I had a experience when I spilled gasoline in my 2000 Town and country carpet in the rear. I tried everything from kitty liter to shampooing the carpet. what seemed to eliminate the odor finally was Kid’s “n” pets stain and odor remover. I bought it at Target. It took the smell completely out after one try. Greatly recommended. Let me know if it worked for you. It wasn’t real expensive under ten dollars.
Ok, so I have to admit that I have cried over spilt milk too. I spilled about a half gallon of milk in the trunk of my Corsica a few years back. I tried to clean it with paper towels and household cleaners (I didn’t have a lot of money) which didn’t work too well for the smell. This was around the time that Febreeze was first introduced to the market, so I figured I would try it out. I used a whole bottle of Febreeze on the carpet, and the smell was gone forever! I’m not joking, the smell never came back, and I had the car for years after the “Milk Incident”. I’ve read some of the other responses, and this seems like one of the cheapest, (other than the vinegar, but who really wants their car to smell like vinegar?) (or the coffee, but then you run the risk of staining your fabric) and easiest ways to clean your car without a lot of hassle. Good Luck!
Tom and Ray:
I had a similar situation happen to me except that it was a bottle of red wine that broke on my backseat. The wine was absorbed into the cloth seat and carpeting. Since I had sold the car to a friend and was to turn it over to him in a week, I needed to fix it quickly. I blotted as much wine as I could from the seat and carpeting with a towel. I poured about half a gallon of white vinegar over the seat and carpeting and let it sit for a while and then poured a bucket or two of water to rinse it. I sopped up what water I could with a dry towel. What could I lose! The car smelled like vinegar (marginally better than red wine) for a few days and then the smell went away. I parked in the sun and kept the windows down whenever possible to help the drying process. I explained to my friend what had happened and since he couldn’t smell anything when he picked up the car, he was okay with it. I checked with him later and he said he had no problem. I have used white vinegar on carpeting a cat urinated on and it took care of that as well! Cheap and effective!!!
Gisele M. Lavoie
Most people do not object to the smell of coffee. Another poster said use fresh coffee grounds and that is def. the way to go, and cheap. Don’t be in a hurry to remove the grounds. Eventually the remaining milk will fully decompose and the odor will no longer need to be masked. Also works great for those random times you step in dog poop and then get in you car and…surprise!!!
Fabreze was also mentioned and I can vouch for this as well. Also great for lingering cigarette odor.
Tom and Ray: be brave: try these things yourselves!!! On someone else’s car, of course.
signed, tbird
Get a professional cleaner to clean your vehicle. We had the same situation - a half-gallon of milk in a glass container broke. We tried everything, but to no avail. Broke down and called the cleaner. The first visit they just cleaned the carpet, but that didn’t work. They came back a second time and tore up the carpet, and we then saw that the milk had run down every conceivable nook and cranny on the floor boards. They cleaned all that up, and presto - no more smell.
It has happened to me. It can be solved. First I saturated the areas with clean water and let it set for some time (1/2 hour). Then I extracted the area with a wet dry vac. Then I closed up the car for several hours with 2-3 open boxes of baking soda around the area. Then I cleaned the areas with carpet cleaner. I left a box of fresh baking soda in the car for a couple of weeks. I have no smells.
There’s this stuff sold at pet stores like PetSmart and PetCo called “Nature’s Way” that will get rid of the sour milk smell. The product is intended to get rid of cat urine smells, but I found it worked on several other smells like spilled milk, french fries lodged where you can’t get to them along with spilled gasoline as well! Hope this helps.
I will second this suggestion. That should be SECOND in capitals because it will work.
Imagine the worst smell that would ever be possible. Not even “the odor” from Seinfeld could touch it. Alright, I am driving down the freeway with windows wide open. Dog in the back seat. Make that apparently sick dog in the back seat. I think, boy that had to be a monster gas attack to smell that with the windows wide open. Take a glance back and almost lose my lunch… Well, mix the high speed, swirling winds and yep, a little “you may think its very funny, but its really very runny…” and you have a smell and mess of catastrophic proportions. I spared not a drop of a brand new quart bottle of Nature’s Miracle, left the windows open all day out in the sun. I left thinking I wish I had a couple more bottles because one surely couldn’t do the trick. Next day, the seats were dry and the smell GONE! Couldn’t believe it worked and with only one bottle. I now buy the 1 gallon bottle just to make sure some is around when I need it.
Oh btw, since I see some people here proposing some liquids and then soaking/vacuuming up the solutions, don’t. It may seem really wet, but let the sunshine dry it up.
Years ago we drove home to MD from the Outer Banks with a cooler of fish not realizing that the cooler had leaked into the carpeting of the foot well behind the passenger seat. It was August and within a couple of days…well you can imagine what a God-awful smell we had going. A guy told me to get a large bottle of Mennen Skin Bracer and douse the area liberally. It worked…I say eventually because as my Dad pointed out, the car smelled like a “french whore” for about a month. Do thet still sell Mennen Skin Bracer?
