THE CHEESENING (forgot the frozen goods in my car for a week thread)

[Azukamii 86]

a couple of you already know I did a stupid while moving house last week and left a bag of frozen goods in the back of the old beema. This little surprise knocked me to the floor when i opened up the garage-queen a week later, preparing for a Saturday afternoon blat.

the affected area (thankfully) only appears to be the LH rear passenger seat, where the curdling mess has seeped below the seats and into the bottom of the foam/ under the rubber mats on this side. 
The glorious Christian ( @CSET ) agreed to take a look and although his cleaning has made a MASSIVE difference, there still is a lot of smell coming from the seat unit. if it's unable to be rescued, i will resort to buying a new unit, but I'm much too stubborn to admit defeat just yet!

if anyone has any advice on ways to rid of the foul stench emanating from the Germans insides, please do speak out! I fear the longer I leave this issue un-resolved, the more likely CYF's will come knocking on my door.
THINGS DONE SO FAR:
removed rear seat
washed, cleaned and dried the curdling mess pooling beneath the rubber mat where the seats lie.
soaked, ringed, and further soaked the foam in a hot bath filled with washing powder for a good half day
half-removed the leather cover (the smelly section) to soak the foam, and later somehow clean (have wiped with heavily diluted washing powder and hot water, with no success)
coated the affected surfaces (including back of affected leather) in baking soda and let sit for 24hrs

I should note that the leather cover itself has not touched any contaminated water, i did wipe it down with a damp cloth however, dye had started to seep out so I quickly wiped it down and left it be.

Photos attached for viewing dis-pleasure

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by Azukamii

[M3AN 4016]

Yuck. But cool mask.

I'd strip the leather, get that commercially cleaned and buy a new rear seat base from a wrecker and swap the cleaned leather onto that. I think the seat base foams are the same across all e46 coupes and you'll never get that clean because of all of the airspace in the foam that you simply can't get to.

Whoever you approach to clean the leather will probably know as soon as they see it whether it's recoverable. If they think it is then you'll know as soon as you get it back whether it's reusable. They may require you to provide a useable base before they clean it so they can keep it stretched properly.

Call a local upholster (marine might be best) to ask about where to get the leather cleaned. 

IMO.

[qube 3570]

strip it out and track car? who needs rear seats anyway in a coupe..

[NZ BMW 368]

What about Ozoning it? 

Or fabreeze, that stuff is magic. 

[Olaf 3317]

Steri-gene.  Destroys bacteria, fungi, protozoa, spores, viruses.   www.eai.co.nz 

We had plumbers around for a blocked toilet I couldn't deal with.  When the plumbers left, it was flowing, though Mr Hankey was all over the back yard.  I visited my trusted Commercial Cleaning Products place, Phillip Moore Ltd, explained the deal, they said "Steri-gene, nothing else will do.  It's not cheap, it is super-concentrated.  It's used in Hospitals for sterilising rooms."    

Gloves, respirator (you already have something like that I see), spray bottle.  Follow the instructions.  It's outstanding stuff, kills, cleans, sterilises.

And sunshine, of course.

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Olaf

[B.M.W Ltd 950]

Insurance claim ??? make it someone else's problem

Edit... bit late for that now I spose

Edited January 21, 2019 by B.M.W Ltd

[C-130 Hercules 571]

Vinegar kills 99.9% of mould. 

[M3AN 4016]

Chemicals are fine for the surface and perhaps a little below but you'd have to soak the foam in them to get to the centre so you'd need 100 litres and a suitable bath/container.

Foam is millions of air pockets surrounded by a rubber (or similar) compound, you'll never get the chemicals you need through that without (extended) soaking.

 

[Olaf 3317]

4 hours ago, M3AN said:

Chemicals are fine for the surface and perhaps a little below but you'd have to soak the foam in them to get to the centre so you'd need 100 litres and a suitable bath/container.

Foam is millions of air pockets surrounded by a rubber (or similar) compound, you'll never get the chemicals you need through that without (extended) soaking.

 

Good point.  So, with a bottle of this Steri-gene, and a bath full of water, and a bit of time, you should be right.  If the food can ooze in, water and the anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-protozoan, anti-viral will get in there and kill it all.

[M3AN 4016]

19 minutes ago, Olaf said:

Good point.  So, with a bottle of this Steri-gene, and a bath full of water, and a bit of time, you should be right.  If the food can ooze in, water and the anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-protozoan, anti-viral will get in there and kill it all.

Potentially. And if you repeatedly compressed and released the foam that would probably hasten the process.

But I'm going to call that sourcing a clean base from a wreckers would probably be easier... doesn't need to be leather either.

 

 

 

[Azukamii 86]

Thank you all for the feedback!

I'll give some shops a call around about a replacement foam base along with cleaning the leather and go from there.

Regardless, that steri-gene stuff sounds like it could be handy! (sniff tested the car last night and there is a very slight whiff lingering around) I'll trial some vinegar first, if that fails might grab a bottle! I guess i can't get it 100% perfect, but over time, hopefully what's left of the smell will go away!

So far, the baking soda "hack" still hasn't made much of a difference to the leather/ foam. will wash it all off tonight and just set the seat outside to dry!

 

[Azukamii 86]

Quick Update from cheese post.

The seat still reeks, so I gave in and purchased a replacement seat from Ray at Hell BM. after vigorous cleaning and conditioning, the leather is starting to look great!
I've also removed the leather off the cheese seat and will save it for a day when i'm ready to get it cleaned/ reupholstered. For now, this will more than suffice. 

Cabin has a very VERY slight whiff after shampooing sections of carpet that failed the sniff test, along with the rubber mat getting a wipedown of vinegar before applying a decent coat of baking soda both above and below the rubber matting (sitting for about a week) That's all split into a million pieces so that's probably going to be the next purchase for the car. 
Also have an additional can of deodorizer to set off in the cabin - will wait till Friday to get that sorted.

If anyone is going to leadfoot and feels particularly brave, feel free to subject the Mch33se to a sniff test!