Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

Melbourne’s damp mornings + windows up = mouldy carpets, foggy glass and that “eau-de-gym-bag” smell.  
Here’s a fast DIY steam routine I ran on the R34 last weekend – took 30 min and the cabin’s bone-dry afterwards.

Why interiors reek in winter
• Humid cabins grow mould in 48 h  
• Flu bugs love cold vinyl  
• Mud + road salt = smelly footwells

Gear list
– Hand-held steam cleaner (120 °C)  
– Shop-vac or household vac  
– Microfibre towel ×2  
– Mild APC for plastics

Step-by-step
1. Quick vac; yank out floor mats.  
2. Steam mats top & bottom, stand upright to dry.  
3. Seats top-down, wand ≈5 cm off fabric; slow cross-hatch passes.  
4. 10-sec blast in each HVAC vent + recirc box – kills hidden mould.  
5. Finish with a glass squeegee; steam melts the oily film that causes fog.

 

Safety – Steam uses <1 L of water (Stage-1 friendly). Test on a hidden patch first and avoid direct hits on screens.

Need it done fast? Same-day interior sanitise at (link pulled) – dry before your coffee’s gone. Mods, pull the link if it’s not allowed.

Happy to answer Qs or hear what products you lot are using this winter.

Edited by GTSBoy
Need to talk to site owner wrt advertising before doing so.

As a cheap and easy solution I'd suggest to leave one of these in the car. The one with refills.

11764089454622.thumb.jpg.2647aa81297ebb7de8ca55c4ece0b820.jpg

Place in the car on the armrest / centre console when parking at home. Just take it out before leaving. Pop it back in after coming home.

Makes a noticeable difference in the wagon. I presume it'll work even better in a coupe with less cabin space / air volume in the car.

  • Like 3
6 hours ago, soviet_merlin said:

As a cheap and easy solution I'd suggest to leave one of these in the car. The one with refills.

Just as an aside: one reason to buy the model with refills is that you can take out the little strainer compartment with the granules and empty the collected water. Doesn't really work with the disposable ones.

The lesson I learned is that at some point you are going to be tired or in a rush or not paying attention and you are going to knock over that stupid little container and spill it over the seats. Can't spill water that isn't there...

big_brain_move.thumb.jpg.9b8ccb0c56d362cf75eb79343d15f256.jpg

Another reason they go all smelly, is getting water leaks. If you don't get in and stop the water getting in, (Not just the little bit from in the air/on your clothes/shoes if raining) then it will rust things, and destroy electronics. I'm presently cutting a large chunk of floor out of a car and welding new metal in because someone didn't realise how bad a leak was in a car that was getting very infrequently driven. 2 years, and floor rusted through completely on one side of the car...

I will also add, for anyone that hasn't skip the steam clean (I think it's a great idea as a part of your regular once every 3/6 months style of clean anyway) and get yourself a wet / dry vacuum. Like the big floor cleaners. As clean as you think your car is, you'll be amazed at how much dirt it pulls out. And the more dirt and crap you can get out, the less the car will smell, and my god how much nicer it all looks!

@The Bogan Mark has a specific car one that he raves about. I just stole the mother in laws wet/dry vacuum deep cleaner, and use the hand held section. On a car that hasn't had it before and is 25+ years old, I can spend over an hour on the passenger floor alone, and STILL deem that section as dirty, and more dirt just keeps on coming out! 

Honestly, in the time we've all had our cars, when was the last time you deep cleaned the carpets or seats (cloth type seats)? You'll be shocked how much crap you're sitting in...
And then you'll need to go home and do any carpets in your house too, as that will continue to terrify you...

@MBS206 My little Bissell is awesome, I do all of our cars yearly 

I do it in the warmer months though so I can leave them open to fully dry out

When I'm not using a car for an extended period I throw a big moisture absorber in it, boxes of 8 are cheap at Costco, I just sit it on the seat20250527_180441.thumb.jpg.49690148917efa3c5e413f47147b14a0.jpg

 

I got a hand held bisssel one and it's a piece of shit. Doesn't work for more than about 5 seconds.

So much so that I nearly refuse to believe any wet dry vac actually works or has enough suction to clean the carpet of a car. I'm discouraged as all the good ones are $300+ for an unknown result.

I saw MCM did a Ryobi video where they use this thing:

https://www.ryobi.com.au/products/stick-vacuum-cleaners/18v-one-hptm-brushless-spot-cleaner-tool-only

Anyone have any experience actually using a tool like this when not paid to showcase it?

18 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

I got a hand held bisssel one and it's a piece of shit. Doesn't work for more than about 5 seconds.

I've got one (not the car one, the domestic spot cleaner one, which is basically the same jobbie) and have driven it hard for hours and hours at a time. Grimy sofas, 6' floor rugs, etc.

I'd blame your specific example rather than the whole category.

I haven't used mine in the car, because.... you know, it's my car. So there is no-one else's ball sweat in the driver's seat, there's no kid food/drink spills or hand prints inside because they've never had an opportunity to put them there. You know, basic, standard Skyline rules.

I guess when I say it's a POS I mean.. the solution and the stuff has the capacity for maybe... 1 spot.

You know, as a spot cleaner.

