O.K. my question is has anyone ever extracted a car and then a couple days later the Customer says they can't even get in their car because of the smell? I did a horrible mid 90's Jeep. Mytee Spyder extractor, GC lightning stain cleaner. Sprayed cleaner w/ weed sprayer. (Really bad shape) Took bucket with HOT water and srub brush to floor and seats, removed ton's of gunk. The gunk that came out in my extactor water almost made my wife throw up. The car was smoked in a lot. Ran my shop vac over interior for double insurance. Also cracked all the windows and ran the heater full blast for about 25 min. seats and carpet dry to touch when I dropped the car off and no smell? So what do you think?
They say it smelt like throw up. The car smelt 100% better when I was done. They said it was pretty sick. Haven't had a chance to smell for my self.
Thats weird. I get a wet sock smell from carpets sometimes after they are extracted, but it goes away when the carpets dry. I was told by a science teacher that some bacteria can remain dorment and come out when they surface gets hot and moist again. I would suggest getting the car Ion Deorderized as this is really they only way to remove smells from vehicles.
I was only around for the end of the detail, my wife had done the brunt of it before I got home from work. My mother-in-law had just called and I told her what was going on, she told me that the car stunk so bad when it was brought down that when she had walked past it that she could smell it sitting out in the driveway. I call my wife and she told me the same thing. We think that it must of had the nice smell good smell for the first couple days and then the old smell just came back out. Maybe they just forgot how bad it was, after having it smell good for a couple days. I called the lady back and told her I'd bring by some air nuetralizer she what she thinks.
Typically the shampooing will cause the smell to get worse, not better, until the carpets dry completely. If you got all the offending goop when you shampooed, there shouldn't be any smell at all. My guess would be that there is something that was missed when shampooing and it is still damp. Also, you may want to remove the seats and pull the carpet back to ensure that the underlay isn't wet. That'll never dry out and it'll always smell.
I did this 2000 Sebring Convert that smelled horribly... I pulled the seats, and did the cleaning and extraction as normal... then I put two fan in there and let it dry over night, and in the morning treated it 3x with CG offensive order remover, supposed to smell like green apples... don't know about that... but the carpet smelled very fresh afterward and still smells good... I can't wait to try the steamer out on a smell car
I wish I had some befores of this Jeep My wife swears that if they ever call again for a detail she'll just hang up on them. I went and looked at it and it wasn't nearly as bad as they said. It was more like slight wet dog smell. They said it's gretting better. I'm not even going to go near the idea of my wife missing something on the extraction. (I don't think women take it well when you say they didn't clean something right.) As far as seat removal or carpet removal these carpets looked like it had been used to haul junk the the land fill. I mean my dad had a roll of old carpet that he kept in his garage for about 5 years that he'd park on thinking it was saving his floor. It was covered in oil, mud, and Utah winters full of salt. I'd rather sleep on that carpet then sit in this jeep. I did a car that a kid had gotten stab 4 times in the back leaving a party. Someone took him to the hospital in the car, then it sat in police impound for 4 days in July. I had to remove door panels, seats, consols, and pulled the carpet back and made sure both sides got extracted. The smell was really bad. Followed the same method as the jeep. I see the guys parents all the time and they always say how they can't believe I got the smell and blood out of the car.
the car has to thoroughly dry when you are done. turn the heat on and crack the rear windows, or if you are in a warm climate just leave it open. If the car gets shut up before its dry it WILL reek.
Thats the dead giveaway right there. Its still wet inside. When I shampoo something, ( 2 or 3x a year) I do a few things to solve this issue. 1. For every wet pass with the shampooer, do two dry passes. 2. After shampooing, start the car, crank the heat on the FLOOR only. Heat rises. Crack the windows down about an inch and let it run until its dry. Usually less than an hour. Never, ever give a car back with dampness in it as most owners will forget to leave the windows cracked down.:thumb:
Thanks guys for the help. I agree that it just didn't have time to dry they where in a big rush to get it back it was for a small dealership and they had some people really interested in it. Lucky for me and them the guys never showed. I did two more cars for them after this sinky on and haven't had any problems. I think that also the carpet had gotten some extra scubbing due to the condition they where in and maybe the normal 2-3 dry passes with the extractor just wasn't good enough. Also the stupid car had it's fuel light on when they dropped it off and I was afraid of it running out of gas in my driveway. Should of ran it longer. Thanks guys for the help.
dont worry about the gas light if your just letting it set. I work at a dealership and every car is below E and we let them run to dry the carpets in the cooler weather all the time. Thats great that your getting dealership work. Thats the customer that you want to keep happy.
Yeah, the biggest rule of thumb in carpet cleaning is get it clean, then get it dry as as fast as you can. The longer carpet stays wet the more potential for problems. Use a fan, blower or whatever you can find next time. I've fixxed many many many problems simply because Joe Blow soaked the carpet and it took forever to dry.
Have you ever used heaters or blowers before. (not the Cars heater) I seen some blowers at harbor frieght that you could buy a heater to add to it. I just didn't know if they would be worth it or not?
PS Detailed Trailblazer SS in Silverstone Metallic - Autopia.org Look thru this thread, you can see he uses a round fan and a couple small Stanley blowers, thats doing carpet the right way. I don't think you need all three but I would start with one good fan/blower. I would copy what he is using, and I wouldn't use a heater.
Stanley-Bostitch Air King AirKing High Velocity Blower - Yellow/Black: Compare Prices, View Price History and Read Reviews at NexTag
I agree. Same thing happened to me when I extracted the floor mats my wife's Sienna that had taken four years of abuse from our children getting in and out, and I cleaned them for hours, pressure washed them, scrubbed them, extracted them, etc. and once they were clean I put them back in the van and there was distinct "wet dog smell", so I took them back out, brought them in my house and sat them under the fan to let them dry, and when I put them back in, the smell was gone. Lesson learned.
