Awww man, I accidentally left my rear car windows down last night, and we had a bad rainstorm! What should I do?

[Ryan]

I forgot all about those two windows, and when I woke up this morning, I noticed that there was a lot of water on the ground. I didn't even know they were down until I went outside to get my newspaper, and I almost crapped my pants. The back seats were very damp, and the rear floor was soaked. I tried to dry it up a little this morning, but I haven't had any time to have it cleaned (I spent all day @ my college registering). Now my car has this funny smell of baby diapers (????). What should I do to clean my seats and get rid of the smell?

 

[erikiksaz]

I'd tell ya febreeze, but dousing your chairs with that wouldn't help the situation.

 

[morkinva]

Start carpooling

Sorry couldn't resist.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: erikiksaz
I'd tell ya febreeze, but dousing your chairs with that wouldn't help the situation.

I actually tried that this morning, but I think that it's contributing to the funny smell

 

[Nefrodite]

get or rent a carpet upholstery cleaning machine. they suck it dry after

 

[BatmanNate]

Blowdrier: 19.99
Extension cord: 8.99
Febreeze: 3.49

Never doing that sh|t again: Priceless.

 

[Mday]

fabreeze
wet-dry vac, a shop vac would work, but a bissell little green clean machine would be best.

new seats would be the best option

 

[Adul]

get it detailed at a reputabled place.

 

[BigPotato]

leave your windows open a little bit at least so your car doesn't mildew!

 

[Fritzo]

Yeah....one of those steam cleaners will do the trick. Get a hand held one if you can. I had the same thing happen in my old Cherokee (the kids rolled down a backseat window).

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

What I would do, if I didn't want to go rent or buy any type of machine (wet/dry vac to remove excess would be a good idea if one was on hand though) would be this - first mix a solution of bleach and water into a hand-held bottle with a pump spray, it doesn't have to be very strong, I'd say no more than 1/8 cup bleach to one quart of water, possibly even weaker.

Take the mixture and spray into the wet parts of the car, especially on the carpets. Would be good idea to do a test area first to make sure the bleach doesn't lift any color. If there is a problem with bleaching, then just go straight to water removal. You could just use a bunch of towels to soak up the water as much as possible, then let the car air dry. If you couldn't use the bleach and the odor is still bad, try one of the anti-bacterial sprays like Lysol and see if that helps, or perhaps the Febreeze would work well at that point. First objective should be to remove water and get the car dry, so more yuck-o stuff doesn't keep growing in the swamp.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Yo_Ma-Ma
What I would do, if I didn't want to go rent or buy any type of machine (wet/dry vac to remove excess would be a good idea if one was on hand though) would be this - first mix a solution of bleach and water into a hand-held bottle with a pump spray, it doesn't have to be very strong, I'd say no more than 1/8 cup bleach to one quart of water, possibly even weaker.

Take the mixture and spray into the wet parts of the car, especially on the carpets. Would be good idea to do a test area first to make sure the bleach doesn't lift any color. If there is a problem with bleaching, then just go straight to water removal. You could just use a bunch of towels to soak up the water as much as possible, then let the car air dry. If you couldn't use the bleach and the odor is still bad, try one of the anti-bacterial sprays like Lysol and see if that helps, or perhaps the Febreeze would work well at that point. First objective should be to remove water and get the car dry, so more yuck-o stuff doesn't keep growing in the swamp.

BLEACH . . . .??? Are you kidding?

1/8 cup to 1 Qt is 1/2 cup per gallon . . . that'll change the color for sure. First, just DRY the water out . . . if the odor doesn't go away after a reasonable time, try a commercial product.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Yep you are right apoppin, that would be too strong. I'm used to bleaching in the basement where fabric isn't anywhere to be found. Just chuck the bleach idea and stick to getting it dry, then handle residual odor when you get there.

 

[911paramedic]

Want to hear something worse? I had a jeep without a top and went to work one morning (6am to 6pm) with outdoor parking only. It was a nice morning but we got a nice monsoon downpour around 2pm that day. My jeep was soaked and the smell lasted for a couple weeks.

edit: While working on the amblulance, so it was not like I could swing by and move or cover it btw.

No more jeeps for me, expedition baby.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic


No more jeeps for me, expedition baby.

Expeditious, baby.




(Think, Austin Powers)

 

[Evadman]

Something like that happened to my prelude. I just pulled the seats out and left them in the sun for the day. They dried out just fine. No wierd smells at all.

If you can't or do not want to do that, get a bissel cleaner and suck that water out, then blow dry the sucker. It will take forever.

 

[Lvis]

If you dont have a shop vac, go to your local doityourself car wash. Use the coin op vacs there. Get as much as you can, then hit it with fabreeze. Leave the windows open to air it out. Close them if its going to rain

 

[Ryan]

Alright, I have set up an appointment at my local car detailer to have the beck seats steem cleaned and to have the inside detailed I have to replace my dash (yes, the whole dash! ) tomorrow so that they can clean that too

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Alright, I have set up an appointment at my local car detailer to have the beck seats steem cleaned and to have the inside detailed I have to replace my dash (yes, the whole dash! ) tomorrow so that they can clean that too

That's what I would do, have a reputable detailer clean the seats for you.

Although we've had 90 degree weather with NO CLOUDS IN SIGHT the past few days, whenever I go inside I make sure that my moonroof is closed because I always think of these ATOT threads.

You learn something new every day

 

[XZeroII]

get a christmas tree airfreshener. Close windows tight and let car sit in the sun. Problem solved.

 

[Slacker]

I lived in florida many years ago and had a nice new camaro with "T" tops, I left the tops off one night and when I woke up the next day it was pouring and had been for a couple of hours, there was at least two inches of water in the car and the seats were drenched, it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was going to do, I called a local detail shop and they came and picked up the car around noon and brought it back between 6 and 7, everything was perfectly dry and there was no bad smell at all, and they only charged me $40.00

 

[melly]

the whole entire dash? crikey. one time we left a window down on the bmw and it downpoured overnight...that baby diaper smell was awful. basically we left the windows down the next day and even the doors to air it out.....p.u.!

 

[james78]

I was parked on a steep downslope and somehow rain got in through the rear hatch. I had 3 inches of water in the drivers footwell. When I took it do a detailer he recommended replacing the carpet and the rear seat as both were soaked.
If you're planning on drying the carpet at least take it out of the car as you'll never get the padding underneath dry without doing this.
Glad insurance covered the $1500 bill. Maybe you should check to see if yours does?

 

[Raiden256]

I actually left the sunroof open on my three-week-old Maxima one night during the heaviest rainstorm of this past spring. Realized it while reading ATOT!

3 hours with the heater set on 90 and directed at the floors, and all the towels in my house later, I had the entire (leather) upholstry dry, except for the rear floors. I knew that I could never get all the water out, so I took it to a local upholstry shop, and they pulled all the carpet out, and hung it up to dry with heaters on it for two days... once it was dry, they put it back in -- good as new! Never had any smell at all --best $150 I ever spent!

I can't explain how embarrasing this was on a three week old car...