Cleaning salt residue from carpets?

Hi folks,

I live up here in sunny Toronto, Canada and I found my 03 Accord has a lot
of salt residue in both the vehicle carpet and the floor mats that came
standard on my model. This is spill over from my rubber Pant Saver mats.

Is there a good way to clean off the salt residue? I'm trying to wash the
floor mats under the tap right now, but I have no idea how to deal with
the crusty salt residue in the carpets I can't remove. Any Canadian
owners have any ideas?

Calum

 

Try white vinegar, mixed 50-50 with water. Put it in a spray bottle, give a
few good squirts on the salt and wait about a minute or two. Rub it with
your finger and spray more as needed. After rubbing it, you'll notice the
salt disolving so the hard crustiness will be gone and you won't see any
white stuff anymore. When you're done, dab the area with some paper towel
to soak up any excess water and vinegar.

Your car will smell like vinegar for the next few days (up to a week or two
depending how much you sprayed) but don't worry, this will go away. You're
nice clean carpet however, will stay until at least next winter.

Sean

 

wet rags, hot slightly soapy water. follow up with a dry towel or 2. in
a day or so, get a couple cans of foamy carpet cleaner, and spray it on,
then wipe the foam up.

 

What the salt will do to your floor mats is trivial in comparison to
what it will do to your floor!

Since the car probably has only one or two winters on it, now's the
time to investigate. You can wet the carpet down with dilute vinegar
solution and then suction it dry with a shop-vac, repeating the
process several times, or get a commercial steam cleaner to do the
job.

The best way however is to pull the seats and remove the carpet for a
look at the floorboards. This is a lot of work and probably won't
appeal to you if you plan on trading the car in a few years. But if
you plan to keep it for very long, pull the carpets and paint the
floor with POR-15. www.por-15.com

If you don't, in about 5 years you'll be driving like Fred Flintstone,
with your feet through holes in the floorboards!

Been there... done that!

 

Thanks guys! I tried with water tonight and if the crust reforms, I'll
switch to vinegar. There's not a lot of salt there, but it is
unsightly. I was trying to get the carpet (ie, below the mats) off, but
it appears to be a nontrivial task.

Calum