How on earth do I clean litres of leaked coolant out of footwells?

[Sabina]

My Focus has just been repaired after coolant had been leaking into my footwell.  I now have the problem of working out how to get all the coolant from my carpet and beneath.  The driver's and rear passenger footwells are completely sodden with about 6 litres or more of coolant.  How on earth do I get it all out? 

I've put down old bath towels and have been through three already.  The garage suggested newspaper but that's just not cutting it.  There is much, much more beneath the carpet.  If I press down on it coolant seeps up through and forms a puddle.  I feel like my car is ruined now. 

I've seen numerous posts about how to fix the leak but nothing about how to clean the mess up afterwards, help!

[Lenny]

7 minutes ago, Sabina said:

My Focus has just been repaired after coolant had been leaking into my footwell.  I now have the problem of working out how to get all the coolant from my carpet and beneath.  The driver's and rear passenger footwells are completely sodden with about 6 litres or more of coolant.  How on earth do I get it all out? 

I've put down old bath towels and have been through three already.  The garage suggested newspaper but that's just not cutting it.  There is much, much more beneath the carpet.  If I press down on it coolant seeps up through and forms a puddle.  I feel like my car is ruined now. 

I've seen numerous posts about how to fix the leak but nothing about how to clean the mess up afterwards, help!

Rent a RugDoctor 

Go online to find the nearest provider such as tesco, 

Pay online then they provide you with a code for the locker; go to the locker put in your code and take out the RugDoctor 

It will vacuum the liquid from the carpet aswell as clean it, 

Monoethyline glycol wont evaporate you need to extract it 

 

[mjt]

What you need is something like a Vax cleaner or carpet shampooing machine. These can vacuum up small puddles and also get most of the moisture out of carpets. If you use a shampooer you can also use it to rinse the coolant out of the carpets. If you don't know anyone you can borrow from they can be hired.

Ooops! Whilst I was typing Lenny beat me to it 😀

[sucofdrof]

Not sure if it will work for coolant but when I had footwells full of rain water we used puppy training sheets which worked really well, reasonably cheap solution

[TomsFocus]

Will a wet vac suck it out of the underlay beneath the carpet in situ?

Personally I'd remove the carpet and the underlay if there was that much leakage.  It's not a hard job, just seat bolts, plugs and plastic trim.

If that's not an option, soak up what you can and then leave a decent dehumidifier in there over night for a few days if you get an extension lead to the car.

[Lenny]

58 minutes ago, sucofdrof said:

Not sure if it will work for coolant but when I had footwells full of rain water we used puppy training sheets which worked really well, reasonably cheap solution

Puppy pads would work 

Which reminds me; dont let any dogs or cats lick your carpet as it will poison them like strong alcohol, cats especially like glycol but it will kill them.

Although Mono ethylene glycol is an organic compound; it is also damaging to the environment as it floats on the surface of water; blocking the UV rays from passing through 

[Sabina]

Thank you everyone. I’ve managed to borrow a Vax and am now waiting for better weather to try it out!

[Sabina]

On 2/6/2020 at 1:09 PM, TomsFocus said:

Will a wet vac suck it out of the underlay beneath the carpet in situ?

Personally I'd remove the carpet and the underlay if there was that much leakage.  It's not a hard job, just seat bolts, plugs and plastic trim.

If that's not an option, soak up what you can and then leave a decent dehumidifier in there over night for a few days if you get an extension lead to the car.

I’d be worried if I did manage somehow to take up the carpet I’d never get it back down as it was again. Although it probably would be the best solution. Easy when you know how though. 

[Lenny]

45 minutes ago, Sabina said:

I’d be worried if I did manage somehow to take up the carpet I’d never get it back down as it was again. Although it probably would be the best solution. Easy when you know how though. 

The carpet may shrink a bit after getting wet,

My mk2.5 focus carpet has shrunk a little since the pollen filter housing leaked,

It's only noticeable where the carpet goes under the door sill panel,

However removing the entire carpet means taking out the seats and centre console to allow it to be removed; quite a task and not really necessary to be fair a wet vacuum will take out the majority of it then the summer months will finish it.

[cupneill]

How did you get on with the carpet cleaner? I have the same issue now and trying to decide if I need to take out the whole carpet and foam underneath it or if a carpet cleaner will do