A bit late posting this but its a bit quiet. I thought we'd had a thread about milk spillage but cant find it to tag my experience on so I'll start a new one.
Back around Storm Alwyn in November we had a week in a lodge (static caravan) in West Witton near Leyburn in N. Yorks. All self catering. On departure date we loaded up the car with all remaining provisions and headed home. On arrival Mrs FC announces that a 2 Ltr milk bottle which she 'secured' behind the passenger seat had spilled about a 1 Ltr of its contents on the rear carpet during the journey and now there was a pool of said milk spreading in all directions. Now it was clearly my fault for not fully securing the screw cap after my breakfast and not hers for not checking tightness when she laid it down, of course.
It was banging it down with rain but Plan A had to be put into operation immediately, if not sooner. My initial idea, which probably turned out to not be the brightest , was to flood the rear nearside footwell several times and use the wet/dry vac to lift the water out. It made a reasonable fist of extracting most of the moisture but November is hardly the best time to be drying damp upholstery.
Move on a few days and there became the slowly emerging stench of spilled milk. Further investigation revealed that the milk residue had spread further than I thought and the only way of trying to resolve was to remove the carpet completely for a clean up. Youtube provided the information as to how the centre console was fixed and the front seats were disconnected and removed. Various bit of plastic unclipped and the carpet removed in one piece. The car was now unusable but we could get around that.
It then became apparent that each footwell had a large piece of foam underneath about 40mm thick. Massive sponges. So first line of attack was to soak in diluted Milton fluid, pressure wash, squeeze out as much residual water and dry by hanging over the banister rail on the upstairs landing. Took a few days but there was still the faint smell of off milk.
Research suggested the use of an enzyme product so this was sourced and the whole thing soaked and dried twice in the fluid which had a lemony smell. The bare floor was also sprayed in the stuff including the inside of seat mount box sections followed by the wet/dry vac and then the Bruhl motorcycle air dryer.
Perhaps 3 weeks in total. The carpet was replaced and a lemony smell lingered. However that has gone and there doesn't seem to be the slightest whiff of stale milk. Result!! But what a carry on. Hopefully it will stay that way when the weather gets hotter. So careful with the milk guys.
Happy New Year.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sat 1 Jan 22 at 22:34
|
No suggestions other than a car cleaning expert - steam cleaning possibly/ all seats out and new carpets - tricky as there are electrics, seat airbags etc to consider.
2 people I know with relatively new cars ended up selling their cars.
1) Local butcher, hard stop - cartons of eggs and milk all over the back of estate car
2) A son's mother-in-law spilt the full 4 pints in the footwell behind the driver / under driver's seat
They made every effort to clean up but no avail - they reduced smells but it never cleared
|
|
Obviously one can’t cater for milk purchased from the shop and transported home, but for self catering holidays, all liquids that can be spilt are left at the premisses or disposed of before we travel home.
|
>> Obviously one can’t cater for milk purchased from the shop and transported home, but for
>> self catering holidays, all liquids that can be spilt are left at the premises or
>> disposed of before we travel home.
>>
Same here, milk is cheap enough.
|
Maybe you'll remember my incident with Creosote in a Vauxhall Vectra? Long write up here
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=70782
There may be some useful ideas there.
I don't appear to have completed the story there, but the insurers wrote it off. So you could always splash some old (genuine) creosote around :-)
|
|
Whenever I transport paint and suchlike, I always put it in a secured bucket. I never carry an opened milk container.
|
>> Whenever I transport paint and suchlike, I always put it in a secured bucket.
>> I never carry an opened milk container.
>>
I also use a bucket plus I have a hard boot liner that covers the whole of the boot area.
Fish and chips are always carried in the boot even though I have a curry hook on the glove box.
|
Recall that thread Smokie. Makes my milk spillage seem very minor in comparison.
What was the eventual outcome?
|
|
The car was written off. I think because it was old fashioned creosote, it could be carcinogenic. I haven't got a record of how much they paid but I recall it was a quite decent valuation.
|
|
I feel your pain FC. The the interior of my brand new XC40 is what my wife descirbes as being like that of a CID car (for some reason). Bought the car on Spetember 25 and roll on to the end of November it smelt worse than your car I'm sure (!), rear footwell. Most of the spillage seemed to have gone on the bespoke rubber matting that Volvo gave (or sold me)- whipped them out and the recycled plasticky carpet mats. Scrubbed them clean and then cleaned the fitted carpeting - it seems to have gone now or overcome by " l'odeur de chien". Time will tell. Used bi-carbonate of soda to clen it by the way, seems to have worked.
|
The the interior of my brand new XC40 is what my wife describes as being like that of a CID car
Now that's bad!! Only to be bettered by a General Response Car :)
The enzyme cleaner seemed to do the trick for me. I should never have flooded the area of carpet. They are all plastic so the milk wouldn't have soaked through. As it was it leaked through seat mounting and wiring holes. You seemed to have been successful.
|
|
Next time it happens I'll rent you my dog. Milk will be the last of your odourus issues.
|
|
Eau de wet Retriever. There's no better smell :O
|
|
...I think he was referring to the acquired smell of Brut...... (◔_◔)
|
KIA SOUL - Milk Spillage - Falkirk Bairn
