our car’s carpeting is not as superficial as keeping the floor of it clean. Under your car are a number of mechanisms that helps it perform well. The carpet helps seperate any contamination rising from the underside, and ensuring nothing from inside the car seeps downwards.
After all of this, you’re bound to be met with something in the middle (i.e. the carpet) and creating something…quite nasty.
Things under your car’s carpet could be dust bunnies, mold and mildew, debris, pests, rust, and lost items.
Read on to see what it is and how to take care of it.
CONTAMINATION
Heat, dust, moisture, mud, spilled drinks and food crumbs all gather into one place: the floor of the car. While its metallic body can withstand a little grime, it is not so kind to the carpeting.
Your car’s carpeting is bound to start stinking at some point, but you wouldn’t even notice it because you would’ve gotten accustomed to it over time. Perhaps you try to cover up the stale and musty air with air-freshners clinging to your car’s airconditiner.
There can be no long term solution unless you target the issue at the root.
DUST BUNNIES
They’re not as cute as they sound, really. Dust bunnies can be pretty dangerous to a passenger with asthma. What’s worse is that these can fly up and around as you try to get into the car, and escape into the ventilation system.
Until then, you only had a carpet issue, but now your air conditioner’s busted as well. Not only that, you’re sneezing constantly even though you know you don’t have hay fever or pollen allergies. Plus, you’re making the perfect environment for strange bacteria to breed in.
Solution: Give your car a good vacuum and take the mats out for a good brushing down and washing.
If you’re looking for good cleaning products to get the job done, check out this post .
MOLD AND MILDEW
Ever brushed out your car and noticed the white speckles on the carpet that just won’t go away? No, it is certainly not clumps of your pet’s hairfall, or the flyaways of a mink coat.
It’s mold.
Possibly mold. You don’t have to take my word for it. But with everything that goes on inside the car, under the road, and behind the tires, you might want to give it a good look before dismissing it. It could even explain the random stuffiness you feel, because mold makes the air stale and causes a lot of health concerns.
Mold can climb up the seats of your car and ruin your interior, and no trip to the car wash will fix it.
Solution: a spray bottle of white distilled vinegar should do the trick, but make sure it’s left to air out over a good few hours in order for it to work.
If you want a more detailed explanation on how to get mold out of your car carpet, click here .
DEBRIS
Let’s face it, we’ve all spilled food in the car at some point in our lives. It’s a repetetive occurrence in our lives.
All of that thick liquid and bits of food has gathered in some places and clumped together into a somewhat sticky and solid mass that’s stinking up the air in your car.
Is that not a bad enough reason? That kind of debris is probably attracting all kinds on tiny bugs. Who knows, some of them have probably even laid eggs in your carpet. And while you may not be btoehred as long as they stay underneathe it, they won’t stay there forever.
Solution: Take out the mats and give the carpet a good vacuuming. If you can, get a brush and some carpet cleaner to scrub with.
PESTS
Two things attracts pests the most: carpets and food. In a car, you usually have both. Now, you wouldn’t normally notice these pests crawling around all too much, but that’s because the kind of infestations that occur are usually in the form of mites. Worse case scenario, you’ll be dealing with a proper case of carpet beetles.
These pests are a threat to the natural fibres used to make the interior of your car, and is the sole reason why car interiors age so fast.
Solution: vacuuming usually does the trick, but you might want to use some insecticide powder, too. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies you would’ve otherwise missed.
If you’re looking for a more indepth explanation on how to get rid of these bugs, go here .
RUST
While this won’t exaclty kill your car, it can still cause problems later on that will be too difficult to solve. Problems like bad ventilation, gritty metal parts, difficulty in cleaning, and the rust spreading out onto other spots in your car. Years from now on when you feel like giving your car a glow up, it will be a very long and hefty process, so why not start right now?
Rust also stinks up the air. The combination of moisture and hot winds under your car is inevitable, but will still need maintenance. Everything needs regular maintenance no matter what.
Solution: Grab a sand paper to scrub off the rust, or buy a rust treatment and follo the instructions.
LOST ITEMS
Ever lost something in your car and you could just never find it? It’s most definitely under the carpet of your car.
Things have a way of wiggling into places unheard of. It’s possible that your car’s carpeting had worn down over time and formed openings that small things easily slipped into. Things like keys, jewelry, cards, and other things.
The issue here is that these items made of different materials may not react well to the hell-fire heat that gets caught up under the carpet. Not only will it produce weird smells, but some items can actually be a proper hazard. Fire, fumes, or anything of the sort that could hurt you physically.
Solution: Remove the carpet every now and then for a good deepl cleaning.
CONCLUSION
Now that you know what could be under your car’s carpet, it’s time to go and actually take a look. It could save you a lot of time and trouble in the future when it comes to cleaning it out, and hopefully you will even find some of the things you had been looking for this whole time.
When cleaning out your car’s carpet, go the extra mile and check the ventilation, your brakes and accelarator, and your doors as well to see if they’re working smoothly. A lot of things that start in the carpet do not stay in the carpet.