I once had a bottle of milk explode in my car, while I was 40 miles from home. Even with the windows down, it made for a most unpleasant return trip.
My uncle, who is a chemist, recommended the solution I used to totally remove the stench from my 2001 Honda Accord: Place 1-2 pounds of fresh, unused ground coffee in a very shallow pan inside the car. For a while the car smelled like coffee and sour milk, but the coffee absorbed all the odor, and I’ve driven the car for several years without any residual odor. (Don’t accidentally spill the coffee, as I did, or you’ll have another mess to clean up.) The coffee is porous, like activated charcoal, but with far more surface area. The key is to use a shallow pan, so that more of the coffee is available to absorb the odor.
I made a paste of baking soda & water, and then covered the area generously. Let dry for a day or so, and then vacuum up. The only problem may be some of the baking soda may remain on the carpet, but I’d much rather have that than spoiled milk smell!
The same thing happened to me ('99 Suburban)! After cleaning with soap and water I tried everything to get rid of the smell…Resolve, Febreze, even some pet cleaner?! I drove with the windows down for weeks! Finally in desperation I requested a triple dose of “new car smell” at the car wash…Wow! was that a mistake! It was even worse than the sour milk smell!? Finally I heard about Atmosklear. It was a miracle! After a couple of applications the smell was gone…apparently it works by masking the smell by chemically binding to the odor molecules?! Anyway, it worked again later when I spilled drippings from roast beef!! Thankfully my problem was solved before winter set in in Mpls. And I’m still driving my Suburban…112,000 miles!..Cindy
I just want to say it can be done. In 1995 I had 2 gallons of milk spill in the trunk of my 1994 Toyota Camry. When I got home, I had to pull out all the trunk carpeting, spare, tools, then remove everything in the back seat down to the metal. I soaked-up what I could, then started pouring water anywhere the milk spilled and soaking it up. Repeat about a thousand times. Huge pain, BUT I still have my Camry with 170K miles on it and it’s never smelled. I would guess if you’re willing to remove everything that might have spoiled milk on it, you can probably do the same - covering it up with chemicals won’t do the trick.
Febreez. Spray it on , Sun it off. Dont figure a bottle is better than the directions say.
I had a chicken from store slip out of my bags and 2 weeks in july in my mercedes was like CSI gang found a corpse. 3 applications of Febreez and pointed trunk towards the Sun–Bingo. Gone.
I had a similar experience - except it was with frozen orange juice concentrate rolling between the back seet and exploding… gross. Didn’t find it until it started to smell. Used a product called Basic H and Nature Bright (both by Shaklee Corp). Mixed with hot water and sponged it (letting it get pretty wet and soggy to run thru the seat like the juice did…) Let it air dry in the sun. Also used a mobile AirSource unit (plugs into the cigarette lighter), which helped eliminate and refreshen the car. sgranger@tds.net if you wnat more info…
My husband had a dreadful case of, uh, what I will delicately call “green apple two-step” in the shotgun seat of my car. I actually expected to replace the seat, but Nature’s Miracle got rid of the smell in less than 10 days (it takes a while.) You’ll find it in pet supplies; it’s made for just this type of occasion. It contains an enzyme that eats proteins or something. Anyway, there’s no trace of the odor now. I’m no chemist, but am guessing that it would be best not to leave the car closed in the sun, in case it would cook the little critters.
To eliminate smoke/urine/mildew odors, set a 2-qt plastic storage container on the car’s floor. Half-fill the pan with ammonia, close everything up & let it sit overnight. In the morning dispose of the ammonia, air the car out for half an hour, and it’s good to go!
Odors can be removed from fabrics using white vinegar, mixed half and half with water. Spray solution on carpet to get it real wet, allow to sink in and vacuum excess, let it dry. You can also apply solution of ammonia (eats protein causing odor) and then apply solution of white vinegar which also neutralizes de ammonia. Fabrics like to be on the acid side of the scale where 7 is neutral.
Hi Robert,
I’m not speaking to Tom and Ray because they have ignored by attempts to give them this solution before! Go to your local pet shop and buy a gallon of ‘Nature’s Miracle’. If there is a PetSmart or PetsPlus they will have it. Essentially you need to follow the directions. Having cleaned up what you can of the spilled milk, apply the Nature’s Miracle - I like to put it into a sprayer or squeeze bottle to apply it. You’ll want to have the area nealy saturated. Let it sit for 5 min and then soak up what you can in a towel(s). I was first introduced when I was trying to desensitize my dog who would get car sick to riding in the car. He got very sick, wasn’t in his crate and the vomit was all over the back seat of my new Saab. I had cleaned it up with baking soda and thought it was okay until the next morning when I went out - the car wreaked. I had remembered a friend telling me about NM and went right out to get it. There was never a hint of the smell ever again. After 21 years of product loyalty, I have many other examples of this so I recommended this product without reservation.