I had a door seal leak (now fixed), that soaked the driver's side carpet when it rained. The carpet is dry now, but it has a musty smell to it. Will a carpet shampoo get rid of the smell? Any other tips?
Thanks.

 

It's tought to get rid of that smell if the carpet is soaked through and dried with no ventilation. What I have done on is give the rug a good cleaning using a laundry detergent ( I like Era liquid). The trick is proper drying. You might have to raise the carpet up to allow air flow under it. After it dries, spray it with Frebreeze (not sure of spelling) and let that dry. This should work.

 

The rugs may be dry but the padding underneath could still be damp. I also had soaked rugs in my 75. I removed the door sill trim, raised the rugs up and set some pieces of wood to keep them up. They dried out nicely in about a week with no more smell than a 75 should have. It helps to keep your vents open or have some air flow so you don't get a tropical climate in there.

 

Thanks boilerperson and farmtruck! I'll try those suggestions this Saturday. The carpet feels dry now, but I suppose the padding still could be damp underneath. I'll remove the sill and pull the carpet up to check. The wife already has a can of Fabreeze I'll try, along with shampoo.
Thanks again.
Don

 

What I have done is go and rent a rug doctor you can get them pretty much anywhere that rents tools. This will get the musty smell that is in your DRY carpet out, however, like the other guys said your padding is probably a little damp. If used right the rug doctor should suck that dry right through the carpet but if there is any moisture under the trim you will have to take that out. good luck

Derek