I recently had my new 545i cleaned at a local "Hand Car" wash. Some idiot that works there sprayed my carpets, floor mats and some of my Leather seats with some kind of cheap Perfume smelling solution. I have had them steam clean my entire interior 2 separte times, but the smell is not gone. It's like the Seinfeld episode where the "B O" wont go away. Beatiful new car smell gone forever and it has made driving almost unbarable.


Please let me know if you have any solution to rid this Cheap Perfume smell forever!! I will be very grateful... :)

Have them steam clean it and use enzyme solution.
That should work. If you would like have them spray some Japanese Pear carpet deodorant on there. It is not overbearing it smells good and won't stay in there.

I used to steam clean carpets in the ghetto, I know all the tricks with odors.

At some of these "fancier" washes, sometimes you have to go down the list of things they are going to do and tell the attendant "I don't want this, I don't want that..." Like, NO air freshener.

Which reminds me of the one time I saw a guy with a new "to him" M3 coupe drive the car into the wash and back out rather than let the attendant do it. I wonder what was up with that? At a car wash the least of my worries is that, I would think.

Don't mean to hijack the thread. Sorry. :rolleyes

steam clean and enzymes would be my choice too. Does it still smell like that on the leather?

Thanks for the Tips!!

They cleaned the Leather, so that is OK. I had my previous car cleaned there many times without any problems, but I guess you always have to be careful!!

Enzymes are for breaking down proteins, and I doubt the odors are caused by proteins. Of course, the enzymes won't hurt, but maybe you should try some oxyclean.

There are some odor eliminators out there, too.

When you say steam clean, did they use an extractor? Or did they just shampoo and let air dry?

When I clean my carpets I usually use 303 carpet cleaner. I spray the fabric/carpet with 303, scrub, spray the fabric/carpet with warm water from my bissell extractor, scrub some more, then use the bissell to extract the water. Whenever I clean my carpets I am stunned as to how black the water is when I extract it, and my carpets look spotless before I start cleaning them.

If these guys can't make it right, you may wanna try doing this yourself.

One other thing, I've found that meguiars car odour eliminator works well at killing nasty smells. Problem is, it kind of has a smell of its own. I think I used too much of it when I used it. But from what I could tell, it did not just mask the odour.

BTW, I think you can rent those carpet cleaners at gorcery stores and such.

^ You referring to Rug Doctor?
That is used for household carpets. I don't know of a small enough one to rent for doing car capets.

^ You referring to Rug Doctor?
That is used for household carpets. I don't know of a small enough one to rent for doing car capets.

My Hoover SteamVac has an attachment for upholstery and stairs. Its a hose that's about 6 feet long with a small nozzle that attaches to the machine. This both delivers detergent and water and extracts the dirty water. I've used this on mats with good success.

I assumed that the Rug Doctor machines are similar. Surely they have some provision to use these on stairs. If there's an attached hose with a small nozzle, that should work.

I would strongly advise against spraying a detergent/water mixture into you automotive carpets. They'll just get dirtier in the long run because the extractor will never get out all the soap it sprays in. That means more residue in your carpets. The residue will allow new dirt to stick to the fibres. In my experience, there is only one really good carpet cleaner that will not foam up and leave a sticky residue behind, that is 303 carpet/upholstery cleaner.

DO NOT USE THOSE STEAMERS YOU CAN RENT.
They are a waste of time and money.
Look in a phone book for a commercial carpet cleaner. Call them and make sure they a truck mounted machine. They can set the steam temp as high as 400+ degrees and remove pretty much anything. Again, renting those units are a waste of money if you want a top notch steam cleaning.

Yes, enzyme is mainly used to break down proteins found in urin and feces. But from my experience if you steam/spray with enzyme/ let it sit for 10 minutes/ then steam it out you will get a awesome cleaning and deodorizing.

I would strongly advise against spraying a detergent/water mixture into you automotive carpets. They'll just get dirtier in the long run because the extractor will never get out all the soap it sprays in. That means more residue in your carpets. The residue will allow new dirt to stick to the fibres. In my experience, there is only one really good carpet cleaner that will not foam up and leave a sticky residue behind, that is 303 carpet/upholstery cleaner.


David,

Is this the product that their website calls 303 Fabric Cleaner? I couldn't find a carpet cleaner among their products.

David,

Is this the product that their website calls 303 Fabric Cleaner? I couldn't find a carpet cleaner among their products.
Steve,

This is the stuff I'm referring to:

http://www.autogeek.net/303cleanspot.html

Thanks, David.

I checked out the 303 website. They recommend three products for cleaning carpet. The Cleaner and Spot Remover, the Fabric Cleaner (new product), and Aerospace Cleaner.

It might be the same product in different dilutions. For example, they suggest 8-12 oz of Cleaner and Spot Remover per gallon of water in a machine extractor for carpet cleaning. They suggest 1-3 oz of Fabric Cleaner per gallon of water in a machine extractor for carpet cleaning. And the suggest a 1:100 dilution rate for carpet cleaning with a machine extractor when you use the Aerospace Cleaner.

Looks like this might work for the house, too.

Thanks, David.

I checked out the 303 website. They recommend three products for cleaning carpet. The Cleaner and Spot Remover, the Fabric Cleaner (new product), and Aerospace Cleaner.

It might be the same product in different dilutions. For example, they suggest 8-12 oz of Cleaner and Spot Remover per gallon of water in a machine extractor for carpet cleaning. They suggest 1-3 oz of Fabric Cleaner per gallon of water in a machine extractor for carpet cleaning. And the suggest a 1:100 dilution rate for carpet cleaning with a machine extractor when you use the Aerospace Cleaner.

Looks like this might work for the house, too.
Yeah, it should work for the house too.

Also, I don't mix mine my extractor. I just spray it onto the carpet straight out of the bottle. I use clean water on;y in my extractor to clean and suck out the water/cleaner.