Spilled COFFEE in INTERIOR....

M

melissa809

New member
Hey everyone......getting out of my car today...while wearing my big and bulky goose down coat..and I accidentally knocked over my cup of black french vanilla coffee with 4 splendas!! lol.



Anyways, I sopped up what I could, but unfortunately I even managed to get some coffee INTO the seat belt buckle. ANyways, I wiped everything down with a damp cloth and even unbolted my front seat to wipe up any excess under the brackets that mount the seat to the floor.



Well, the smell of French Vanilla coffee in the car irritates the crap out of me. And although my seat belt sensor is working fine, the thought that there is coffee inside of the damned thing irritates me as well.



Any thoughts/advice on how to properly clean the car? So you guys know, I have a Bissell pro heat steam cleaner and my Dad has the Bissell green machine.



I'm assuming I should detach the front seat and steam clean the carpet?? But what about that damned seat belt buckle???/



Any advice would be greatly appreciated.



Thank you

Melissa
 
Depending on the type of car the seat belt buckle should snap apart into two pieces. You can pry the plastic casing on the buckle off with a flat head screw driver( just be careful not to scratch it or pry to hard and snap the plastic. Then you can get access to the mechanism to clean it. Coffee comes easily off carpets with any detergent and water.
 
Wow, thanks guys! I use folex on my carpet at home. Do you think it would be a better idea to go ahead and use my Bissel carpet cleaning machine? Thanks also for the info on the seat belt buckle! And thank you, also, Accumulator! Your advice on my rail dust issue in the past worked great!
 
jbdetailing said:
.. Coffee comes easily off carpets with any detergent and water.
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Well, I wouldn't go that far. I've had coffee stains that simply would not come out of light colored carpet no matter what I tried, including pro products designed for the job.
 
Sometimes coffe can stain if it is left there for an extended period of time, especially when other dirt and soil is mixed in with it, but if you clean up the stains before they set it usually will come off with most all purpose cleaners.
 
Well, I just wiped the area with a damp microfiber. My interior is charcoal so you can't see the coffee spill. My issue is the smell! lol It was French Vanilla, black, though. But also, I don't like the idea of the carpet being dirty, ya know? I plan on unbolting the seat and hitting the area with my bissell carpet cleaning machine and calling it a day. That should be sufficient, no??? I also have to get the seat belt buckle opened because coffee spilled down there as well.



Guess I should look on the bright side and be happy that there was no milk or sugar in the coffee...just splenda, lol.



I also checked to make sure no coffee got UNDER the carpet where the bolts for the seats are. I kind of stuck a piece of sham-wow under there and it came up dry....so I guess I'm okay there, too.
 
melissa809- I would expect your plan (remove seat, use Bissell) to work fine, at least if you use the right cleaner with the Bissell and rinse things thoroughly.



IF you can't get the buckle apart, I wonder about just soaking it in a containter of solution and then rinsing and *drying* it thoroughly. I'd be a little concerned about rust/corrosion, but it might be OK if you dry it out quickly.



Aerocleanse- I dunno if I'd use my steamer for this one...I'd want to suck up the stuff to really draw it out of there :think: Eh, I never seem to reach for the steamer as readily as many people :nixweiss
 
If you have an old credit card, store card, etc., cut it to the width of where the belt buckle fits in. Then, using a thin cloth (such as a tac cloth), wrap it around the card once, spray a little cleaner onto it, and insert it to clean. You may need several cloths until it comes completely clean. What is nice, is a credit card is a solid piece and should not get hung up inside on the clasp at all.
 
Street5927- Hey, that's a great idea! Seems obvious now that you mentioned it, but it sure didn't occur to me before that :grinno:
 
melissa809- Don't feel dumb, I've had foam swab heads pull off in inaccessible places...talk about how to change your plans for the day :o
 
Accumulator said:
Well, I wouldn't go that far. I've had coffee stains that simply would not come out of light colored carpet no matter what I tried, including pro products designed for the job.
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Totally true. I depends on the coffee really. If it can stain your teeth, it can stain your fabric sometimes no matter how fast you get to it. When I was a die hard coffee drinker grabbing coffee wherever I could get my hands on it, I constantly stained up my clothes and interior. Some come right out, others didn't. With seatbelts it's sometimes just not worth cleaning them due to safety. Any time I see one dirtied in a claim I immediately have them replaced. Way too much liability these days with how sue happy people are becoming.
 
David Fermani said:
... With seatbelts it's sometimes just not worth cleaning them due to safety. Any time I see one dirtied in a claim I immediately have them replaced..
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Priced replacements for the beater-Tahoe for just those reasons (difficulty in thorough cleaing; potential functional-compromise results of doing that work). Currently just living with the stained OE ones, lest I end up with the world's most expensive old dog-hauler ;)
 
Accumulator said:
Street5927- Hey, that's a great idea! Seems obvious now that you mentioned it, but it sure didn't occur to me before that :grinno:
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Accumulator, This was a brain buster for me when a client brought her car in and complained about stickiness in and around her belt clasp after spilling a can of Coke in and on it. I thought about it for about an hour while cleaning the rest of the interior, and it hit me. I sprayed some Purple Power in it and let it dwell. I the took a long bristle paint brush to agitate it, then took an old supermarket savings card, cut it to width and used a tac cloth wrapped on it to insert and remove the soda from inside. I have learned that sometimes the simplest, most rediculous sounding ideas work the best....and the best part about this was that it was free!
 
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