again, these are relatively crude filters, but look at the difference.
You're not gonna stop Coronavirus with this thing but you're definitely gonna get a lot of pollen, particulates, grime off the road, a whole bunch of small particles, a lot of stuff including twigs and a couple of bugs.
It all gets in there.
These are important to change just in general.
Now before I put the clean one back in and get rid of that guy, I've got a chance to get nice access into the vehicle's cabin air intake right here.
Which allows me to get our spray that we use, whichever one you choose, and blast it in there while the HVAC system is running to carry this all the way through.
Let me go turn on the fan.
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Okay, so now I've got the fan on full blast.
I'm using all levels of the HVAC.
I've got floor, panel, defrost, everything's on, no AC.
I'm just running it to move air through the system.
Now, this step says to Spray a half a can of this stuff in there and we'll use the other half directly going into the vents later.
Let's see what happens.
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So as I do this, is it being sucked into the climate system and blown around inside the car.
I should be able to smell it once I get in there.
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Okay, I'm gonna save a little of the rest to spray directly in the vents the other way.
I'm done with that for now.
It says to let the system run for five or ten minutes to keep blowing it through, it's a wet spray, it'll eventually dry out through all that air volume.
I can already tell you inside the car Smells like this.
It's getting circulated everywhere.
While that's happening, I can go ahead and replace this.
Now this won't stop the flow.
Make sure you get the airflow direction, correct.
There are arrows that show which way it goes.
And I just tuck this in here.
There we go.
Okay, I've got my new filter faded by the way you can buy these things with that micro ban antimicrobial treatment.
You might see it on like hotel room remote controls and stuff.
I'm not sure it's a big deal but you can get one I noticed they were at least twice as expensive though, as the stock one so I went with that.
I think it's more important to change it frequently.
[UNKNOWN] to get a certain chemistry on it.
Okay, done.
Okay, the last thing is I want to make cleaning the interior with whatever you're using to disinfect less daunting, not detailing the whole damn cabin, just going after the ten or so hotspots.
So let's go tackle those on the Boxster.
No, I've got a better idea.
Let's clean up big stupid, the company van whatever cleaner you choose, don't start with the car start with the key fob.
This is the first part of the car you touch every time even though it's not part of the car, key and fob, then We go to the exterior door handle.
You normally do this when you clean the car right do the outside it's key to get behind here.
Do the backside that's where stuff lingers the entire cars life.
Yeah.
Now I'm pretty sure by the time our HR team sees this video they'll drop me off my health coverage because this is too much of a risk.
Notice as I go through these, I'm speeding things up.
This product says ten minutes on surface to disinfect.
This one is much better at two minutes.
Yeah, I have all day to do this.
I'm gonna go in this one it says 30 or 45 seconds to disinfect.
Good enough for me.
Spray some on a rag here and the first thing I'm gonna do is notice that I got to get the surface and the back.
Of those pull handle on the door.
Dont forget this one.
Now let's not forget the mirror.
This is one you probably forget that everyone who gets in the car touches.
They touch the edges and the back of this thing.
Let's get that cleaned up.
Vents we already covered from the inside, depending on the design of your vents you can get on to the actual touch part of these.
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And clean those up as well, another frequent high touch area.
Of course the gear selector this is the thing you always touch when you get in the car, no way to drive without it.
So this is a classic.
God knows who's picked their nose before they went into drive.
The biggest and most obvious thing that needs cleaning is the wheel.
I mean your hands are on this thing all the time.
This is going to take a little bit of time to disinfect if you're really going to follow the time directions on these products.
Again, I'm just giving you a sample look at how you'd wipe this down.
Now let's turn to the head unit, the center stack of which we have a joke in this vehicle but.
When you clean this be careful of the screen even if it's a small LCD, I'm not gonna stray, a relatively harsh cleaner on there.
In this case, I'm gonna fall back to one of these electronic wipes it's made for cleaning displays.
This is a bit of a cheat because on a touchscreen, you're touching it a lot and that's a place where a lot of germs could be left I am just not willing to put chemicals on there that might fail that thing overtime, or in any other way damage it's touch response.
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I'll let friction do the job in this case, gently.
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Now, the belt and the buckle, this is an area of special concern.
The buckle is easy to deal with Want to Be careful of any harsh chemicals on the webbing itself?
This is where you definitely don't want to play any games with bleach or something like that.
That's a safety issue if this starts to degrade, and it lets go in appropriately in an impact.
Now Yeah, this is a lot of touch points to manage on a fairly regular basis and each one needs a fair amount of time But it's way better than saying, I have to sterilize the entire cabin regularly.
The last thing to think about in all of this is roll of window tint in killing viruses and bacteria.
Now, virologists have known for a long time that the sun's UV rays, even the small portion that reaches the surface of the earth Forms a moderate but persistent virus side killing viruses.
But what do you do when you buy a new car you run down to get new high tech window to put on we showed them to you.
What do they brag about?
99% uv blocking.
You just turned off perhaps the best free.
Interior disinfected your car ever had.
It's a tough choice to make.
And let's be honest, a lot of cars come with factory tint.
It's very hard to know though how much this blocks UV it's not normally a published spec.
I hope this gives you a little focus and how to keep the inside of your car from becoming a germ factory.
I bet I've missed some great points if you know some other ones.
Send them to me cooley@theroadshow.com In the meantime, covering your mouth when you sneeze, stop picking your nose.
Quit touching your face like a weirdo and cross your fingers.
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