Carpet and Upholstery advice request

Robin_Cox

Member
Hello everyone,

I picked up my A2 a week ago. Decent price, 113k, single owner, sold on by a dealership in London who did a bit of detailing for resale (I will come back to this in another post) - the interior is pretty good in the bits you see when test-driving and a long drive north, but I found that when I folded and lifted the rear seats that their valeter had clearly done it quickly. Beneath the rear seats was a lot of sawdust that nasal memory from my partner's flat years ago now suggests was perhaps from rabbit cages. There is a distant smell of rabbit urine that I am now picking up when I come back to the car after it sits in sunlight, suggesting that the boot carpet and perhaps rear seat upholstery needs to be given a treatment. It's not bad (ie, nowhere near as bad as male cat spray!), but any suggestions on anything that can be used to neutralise or eliminate this would be appreciated.

best,

Robin
 
I always use 'Stardrops' it is 79 pence a bottle from home bargains. I use a VAX wet/dry carpet shampoo machine with upholstery attachment.
I add three vax measures to 3lt of hot tap water, the bottle of stardrops will clean the entire car, seats front and back and the carpets all through

It does a really good job and leaves the interior smelling nice and fresh. One of my A2 set of seats had come from a smokers car and as a none smoker I could always smell the smoke in the car when I first got in it. After removing the seats and stardrops'ing them the smell is gone and as not returned.
The VAX also gets most of the water / stardrops out of the fabric/carpets so drying time on a warmish day is about 4 hours if you can leave the doors open and have a little sun on the car

cheers,
 
Many thanks to both of you, much obliged. I need to rent a carpet shampoo machine for the house anyway so I may be able to kill two birds with one stone.
 
Choosing a decent day (warm and windy) to do the interior is important. I've used a Polti steamer before and results are impressive. Have used 1001 carpet and upholstery shampoo before. Just needs a slug of concentrate and hot water. Don't over-wet upholstery or carpets. Wipe over with damp cloth using shampoo mixture and then steam draws out the dirt. Stubborn marks can be stayed directly with shampoo.
 
That description of the smell is familiar.

Have you checked the battery compartment to see if the battery floor is filling up with water!!!

If it is you will need to repair the rear vents that are behind the rear bumper.

These can leak if they have been disturbed and ideally need to be replaced (or at the very least reseale3d.

But if the battery floor is dry then you seem to have bought a car that has been used to carry incontinent rabbits!!!

Steve B
 
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