What I really *want* is the ability to do an entire car, all upholstery, all carpet, mats, all seats, door card inserts, A pillars, roof liners, etc. In one go.

I get lured by all the jank that comes out and think "I'd like to be able to clean to that degree"

59 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

What I really *want* is the ability to do an entire car, all upholstery, all carpet, mats, all seats, door card inserts, A pillars, roof liners, etc. In one go.

I think even the "commercial" capacity ones that you would hire from supermarkets etc wouldn't have the capacity to do all that much in one go. I will go through half a dozen tanks of solution and dumps/rinses of the waste tank for one little 2 seat sofa. Or similar for one 6 footish rug. That's the price you pay for something small that only takes up a bit of cupboard space, instead of something that takes up the entire laundry cupboard or half the shed.

17483945428776180518646435813713.thumb.jpg.6724bc90b2a68dfb5fd34b62fbcbaa86.jpg

This is mine, works a treat for the cars, suction is good, I use the Bissell clean and protect stuff

I have found giving it a good spray and light scrub with the soft brush on the head of the nossle for carpet, and a rub with a microfibre for cloth seats and cloth door trims, prior to another quick spray before vacuuming it up works the best

@GTSBoy You would surprised on what it gets out of carpet and seats that actually "look" clean, I recommend that you test drive yours when you have a little time to kill, then post pics of the muddy looking water that I believe you will find

Posted (edited)

We have one that holds 2.8L of water. On floor carpet that hasn't been touched in 2 or 3 years, will take a minimum of 2 fills of the tank to do a bedroom, and that's going AROUND the bed.

 

In the cruiser, I used an ENTIRE 2.8L tank, just on the front passenger footwell. But it had some fungus growing, and had been full of mud from being used as a 4WD for many years.

I can do that floor again, and it will still pull mud out. However, the water now only looks dirty, not pitch black and leaving full sludge in the bottom of the tank it sucks back into.

Oh, and, this is about a $1500 unit.

Edited by MBS206
48 minutes ago, The Bogan said:

@GTSBoy You would surprised on what it gets out of carpet and seats that actually "look" clean, I recommend that you test drive yours when you have a little time to kill, then post pics of the muddy looking water that I believe you will find

Yeah, I'm not interested in wetting the carpets, and I don't care about brown dirt/dust that lives deep in the pile or underneath. It's not like I crawl around on them in my birthday suit or eat dropped food off them (because there is never any open food in my car).

The seats are alcantara (cheap Chinese imitation alcantara, to be sure!) with barely 1" of foam pad behind the surface. That's not getting wet either.

Any car that I would be happy to get the interior wet, I would not care to put the effort into.

2 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Yeah, I'm not interested in wetting the carpets, and I don't care about brown dirt/dust that lives deep in the pile or underneath. It's not like I crawl around on them in my birthday suit or eat dropped food off them (because there is never any open food in my car).

The seats are alcantara (cheap Chinese imitation alcantara, to be sure!) with barely 1" of foam pad behind the surface. That's not getting wet either.

Any car that I would be happy to get the interior wet, I would not care to put the effort into.

Each to their own I guess 

Me, I put just as much time into cleaning inside of the cars as I do on the outside

As for getting wet, it is really no different than steam cleaning the carpets at home, apart from the cars carpet dries alot faster than the house, again, I only do it in the hotter months and leave the car opened up for a few hours

As I only do it yearly, it is just before I do the diff and gearbox service, so I clean the carpets, then it's up on stands, wheels off, service, clean the undercarriage,  grease the bushings and do a nut and bolt check on everything 

Disclaimer: I typically had all the time in the world to kill when I was working 🤣, so spending a full day or 2 cleaning, serving and "looking at stuff" was,  easily achievable, and a fun mental therapy day

As for time to kill, I retired last Wednesday, so apart from my physical training, my days are filled with lots of random jobs around the house and garden...."Idle hands are the Devils something something"

I am also buying a new house sooner rather than later, I'm actually looking at a potential property tomorrow, I'm looking forward to getting a car hoist as I'm starting to get to old to crawl around under a car, I can only imagine all the undercarriage cleaning and looking at stuff when that gets set up

  • Like 2
52 minutes ago, The Bogan said:

Disclaimer: I typically had all the time in the world to kill when I was working 🤣, so spending a full day or 2 cleaning, serving and "looking at stuff" was,  easily achievable, and a fun mental therapy day

As for time to kill, I retired last Wednesday, so apart from my physical training, my days are filled with lots of random jobs around the house and garden...."Idle hands are the Devils something something"

I'm so far behind in the jobs I have to do at both work and home (including car) that I have become immortal. There's simply no way that I can die now.

  • Haha 2

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Was going to say the car pulls up nicely everywhere, especially going into that last long right hander before the main straight. Looks like a lot of fun.
    • Hey Dave, welcome aboard! Good to see another soon-to-be Stagea owner here. The wagons are awesome — plenty of space, still got that Skyline DNA, and loads of potential if you’re into mods. Definitely post up pics when you get it, everyone here loves seeing new builds. What model/year are you looking at?
    • See if you can thermal epoxy a heatsink or two onto it?
    • The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
×
×
  • Create New...