A litre and a half of red wine, all over the carpet underneath the front seats of my Passat. Someone coming the other way too fast on a country lane forced me to brake really hard and two bottles came off the back seat before smashing on the metal of the seat runners.
Any suggestions for a thorough clean-up job and removing the smell? The carpet certainly doesn't look like it's ever designed to be removed, but I'll check Haynes all the same.
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White wine. dry not sweet
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Does that old wives' tale really work?
The carpets are black so discolouration isn't a problem. I really want to soak up as much as possible (I've put down a shed-load of paper towel with bricks on it) and then get rid of the smell somehow.
I'm just going to pray that it doesn't mess with any electrics under there - not much I can do but hope!
Any further suggestions gratefully received...
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if you are not worried aboiut staining then just keep soaking it up with lots of kitchen towel - Its not going to have a long lasting smell.
Yes the old wifes tale does work. Seen it remove a red wine stain from a light grey carpet.
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I dropped a rather nice bottle of Glenturret on a rug once and I *think* it was Oxy Clean? Or something like that. Anyway - that seemed to shift it once I'd licked the majority of it up.
Took a couple of goes though.
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Adam
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1001 carpet cleaner - good stuff. Problem with red wine is the tannin, that's why white wine works - it dilutes it, mind you, so does water. Plenty of water (drink the white wine) then mop up. Then the 1001.
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I have seen soda water liberally applied to a red wine stain and lifting it with kitchen towels. But really need to soak it which may not be the best ideas if there are cables running underneath!
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Copious quantities of salt will remove red wine stains from carpest of all colours - pour it on as soon as you can, leave for 24 hrs and hoover up.
Sign of a mis-spent youth ...;-)
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Agree with the salt, but you may need to do it more than once. Also, if you were worried about discoloration then you would throw on more white wine and repeat the salt.
Sign of a mis-spent youth with a scarey mother.
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Not worried about staining, just the possible impact on the electrics (a schematic of the wiring would be really useful!) and the smell.
Further application of any sort of liquid is ruled out. I'm soaking up as much as I can with regularly-changed paper towels and then I'm going to leave the doors open overnight (will block it in the the driveway with another car) to try and vent some of the smell.
I'll buy an air-freshener tomorrow and take it from there.
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The smell will go fairly quickly.
Liquid will not harm any wires.
Liquid may harm components or connectors, but you should be able to feel that they are there.
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Dont get pulled up by the old bill tho, he will have you blowing in the machine faster than you can say Rioja
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Don't forget the battery will go flat if you leave the doors open.
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Yeah, noticed the low-level courtesy lights as I was mopping up. Have now shut the doors and left all the windows down, but I'll probably close them before I go to bed because I can't be sure it won't rain.
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Ah! A kindred spirit that knows a good Malt whiskey from the carp!
Can't seem to get Glenturret since the distillery was taken over by Famous Grouse (I think!)
Not to be imbibed if one is to drive of course (tenuous motoring link!)
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TT
The Glenturret distillery still exists - it is tiny though. The visitor centre is now called the Famous Grouse experience I think but still has a shop which sells the whisky.
Mark
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Now there was I hoping that at last someone would know which of them actually works - white wine or salt. Maybe they both do, so I will go on using both...
I drink both red and white (no, not at once) but I can't remember ever spilling white wine in the last 40 years. Red wine is another matter - maybe just the operation of Murphy's Law or aomething more sinister.
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Soak up as much as you can, liberally apply water, soak up again, add water soak up again etc etc, each time you are diluting the wine thus leaving mainly just water which will dry up without leaving a smell.
Best way to dry it out is to drive around with the aircon on, fans on high, some heat, not recirc, the dehumidifying effect of the aircon will pull the moisture out of the carpet.
DONT add salt, corrosive to body work and electical connectors, also salt water is much more conductive so is more likely to cause a short in the wiring.
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Go to HSS and hire a carpet cleaner. Don't use detergent, just plain water and it will suck up the diluted wine. Much more efficent than paper towels.
Then drive around with hot air to feet and windows and sunroof open (when it is not raining of course)!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I can confirm the white wine and kitchen towel route works.
I found this out after spilling a glass of Margaux onto a very expensive and very beautiful Chinese Pale Silk Carpet by my hearth ... I have never seen SWMBO move so fast and the white wine and kitchen towel did the trick. No stain at all.
It took a fair amount of grovelling and a few bunches of flowers to get out of the doghouse after that incident I can tell you...
I still get the look if I wander anywhere near that carpet with a glass in my hand.
Very unforgiving woman my good lady.
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If you can get hold of a "wet" vacuum cleaner, they pick up moisture very well.
We flooded the basement at work a couple of weeks ago and after using one of those the carpets were only damp and had completely dried out over the weekend.
I thought it would be an insurance claim job but an assessor wouldn't have found anything to claim for!
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Try Vanish aerosol foam carpet cleaner. Rub it in with a nail brush and sponge away. It has a nice neutral smell, not too flowery, and the foam should help the water problem. Works well.
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You did ask about electrics. The (dis) courtesy unit is in the front passenger footwell ; I THINK it is at the back towards the front edge of the seat. It doesn't like moisture: If the alarm, windows and locks haven't started playing up yet, then so far, so good. Try to avoid further applications of a great deal of moisture, though.... I think mine gave problems because moisture had caused the connections to short/corrode.
Tim{P}
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tyre tread,
I'm going to try my luck now.
It was when we were moving house - fortunately, I wasn't charged with moving the 20 year old bottle we had and just dropped a "new" one. Actually "just" dropped a new one ;-)
To bring a motoring aspect into it and hopefully save it from deletion, we moved house using a good old Transit van. Bit suspect on the steering, braking and acceleration aspects but fine in all other matters.
(The aforementioned van was used to transport the whiskey). There - I think I've managed to inextricably link the two topics....hopefully
;-)
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Adam
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Having spilt many a glass over the years,i have found as mentioned that white wine works well.Salt also works reasonably well but i have found that it does leave a slight stain on lighter coloured carpet.1001 carpet stain remover rinsed with warm water is highly recommended-had to use it last week to remove curry off the lounge carpet.Worked a treat.
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