Gallon of Milk Spilled

I had raw meat package leak into carpet once in Tacoma. Smelled awful after a hot Tennessee day or two.
I used auto upholstery spray, rubbed it into floor, then rubbed in clean water, shop vac until felt only slightly damp, then repeated. Was fine after that. Need good shop vac and go slow to draw out moisture as best you can. Takes a while.

In your case, there was more fluid involved. Need to address puddles possibly. Remove a seat maybe and lower door trim so you can lift edge of carpet to look under carpet. There are a lot of recesses milk could settle into. You should be able to reach a rag in to wipe it out then follow steps above to get carpet and padding clean of it.

 

Same thing happen to me a few years ago. No matter how much I try to clean the carpet, the smell is still there. I end up buying 4 bottle of enzyme cleaner and soak the carpet with it. I try to remove the carpet but couldn’t. So I pull the carpet out as much as I can and soak the bottom of the carpet with it too. After a few days with the window open to let the cleaner dry up, the smell is a lot less. A week after, I soak the carpet with the enzyme cleaner again and let it air dry. This time the smell is almost completely gone. But during the summer time if I close my window completely for a few days, I can still smell the milk slightly. Leaving the window down 1/4-1/2” helps but make sure you have a window deflector to stop rain from getting in.

 

You’re going to have to get it really wet to get to the root of the smell and lots of soak, rinse, and wet vacuum action. Will need some special chemicals to neutralize and overcome. Might need a professional detailing company to do it right. Worth the money to pay someone. Good luck.

 

Had a co-worker spill a gallon of vinegar.

You could smell it from a block away it was so bad.

She tried everything, even throwing out the carpet, nothing worked. Thankfully it was a pontiac lol.

 

Oofdah brother.

My friend had that happen in their Honda Accord a few years ago, we took out the seats and all the carpet. We had to wash out the carpet and padding several times, and we scrubbed out the floor very thoroughly. It was a lot of trouble, but the car remained odor-free.

 

How much is it to replace pad and or carpet? How much trial and error is worth it?

 

Yep. Pull seats and console and take the carpet out. Pressure wash it and hit it with soap or carpet cleaner. Hopefully you’re somewhere sunny. I had a kid who had an accident (I.e. pee everywhere); had to do the same thing. Life happens.

 

Dont drink milk, its no good for ya

All jokes aside, hydrogen peroxide spray like this one works amazing at getting rid of the smell. Usually takes a few applications at least. I run a professional cleaning company so I have some experience in this

 

So random and funny

 

suck out as much of it as you can with wet vac. Steam will help. Enzyme cleaners are awesome. Ozonated water will help.

 

Easy way is to bring the car to a auto upholstery shop and pay them to strip the spilled area and professionally clean the carpet and seats.
By all means you can pull the carpet, the jute, the seats and remove cushion foam. Clean them with boiling water then let it dry bone dry in the sun for a few days, spray some lysol(NOT FEBREEZE) to kill anything growing, if there are underneath airvents you need to check and clean those out. It wouldn't hurt to do a steam vacuum cleaning on the carpet as well. Spoiled food especially milk based food and ground meat are some of the hardest smells to get out, cigarette smoke is harder but thats cause it gets absorbed EVERYWHERE.

 

I have used an ozone machine to remove some horrible smells in cars as well as in my man cave for cigar smoke.

 

https://goarmorlite.com/collections/16-23-tacoma/products/front-rear-flooring-2016-23-toyota-tacoma

Not sure how soon this is coming but maybe be worth the wait…

 

Back in college a friend of mine threw up in my car after a night of drinking, hot wings and pizza.

it was really really cold so I just left the puke pile until the next day and went out to the car and picked the pieces of it out like frozen ice cubes of puke.

I hit it with a bunch of Febreze.

The first nice warm day a couple months later the smell of puke came back with a vengeance.

And it never went away for the next three years.

Every time I smell Febreze now, I'm instantly transported back to a car that smells like rotten puke.

 

I like hydrogen peroxide spray too.

Chlorine dioxide tablets also work very well. Seal the car up, gas it, it seeps into everything.

 

Do you guys still keep in touch?

 

pull the carpet and pad. do not use shampoo or detergent - YET - it will prevent enzyme cleaner from working. soak in a good enzyme cleaner, let it sit and and do it again. let it dry. then shampoo and dry with shopvac to extract everything.
i saved a soaked carpet and pad from feline territorial wars in my home (rescued nutjob cats). if it can get cat pee smell out, it can certainly deal with spilled milk.
might want to visit a pet store. Nature's Miracle used to be good many years ago but was sold and degraded but i hear is still good. some research of enzyme cleaners will pay off.

 

That would make for a great “how I met your mother” story you tell your kid’s prom date.

 

OMG! THAT brings back memories! Parents had a '77 K5 blazer in which we had a raw meat spill. It smelled for a while till we stripped the carpet out of the back.

OP - Buy a sound deadening kit and either the Armorlite rubber replacement that is soon to be released, or a new carpet kit and have at it. Do it soon before the smell permeates the rest of the upholstery.

 

Sadly no. I don't fault the guy for puking. A year or two before, I went to a casino buffet on bottomless long island ice tea night and puked into someone elses car. Filled the entire little side pocket with caesar salad and spicy nacho puke.

So I figure I was owed at least one car puke for that.