On Friday night I decided to be a good pal and be the designated driver for a buddy of mine and drove him to a Christmas party. I'll spare you the boring details, but many hours later I'm driving him home and he proceeds to fill my passenger footwell with a combination of champagne punch, various fruits, long island iced tea, screwdriver, summer sausage, cheese, chocolate cake, and bile.

The next day I dumped some dog mess enzyme cleaner on the stains, then used my steam cleaner with carpet cleaning solution on it. I then dumped a box of baking soda in there.

The car still reeks of vomit.

Anybody have any tips on how to neutralize the smell?

Thanks,

Josh

 

I had the same problem with a ford ranger I was driving, it's going to smell pretty bad for a while, clean it multiple times with the stuff you have and get some good smelling cologne or air freshener for your car because your going to need it. That sucks but it's good your being the dd for your friends.

 

serious answer. a lot of your self service car spraywashes now have vacuums and some spray scented oils... try spraying down a bunch and then vacuuming it up... also tonight put in a whole box of opened baking soda in the car and put down all your windows.. should help absorb odors and air it out a bit. I ended having to get my car professionally cleaned after a buddy did this when I treated him for his 21st bday... take it to a cleaner and bill your upchucking/rookie buddy who vomited in your ride.

 

I was thinking about this the last time I took a business trip, so I stole an airsickness bag from the plane and put it in the passenger side map pocket thing in the front door.

Best thing to do is probably air it out and shampoo again, use lots of baking soda like others have said.

Also, Stop drifting around corners with your drunk friends in the car! It's no wonder they got sick when you're going round corners sideways

 

white vinegar

 

Sounds like you did a good job cleaning.

The only thing you forgot was to put your aftershace on the carpet.

Perfumes always work.

Or I could retrive that dead fish I put in Dominions car at Seven Stock and hide under your back seat if you prefer.

 

Had this problem once. I had a jeep with no carpeting on the floor board. My friend threw up in it and I thought "No sweat, I'll just take a garden hose to it when I get home". Well some of it was on the dash board and little did I know that he also got a good amount in my AC vent. All this in the middle of a 90+ degree summer. Every time I turned the AC on I could smell it. Even with the top and doors off.

 

thats gross! lol thats crazy id be fKN pissed

 

perfume-puke...great combo!!

 

fond memories of college brought back right there

 

I would figure you'd want some sort of odor neutralizer like febreeze instead of just masking the odor with another odor...

 

Props for doing the right thing and getting your friend home safely. Stomach acid is pretty rancid stuff and hard to get out. I'd suggest baking soda as well as a product you spray into the air intake duct (for the cabin, not the engine) under your dash. It circulates through the HVAC system and kills odors. It's mostly marketed to stop smoke odor etc but it may work.

Otherwise I'd just find a junked car and strip the carpet out of it. Ultimately that might be your best solution and might be more economical than you think if you can do the labor yourself.

 

Or you could just do the easiest thing and have your friend pay to have it professionally cleaned. Car detailers can do wonders

 

Happened to me also...I used dettol and a brush(many times) and left the windows half open for a week or so.
Good luck

 

You need to pull up the carpet on that side so you can get under it to clean it. You'd be surprised at what is probably still there. Just pull the door sill plate and kickpanel off and peel the carpet back. If you want to make it easier, remove the passenger seat too. You'll get it pretty well if you get it clean underneath. It soaks in.

 

Edit - ^^^ He beat me by a minute


Pull the carpet.
I had an old chevy (I am sorry, please do not hurt me) That someone puked in and then it sat in the sun for 3 days before we got back in it. We had to rip out the carpet and clean the whole thing, then put the carpet back in.

Either that or just get that stuff that coroners put underneath their nose.

 

smelling salt?

 

pay some cash and have an interior detail. you can get it done for under a hundred bucks. They have some POWERFUL neutralizers that should take care of it, and they can deal with the hassle of pulling your carpet up.

 

I started LOL when I read the title for this thread. BEST THREAD TITLE EVER!!!

That really sucks about your stink situation. ALWAYS have plastic bags handy in your trunk for reasons like this.

I remembered I borrowed my Dad's minivan one summer to drive some friends to a party and one of them threw up in it. That was not good at all when it's not even your own car.

 

+1 to borrowing parents vehicles for DD purposes

 

have your buddy fix it.

 

Now THAT is a funny story.

 

Proceed quickly to kicking your friend in the *********...it wont help the smell in your car, but ill be damned if it wont make you feel better........

 

Throw up on your friend. That won't help the smell, but if you take pictures it's sure to get a laugh.

edit: ^^ haha, we think quite similarly.

 

Like RG said pulling up the carpet while a pain works best. I used to work for a car rental company and this would happen every month. We would pull out the seats, remove the rug, wash it and let dry in the sun. But it could have been worse, ever have a male cat **** inside a car