MINI COOPER :: North American Motoring - holiday-related crisis--red wine interior flood

luluzapcat · #1 11-23-2007, 12:14 AM

in a spectacular violation of the open container law, i broke a bottle of red wine in the passenger footwell of my mini today. is there any hope my car won't forever smell like a dive bar?

i've washed and soaked the floor mat and thought that part would be easy, but as i pull it out of the tub it still smells like wine. i've blotted the floor of the car as long as i can stand to at this hour, but there's still wine coming up.

help! what do i do?

luluzapcat · #2 11-23-2007, 12:16 AM

in a spectacular violation of the open container law, i broke a bottle of red wine in the passenger footwell of my mini today. is there any hope my car won't forever smell like a dive bar?

i've washed and soaked the floor mat and thought that part would be easy, but as i pull it out of the tub it still smells like wine. i've blotted the floor of the car as long as i can stand to at this hour, but there's still wine coming up.

help! what do i do?

(posted this on 2002-2006 board & realized there's probably more traffic here--sorry if you're reading this twice. it was only one bottle! at least.)

Eric_Rowland · #3 11-23-2007, 12:32 AM

Bugger!
I can suggest wine-away for stains, but I don't know if it will do anything for the odor. It's got a strong citrus smell, so it can't hurt...

luluzapcat · #4 11-23-2007, 12:36 AM

bugger indeed! thanks for the idea. i'm not too worried about stains b/c the floor is black. but wine-away sounds like it might just be designed for this overall problem! where does one buy this? supermarket? never heard of it.

gnatster · #5 11-23-2007, 12:40 AM

It's made by http://www.evergreenlabs.com/ and they have a store locater on the site.

Found with Google

nabeshin · #6 11-23-2007, 12:47 AM

Have you tried a wet-dry vac?

All else fails, just rip the carpet out. Might save like a pound or two as well.

**Motor On** · #7 11-23-2007, 01:16 AM

I'm not on my regular computer, I've got a link that should help. (And a little frabreeze never hurt to try)

You at least manage to salvage some of the wine when you got home?

cg1 · #8 11-23-2007, 04:24 AM

Did you try Febreze? This stuff works well

http://www.febreze.com/en_US/febreze/home.do

Silverbullit · #9 11-23-2007, 04:57 AM

How about Ordergone. It's sold at our Wal-Mart in Central Ga. Works great on animal smells.

**Mishka** · #10 11-23-2007, 05:22 AM

Take the car to a car wash and use their vacuums to get as much out of the carpet as you can. You will get more out that way than you will blotting it.

I recently had a spill in the back of my MINI and used Febreze(didn't work) and have since been using ZeroOdor. Spraying it on the spill area worked for a day or two, but found if I pour it onto the area(soaking it) it has worked. We also found that after the area had dried we could use HOT water to get it wet and then vacuum the water up to get more of the spill out of the carpet.

**Mishka** · #11 11-23-2007, 05:30 AM

My post on your other thread:

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...14&postcount=7

thefuturequeenofnebraska · #12 11-23-2007, 08:13 AM

I had someone spill a mocha in my car...

I used a handheld carpet cleaner (attached to my normal hoover cleaner) and it worked pretty well. I believe you can rent them at the grocery or you can always pick one up at Walmart for around $75 or so.
It DOES take a while to get it all out, so make sure you have LOTS of cleaning fluid on hand!

Good luck!

(here's a link to one- http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5774678 )

Yucca Patrol · #13 11-23-2007, 08:16 AM

Or if you have access to a wet/dry shop vac try that (they can be had very cheaply too at big discount hardware stores). I might even pour water into the footwell to dilute the wine before sucking it up.

I really don't think all is lost here and it should clean up just fine.

At least they don't offer Pepper White as an interior color!

sancochojoe · #14 11-23-2007, 08:16 AM

I spilled some PB blaster in my Jeep that filled my cup holder with that stuff because my gym bag had pressed on the spray head. I could not get the strong paint thinner like odor out for days. My friend told me to use coffee.
I bought some coffee grinds and poured some in a cup and set it in my rear cup holder and the coffee absorbed the odor and the smell was gone. I was impressed. Coffee works like Arm and Hammer baking soda. I like the smell of coffee so I went that route. So you need something to neutralize the smell.

