kaleighcam

1/2 gallon container of milk broke in the back seat of my C2. Quickly vac'd out what I could and gave it a shampoo, but to no avail. It smells like a French Cheese convention in there.

Please, for the love of god, give me the name of a product, or a technique of cleaning to rid my '01 of it's funkiness.

keith

Gator996

Been there myself and it's gonna be a mess. First is to get as much out as you can like it sounds like you have done .Rent a carpet extractor from Lowes or somewhere if you didn't use an extractor when you shampooed it. Rent the hand wand with it. Get as much out of the carpet under the seat as you can.

Milk has enzymes which are little gifts that keep on giving.

Next will be the odor. It's gonna get real smelly real quick. After you have cleaned everything, set a dish of white vinegar in the car. Change it out often. This may take a few days of use. If that doesn't do it, an odor removal product called SO2Pure (www.autogeek.net) works very well and I use it on a lot of my detailing clients cars.

If there is a high end Detailer in your area see if they have the Drive Pur system. If they do, get it done!

frisbee91

Ouch. This happened to a friend, and even after thorough cleaning, warm days would make the car smell like old cheese. I'd seriously consider removing any carpeting touched by the spill and taking it to a professional carpet cleaner. I wouldn't want to risk the "funk" permeating other parts of the interior.

good luck.

C4CRNA

What about a spray with Fabreeze?
That works with lots of smells.

Millemiglia

If it's only the rear-seat and not the carpet, I would remove the rear-seats completely and you will both get rid of the smell and have easier access while cleaning it.
It's only attached with velcro and pulls right up.

ivangene

bad memories for me - in the early 70's my sister broke a gallon glass jar full of milk in the back of my dad's 72' Plymouth...we owned that car well into the 80's and EVERY SINGLE TIME you got in that car (esp on a nice hot summer day when the windows had been rolled up)

EVERY TIME

EVERY EVERY EVERY TIME

It smelled like...well, throw up spoiled fricken milk!
now my dad had removed the entire interior and cleaned the chit out of it more than once, and either he sucked at cleaning or that stuff just doesnt come out - I can smell that car even now 25 years later - good lord !!!

best of luck man.....the very best of luck

kromdom

Going to a PRO detailer was the first (and only) choice that first came to mind.

tedfromohio

In my apartments, I have had very good luck with OdorXit. Odorxit.com

Hope it helps.

Ted

perryinva

Also, go to a pet store and get yourself a bottle of Natures Miracle or equal. It is an enzymatic cleaner that literally eats any organics. It works well at getting cat & dog urine odor out, so it should work with milk as well. Saturate well after you clean up what you can, then extract with whatever method you want, wet/dry vac, tons of paper towels, etc. Don't use a steam extractor after treatment. May need to apply more than once.

dotframe

oh man my wife had a casserole full of hot sweet potatoes in my Tacoma years ago. It spilled yam juice all into my cloth seats.

It took 3 central Texas summers before the smell was gone

If it happened to me today it would be a good excuse to pull all the carpet. That is something I've wanted to do in the last 3 vehicles I've had but haven't had the ***** to go for it. I'm just not a fan of carpet.

rpm's S2

Professionals use some sort of ionization treatment. My mother-in-law's Subaru required two treatments to get rid of a spilled milk smell. But then it was gone completely. Whatever you use, make sure to park the car in the shade afterwards and leave the windows down, preferably for a day or two.

Riad

You need a road flare and a friend that can keep a secret.

Quix

In college I left the windows of my '76 Monte Carlo open in the rain on two occasions. The carpet quickly smelled moldy and terrible. I doused it with Lysol spray, which had the effect of changing the mold smell into a Lysol smell that eventually changed back into no smell. The carpet looked fine (well not fine it was a '76 Monte Carlo)...

Gator996

Ozone generators work extremely well but if you do choose that option beware. The ozone will seriously damage interior plastics. You only want to run it for about 10 minutes at a time between sessions.

perryinva

Do not use an ozone generator in the car. It can do all sorts of things to leather and wire insulation. If you use an ozone generator, pull out the affected carpet and run it in a large sealed cardboard box.