Mould removal - Inside Car

[Junky007]

Hi,

My daughters car was parked up for a few months and its got mould on the seats.

Any recommendations for a affordable car steamer?

[vikingaero]

If the seats are fabric, then a carpet cleaner will also do.

I have a Lidl steamer and a Bissell Spotclean Pro (other variants such as Vax are available).

If there is mould I would use the carpet cleaner along with some Autosmart Biobrisk which contains an enzyme that continues to digest bacteria after cleaning.

[Junky007]

I was looking at the Kartols on Amazon site

Not sure if its hot enough. Goes to 105'C

[Robertb]

Also consider a good mask for when working on it. Mould spores are a bad thing to inhale.

[Geertsen]

I would (personally) spray all the mould with white vinegar and let it sit prior to cleaning as it apparently kills mould.

[paul_c123]

I'd remove the seats and pressure wash them outside the car. And if the carpet is bad too, remove this and do the same as well. You'll need a code reader to reset the airbag warnings from the sensors in the seats, and allow a sufficient time for the seats to fully dry out (the electrics will be fine, if dried out properly).

[SimonTheSailor]

I was going to suggest using white vinegar too to wipe down all the surfaces

[CaptainScarlet1967]

Junky007 said:

Hi,

My daughters car was parked up for a few months and its got mould on the seats.

Any recommendations for a affordable car steamer?

I posted this in the 'Tools you wish you'd bought sooner' thread.

https://amzn.eu/d/0iX6lQtq

I tend to get the car interior properly valeted, shampooed etc periodically, despite it being an old car, for the hygiene aspect.

A practical steamer will be great for cleaning air vents, the pedals, and general sanitising in the meantime. I'd just ensure the car interior is properly dried/dehumidified (air con) and ventilated properly so the mould doesn't re-spore.

I also chose this model due it having a manual knob for accurate steam level control, so better (IMO) than pressing a digital +/- button.

As others have mentioned, white vinegar is good. Worth using white vinegar (glass cleaner) on all windows and cills, both windscreens and the dash. Mould always spores around those areas when a car is left standing in certain environments, IME, plus the rear demister works much better when the invisible gunk is properly cleaned off the heating element.

Edit: the steamer below is much smaller than it looks. Probably the size of a kettle, give or take.

[Belle427]

Most interior type cleaners/shampoos will work ok, garage therapy do one which contains d limonene which i believe kills mould.
I always used to use Autoglym interior shampoo and found it very good.

[mikeyr]

Can you use a wallpaper stripper to steam mould from upholstery? don't know if would damage fabric but those things seem to get bloody hot!