During a spirited run through some turns around Lake St. Catherine in Vermont yesterday, my 20 month old son barfed all over my back seat (and his 4 year old brother!). I have cloth seats. I wiped up as best I could, but the smell is @*^%$@^$ing disgusting. Is there anything to get rid of the smell? He had just finished drinking milk too.

 

Try an enzymatic cleaner like Pet-Zyme (sp?). It is designed for cleaning pet messes and you can get it at pet stores. Just soak the stain and let it dry on its own. It works great for just about any organic stain.

 

Get some form of carpet or upholstery shampoo/enzyme cleaner and spray/treat the area. Afterwards, use a hand held brush to brush the area to clean/get rid of the spot, then you need some form of extractor/shampoo machine/wet vac and extract all of the stuff off the seat. Good Luck!

 

EEEEEK! Two suggestions:

1. Google "Heloise's Hints" to see what she suggests.

2. After following the above-posted suggestions, open the windows, the hatch, and if you have one, the sunroof; fold the front seats forward; blast the interior with a fan to blow the odors out.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I'm sure there are plenty of MINI folk who will need this info!

Clo/Wanda

 

There's something at Home Depot called "Odor B Gone" and it works wonders.

 

Kids, cars, and vomit...a pretty much inescapable combination (esp. in the MINI's back "seat") My 6 year old...who has only blown chunks once in his entire life (yeah, weird I know) did it in the back of the MINI on the Mass Pike...hardly a spirited road.

The pet product that works best is something called "Nature's Miracle" It's available anywhere pet supplies are sold. It's of the enzymatic cleaner type of stuff and really does work miracles. Your new car smell is gone, gone, gone (but you probably knew that the second the little one barfed)...but hopefuly with Nature's Miracle you'll still be able to get back in the car.

There's also now a version of Febreze that works on auto odors...but I donno, Febreze tends to make everything smell like the smoking car on a commuter train if you ask me. The Nature's Miracle stuff has no smell of its own.

 

Thanks for the help. I'll get some enzyme cleaner and a nose clip.

 

My girlfriend used to work at PetCo, and seconds this idea. good luck.

 

I'll second Nature's Miracle, but if it's really stubburn suggest "Get Serious" as well. I kid you not... The name of the product is actually Get Serious...

It's also an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle but stronger, I've actually found it to be better than Nature's Miracle at removing pet stains (pee, barf, baby spitup etc...). I know Petsmart carries it in the same area as the Nature's Miracle.

 

since your seats are cloth, would Fabreeze for autos work?

 

Fabreeze isn't a cleaner. It is reasonably effective at getting out odors. But the germs and bacteria, as well as the stain, won't be removed by Fabreeze.

 

Apparently there is a vote for letherette.

 

yeah, but Bisch asked how to remove the smell. he didnt ask how to remove the stain...if i read what he said correctly. iono i use Fabreeze all the time even though the car still has that brand new smell to it.

 

How about steam cleaning, like the carpet cleaners you rent at the supermarket?

And seeing as nobody else has mentioned it (as I start putting on my flamesuit), the "spirited runs" should maybe be done when there are no children in the car...maybe it's just me but it seems a bit careless to me...

 

Yes, but have you used Fabreeze after somebody has puked in your car? Especially as the weather has gotten warmer and what's left in the car has had a chance to bake...

An enzymatic cleaner is will A. Remove any stains, and B. Keep the odor from coming back.... ever.

The steam cleaner would probalby work as well, but it's probably a bit more cumbersome to deal with for a spot cleaning like this, it's much easier to just use a cleaning solution and do it by hand...

 

By "spirited", I meant just enough to get a little "weeee" factor. Not a full out "WAAAHOOOOOO!". The road I speak of is nothing but constant curves, nothing high speed. If you drive it at 30 mph, it still feels fun. I am a smart person, I refuse to drive fast or recklessly with my family in the car. I refused to drive over 85 mph just with my girlfriend in the car (no kids). She practically begged me to go faster. I don't want to leave my childeren without both parents.

 

Maybe you should consider Leatherette seats for your next MINI purchase. A mess like that on leatherette seats, just wipes off leaving no traces of stain and/or smell.


This is the biggest downside of cloth upholstery and one of the reasons why I will never own another car with cloth seats.

 

I'll third Nature's Miracle. That is actually what we are using, and have been keeping in a Pet-zyme bottle. Stuff works great on all kinds of stains.

 

>By "spirited", I meant just enough to get a little "weeee" factor. Not a full out "WAAAHOOOOOO!".

hahahha!!!

 

Young children + spirited driving = (well you know now what it equals).


Since my kids were born, I've only purchased cars with leather interiors. They are so much easier to clean when the inevitable occurs.

I smell your pain!

 

Sorry! Sorry again!

 

I'm sure it's bound to happen to happen to me eventually... but in the meantime my 11 month old has ridden the Dragon 4 times. Except for the time when he was hungry, he was asleep by the time we were 3 miles in!

 

I usually put an old towel under the car seat, just in case. It catches the crumbs, and whatever else.

In terms of products, Resolve is pretty good, and there's a new Oxi-Clean spray that's good on stains.

Good luck!

 

I am in the business of selling ultra fine leathers and leather furniture. When I saw the quality of MINI's offerings, I opted for cloth. I know the ease of cleaning leathers, but MINI's leather has much to be desired compared to others. Please don't start bashing, I know this is not a $40k plus car. I'm not complaining, just stating my opinion, .

 

We choose the leatherette after checking out the mini's leather. It's survived several kid catastrophes w/o trouble and I've yet to have someone get in the car and not think it's real leather. I'd defanitly get it again if we spec'd another mini.