Good luck.

**Motor On** · #15 11-23-2007, 10:27 AM

http://autopia.org/forum/guide-detai...detailing.html

It's the how to for a through detailing, take note of the milk shake bit toward the bottom. Looks like the site has evolved into a forum, I'm sure you'll also get some feedback if you sign up and ask there, if it hasn't alredy been posted.

luluzapcat · #16 11-23-2007, 11:33 AM

thanks all--i think i'll be spending some serious time w/ a wet-dry vac today and see how i do.

Motor On, sadly no wine was salvaged, and it's probably the most expensive bottle i've ever bought, too. painful.

sancochojoe, i love the smell of coffee and last time i bought some freshly ground i thought about leaving some in my car to scent it! so that's a great follow-up to the washing...thanks.

hope everyone's unbloating successfully today...

cheers,
diana

trico · #17 11-23-2007, 12:10 PM

I suggest Nature's Miracle - removes just about everything and every smell - non-toxic!!

daffodildeb · #18 11-23-2007, 11:29 PM

I've heard of good results with newspaper, too. The person reporting crumpled up page after page and totally filled the car. No personal experience, though.

Eric_Rowland · #19 11-23-2007, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luluzapcat

...Motor On, sadly no wine was salvaged, and it's probably the most expensive bottle i've ever bought, too. painful...

Argh! Doubly painful!

Would you indulge us as to how the bottle broke?
I've only broken one in my many years (and many more bottles!

) of handling - and that was on the ground, oh so subtle a boot of one bottle into the other before the dreaded 'glug-glug-glug' was heard.

Let us know how things progress.

rkw · #20 11-24-2007, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trico

I suggest Nature's Miracle - removes just about everything and every smell - non-toxic!!

I've never tried it for wine but it should work well. You can find Nature's Miracle in just about any pet supply store. It is used for cleaning up after "accidents" that are far more odoriferous than wine.

sancochojoe · #21 11-24-2007, 10:48 AM

I used Natural Miracle as well for my pets. Its another Neutralizer. So it should counter the PH of the wine.

Ladidah · #22 11-24-2007, 11:19 AM

I had a can of cat food leak in my MINI's boot and a carpet shampoo and time is what worked for me. I cannot smell it anymore and it really reeked at first.

DixonL2 · #23 11-24-2007, 01:19 PM

If you really want it C-L-E-A-N, remove the seats and the carpet, then cleanse outside the car. Any liquid that's in teh carpet will leak through to the padding as well, have to really suck that out.

As an option, repeatedly wetting (cleaning solution), wet/dry vacuuming, then rinsing the area should do it, but you want to make sure the interior is really rinsed (prevents carpet cleaner from making your carpet a cleansing sponge for everyone's shoes) and dry (prevents rust, mold, and smell).

My condolences for your loss and the amount of precious time it's going to take to clean it up!

luluzapcat · #24 11-24-2007, 02:19 PM

thanks again all--i've got the vac, some enzyme cleaner, a rug cleaner...i think it's going to be several rinse cycles, & then the products. do i need to worry about rusting out the body below the footwell if i'm pouring water in, though? i'll keep browsing on that question but if anyone knows...is there a plastic underliner, or protective process on the metal undercarriage inside the car, that makes it ok to fill w/ water that will only be able to airdry over a few days after i've vacuumed best i can?

eric, as far as how it happened--sounds like it might have been similar to your incident. i had 2 bottles on my passenger seat (one champagne) and they rolled off together. i almost dove for them but figured better to attend to driving, miscalculating that they were unlikely to break from hitting the carpeted floor at that height. of course what happened is the wine hit the champagne, and interestingly the bottom of the bottle just sheered off.

DixonL2 · #25 11-25-2007, 09:57 AM

The footwells are "plastic coated", in that they're painted. The carpeting is on a nice probably-closed-cell foamy substrate, but moisture can stay in there, hence my comment about pulling the seats and cleaning the carpet outside the car. Shouldn't really be that much more work, I'd think, and it'd be clean and dry. As an alternative, pull just the PS seat and pull up the carpet a bit to allow air circulation under there.

Good luck!