hawee

Hi
I spilled some old coffee on the carpet in the rear seats and now theres an odor in the car, any ideas how to get rid of it?

Greg@DI

The best thing to do is to make sure you have as much of the coffee out of the vehicle as possible. If you have a wet/dry vac you can use that to remove the worst of it. I would take a damp cloth and dry to absorb any remaining coffee. If the coffee has stained the carpet or else where I would clean that up as much as possible. A good carpet cleaner will help separate the coffee from the fabric. I typically use the 303 Cleaner and Spot Remover, which I also use on the dash board, doors, console, arm rest, etc. Spray the area down and take a damp scrub brush to the area for best results.

Now to remove any remaining odor I would leave baking soda in a tray close to where the smell is coming from. The baking soda will help absorb the odor. I use an old salad bar tray and put some baking soda in it, just be careful you don't drive with it in there and it flips over. Replace the baking soda as needed.

Let me know if this works or if you need more options.

Good Luck!

Greg @ Detailed Image

Anthony Orosco

To remove the odor you need to remove or kill the food source of the bacteria. Best option is a product called "Odor Terminator" from ValuGard. Simply spray the area and allow it to kill the bacteria food source and you're done.

To remove the stain look for a tannin stain remover. Many of these contain oxalic acid/acetic acid. These are mixed up with hot water, usually in powder form, and can be real nasty if inhaled so use with great caution....works great though.

Anthony

agentMurdoc

try the carpet shampoo machine at the local car wash.

My mom stained the rear cargo area of her SL a couple YEARS ago from her various home cooked foods. Well I ended up having to drive the car for a while and got fed up with it, took it to the coin-up car wash, used the shampoo-er and all gone. Looks amazing, even the area I thought were clean weren't. Haha. It's definitely worth a shot especially since it was only a dollar to use the machine for like 5 minutes.