neuronbob

I just got back from a 3000 mile trip in my '06 RL. My 2-year-old barfed in the back seat on the way back. Luckily, most of the barf was on his child seat, on the seat protector, and a tiny bit dropped on the carpet. None of it landed on the leather seats (whew!). I was able to clean most of it, and the kid, at the roadside. No vomit smell at all for the remaining day and a half of travel. (Note to those of you with babies/small kids....USE A PRINCE LIONHEART SEAT PROTECTOR if you care about your leather!)

This prompted me to do a full car conditioning the day I got back, a couple of days ago....quick layer of Zaino....leather cleaner and conditioner for all the seats...carpet cleaning....dusted the dash...etc, took three hours. I cleaned the carpets with a weak concentration of Woolite. This took up all the stains, including the salt stains in the front seat from last winter and milk stains from the carpet on the baby's side of the car. I didn't soak the carpet, I just used a damp towel and scrubbed.

Problem is, since I used the Woolite--that was the last thing I did--the car smells like bread yeast. Even after drying the carpet for two days, windows open, the smell persists. Did I do something wrong? Should I redo the carpets with a standard carpet cleaner now that I've got the stains out? Should I use carpet freshener? I miss the nice leather smell that my RL keeps. The baby's seat is not back in the car yet and smells fine, so that's not a factor.

Thanks in advance for your help.

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

Bummer.... I had the same thing happen to me in my old mustang... the pad under the carpet trapped the moisture and the went sour after I cleaned it one summer evening after a small spill ... I had to remove the carpet, clean it and replace the pad.... not good... its my hope that one of the detail guru's here at AZ can come up with a better solution to ur problem!!!!

shiftityourself

Bread Yeast? How do you know that smell is from the woolite? I'm not familiar with woolite, so maybe I am totally off here. But I can't imagine why woolite would stick up your car that bad. I'm guessing there is a little bit of vomit that got somewhere and after sitting for a day or two, the smell came out. I would suggest cleaning the carpets with a diluted ammonia solution. Search google for ammonia and vomit, and you will easily find the right dilution. Rub that stuff in, leave it for a while, clean it out. Also, it might be a good idea to do a bit of scrubbing to get all that stuff out. If it isn't puke, ammonia might help get that smell out still. I would color test before doing everything, but I've never had a problem using ammonia for car cleaning. Don't put it on your leather or plastic, just on carpeting.

If the smell doesn't go away, I would guess some puke got stuck somewhere you can't see. I had a buddy vomit all over my back seat and I had to remove the seat cushions to get to the puke that had gotten in the little holes. If you are not comfortable removing the seats ( I have no idea how hard it is on an RL ), then it's time to go to a professional.

Good luck

Jesstzn

I use the Woolite solution all the time and it won't produce that smell. You have reactivated the milk which is prolly sour.

neuronbob

Thanks for the help, guys. This gives me an excuse to drive my S2000 for the rest of the week.

Seriously, I'll have to look again for any areas of vomit I missed. I know it didn't get into the seat cushions--no vomit was there when I looked originally. Even so, I'll have to look simply to be thorough. The rear seat in the RL lifts up with a couple of clips holding it to the frame, so it's not hard.

Deep Gloss

Before going all out and removing the carpets try an active enzyme cleaner.. Bio Kleen makes one...