Mildew smell?

So my moon roof in my car decided not to drain properly and thoroughly soaked the floor of my car. Every time it rained this happened. I live in Florida, so that was a lot. I just figured out what the problem was and cleaned out the drain hoses from the moon roof. Now I have a different problem, my car smells.

The floor has dried, but now I have this lingering mildewy/moldy smell. I am trying to avoid a $200 and up detailing bill. Does anyone know of a good way to clean the floor or carpet without having to get it detailed?

The easiest thing to do is to take all the carpet and underlay out and wash it all with a wet/dry cleaner...

You may still have small puddles of stale water sat in the floor tray. that, combined with the wet carpet/underlay is the cause.

It's not too difficult to take all the carpets out. It's just a bit time consuming.

Once out, clean it as you like really...then allow to dry completely before replacing and make sure the interior floor is dry too.

Obviously, fresh air will help so open all the windows/doors whilst you do the work..

It's not hard and will give you an idea as to how all these professional car cleaners do their jobs...

hope this helps.

If you know someone that has an ozone generator, you need to borrow it. It would be best to follow the last poster's advice on cleaning but an ozone generator will get the odor out of the A/C heater vents as well. Just place it in the car, crack a window for an electric to run to the outlet let run till car is well saturated with the odor of ozone then run heater and defrosters in closed mode and then the same with A/C. Ozone will remove the odor of all kinds of smoke as well.

It's a little late, but--
I'd reccomend bleaching down your steel while the carpets are out--as well as lots and lots of Fabreeze. (dollar store has a knock off version).

We just obtained a new car carpet from the pick and pull. Took it to the hose with various household chemicals and soaps and scrubbed the crap out of it. Bought a new.....ah that might as well be the problem.

If you have under padding to your rug and it got moldy-there is likely no point trying to save it.

For .33-1.29 a square foot be bought some replacement underlying PADDING at the carpet discount store. Nice stuff. Cut and spray adhesive- let your adhesive (3M brand from Home Depot is excellent for fabric to steel applications) tack up for a few minutes on each surface. Good seal.

It takes a day with your seats out--
good beer, bbq, and lawn chair opportunity.