I'm desperate....

I bought a bunch of cat food at the pet food store and one can was leaking. I didn't notice until I tried to lift the paper grocery bag out and the bottom broke out. Now my MINI smells awful. The bag was in my boot but it didn't seem like the carpet was wet or even damp...but obviously some fluid leaked out and is causing the smell.

What can I do to get rid of the smell?

 

Carpet cleaner .... I like Blue Coral (bought at Pep Boys) and Fabreeze for the smell afterwards. Use the high power vacuums at your local do-it-yourself car wash. I'm learning from you and ordering a rubber boot liner for mine!

 

A post similar to yours was posted on Mini.com--only it was meat that had been left in the car over a weekend in the summer. The dealer recommended a new interior because of the horrific odor.--of course. So I responded based on the experienced learned in the used airplane sales business. We would often receive aircraft both foreign and domestic that stunk to high heaven--for whatever reason. Rather than replacing the interior at the average cost of $40k we would employ the skills of a home/smoke,water damage restoration company. They would arrive with an ozion machine--plug it in-place it in the cabin-close the door-wait 24 hours-and voila, the odor was totally gone-I mean gone.

So this Mini owner rented the machine out of the yellow pages-plugged it in-closed the door--waited 24 hours--odor gone--very happy Mini owner. Cost her $75.00 for the rental. Good luck!!

 

unless a skunk died in there , washing and full drying will take the
smell out.

i would pull the trunk floor out of the car and wash it with a hose and
some soap and brush.

i love Indian food and do take-outs often. I ALWAYS carry a bag
that i know is not leaking or a plastic tray to carry it back home.

 

If it were only that easy. Ever try to get cigarette smell out of carpet? No amount of washing and full drying will do it alone. The Ozone treatment would be worth a try but only after you pull up the carpet and get all the spill out from under it. Baking Powder is fairly effective at removing odors too, but again a surface treatment will not suffice.

 

One more thought--had neighbors whose dog tangled with a skunk. All efforts with soap,tomato juice were in vain. They then used shaving cream-in the can type-scrubbed Fido down using several cans--smell went away. FWIW

 

wat are you talking about? You smoked in your car and not in
the closed boot?

you are talking apples when in talking oranges.
the "will" shouldve stated "shall" in my statement though.
that, i will take back cause i dont know wat you will spill next.

 

I don't smoke, but have detailed cars from owners that do.
One other thing to note, MINI carpet has a foam backing. It is also possible that some of the juice is between the carpet and backing. You will need to get it out of there as well.
Shaving cream? Now that is a new one. Was it mentholated - makes your skin all tingly.

 

that is fascinating.

Hm. The shaving cream is a suspension of liquid in air. the goal of soap is to make that suspension if you are trying to "lift" gunk from the carpet. You might be on to something for cleaning purposes. Nothing more powerful than a skunk going off on something. You literally have to not go into work for a week+ if you get nailed by one. Poor fido

Carpet cleaning in a car has always been the biggest mystery for me. I never figured out how to revive a carpet with stains on it. I know there is stuff for it, but it seems so stuck in, it's nuts. Then I worry about soaking the thing too much and making it rust out or never dry and just create mold and stick more dirt. (I live on Long island, it is above 70% humidity most days)

 

The weird part is - I couldn't feel any wetness or see any stains after I picked up the bag. I think the paper grocery bag absorbed most of it. The smell lingered on despite the lack of visible juice.

Anyways, the carpet has been shampooed. I can still smell it, barely. Hopefully the smell will dissipate over time. Thanks for all the ideas - if it isn't gone I'll try some of the other ideas.

 

hope it works!

 

The cigarette smell is in the headliner, not the carpets.

 

Go to the pet store and get some Nature's Miracle. That has enzymes that will break down the proteins that are causing the odor. Work's on all kinds of nasty stuff, including cat pee and meat juice.

 

MMMM!!

CAT PEE AND MEAT JUICE!!! YES!

 

I have to say, we use Nature's Miracle to housebreak our pets (seriously...no more having to "punish" the puppies, put their nose in it, whatever else people do to housebreak pets...you just clean it up, then use Nature's Miracle to kill whatever might linger that you can't smell that they can, and tell them "no" and put them outside...our puppies now housebreak in 2 weeks or less), but I never would have thought of it on just a tough organic stain/smell. Good call!

 

There are also the enzymatic cleaners to remove cat oders. I have used them sucessfully on many other oders. The last one I tried was called "Get Serious" It was great!