Does mold ever "go away"

dont let them judge, When you spend all your time in the dirt and mud, it kinda just stays.

I wash my truck every 3-4 months, unless I just hit tons of mud, and then the undercarriage is all that really matters to me

 

Put it this way. A mouse gets poisoned and dies in your wall. Just because it's dead doesn't eleminate the problem. The dead mouse must be removed. Mold is a living thing and even if you spray bleach or vinegar on it and kill it, it will still be there, smelling things up. You must kill with a microbial disenfectant and wipe clean. Or if it's in carpet, professional steam cleaner. With strong vacuum power to remove as much moisture as possible. But, having said that I've been exposed to all kinds of different molds and I've never gotten sick from it.

 

Mine it was in the A/C. In the evap core box under/inside the dash. I figured why let the techs take my dash out and gouge/scratch the interior plastic up. Then put the dash back in and it would probably rattle. And I figured who is to say the manure stank would not come back after they cleaned the evap core. I'm hoping the same thing does not happen with this SR. If it does I guess I'll have to get use to not having a a/c like in the old, used trucks/vans I have owned in the past.

Good luck with your trade. Sad we have/had to go through such letdown spending thousands of dollars on these trucks. Hey! the new Ford Ranger will be on the lots this month. I'm just hoping I got a good Tacoma this time. Surely lightning will not strike twice! LOL!

 

You mean like the flooring they offer as an option in the new Ford Ranger? LOL!

 

Son of a biscuit! It makes so much sense. Why put rubber mats on a carpet interior when you could put carpet mats on a rubber interior

 

Clean your fingernails!

 

Thanks mom.

 

I had vinyl flooring in my 2015 Colorado and I never had any mats in it. Just took a wet soapy rag and wiped the floor out once a week.

 

Of course the first step is fixing the leak itself, once it dries out vacuum the hell out of it to try to get rid of all the mold you can. Shampoo the seats to get the smell out, ozone machine to finish it off is the advice I was given by a guy who does car detailing. Ozone machines are what the dealers use when reselling a car.

Instead of the ozone I used a Dakota Bomb/car odor eliminator. FYI "neutral air" smells like I have a Christmas spice yankee candle factory set up in the back. Its actually calmed down a lot after a week, and the wife can't smell mold anymore. She's my real litmus test. You get nose blind to the mold smell after a while which is dangerous.

I have a ozone machine in my Amazon shopping cart if this fails to get rid of the mold smell for good.
Good luck

 

Update: Truck is starting to stink like mold/mildew again... anything left in the truck for more than an hour also stinks when taken out. Ozone machine is here and I'm going to give it a run probably tonight.

 

Dry everything out. I've had good luck sticking a small ceramic space heater in a car overnight. Make sure it's centered on the floor not touching anything. Have the truck in at least a carport and crack the window to pass a power cord through.

Spray the affected/concerned areas with Sporicidin. Get under the carpet too.

Keep it dry.


Rubber flooring will also hold in water if it ever gets in there. Carpet will let some out, though the sound dampening will hold some longer than the carpet.

 

Uhhh... link?

 

Did you modify the truck in any way to make it leak? If not, go have everything taken care of under warranty.

There's foam under the carpet, if that gets wet it needs to be taken out and thrown away. Under the foam there is also absorbent sound deadener that is actually formed to the body and painted over when the truck is built, that will suck in moisture as well. If you really want to get rid of this problem you are going to have to strip all this out and replace. It's not an easy job man

 

actually just heard that vinegar is better than bleach and is not toxic...bleach can also damage a lot of things.. just an FYI

 

Seriously, use Sporicidin.

It ain't cheap. It works.

 

For some it's going to involve more than that if the water got in to the sound deadening

 

My previous post had a little more than that.

I was reiterating the use of Sporicidin over bleach, vinegar, etc.

In short, remove all moisture, use Sporicidin.

 

Yeah I agree about the Sporicidin. If the foam or sound deadening has been exposed to moisture for more than a few days though you'll have to remove it no matter what if you truly want to fix the problem. It would be a pain to do yourself which is why I recommend anyone dealing with a leak to go use their warranty if the leak wasn't caused by anything aftermarket

 

I'd probably try to dry it out first. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it needed replacement. I'd still try.

Might have to pull the carpet.... And a small ceramic space heater works great.

If warranty will cover, definitely go that route.