Removing silica from carpet?
Discussion
I had one of those silica gel boxes / "portable dehumidifiers" laying around that I thought I'd leave in the Z4 as it was going to be stood for a fair while over winter, mainly to honour my old man as he gave me thinking he was doing me a favour.
I put it in the rear cubby hole behind the passenger seat and forgot all about it.
Fast forward to a few months back and I had to reach behind the passenger seat when I noticed what looked like water running down from the cubby hole / plastic trim. I wiped it away assuming that some water drops had fallen in when lowering / raising the roof and didn't think any more of it.
I went to give the car a good clean this weekend and went to reach behind the seat to get the gel box out. The cubby hole was absolutely soaked in water. I thought the roof was leaking at first but after realising it had an oily texture I know the box must have leaked and silica was in the carpet. I removed the cubby hole box (luckily it's sealed so no water has leaked anywhere else), scrubbed it with interior cleaner and left it to dry. 4 days later and it's still damp to touch and you can still feel the oily residue.
I've since found out that it's leaked down onto the carpet behind the passenger footwell - it's not damp to touch but peel it back and it's as if it's gathered on the floor pan. I'm really pissed off, all the moisture has been accumulating on the floor pan for months without me realising.
Has anyone got any suggestions on what I can use to get it out the carpet? I thought about removing the seat, giving it a proper scrub with carpet shampoo and using a wet vac to suck the water out but I've done that on a smaller scale with the cubby box and it hasn't worked.
I've searched online and found some recommendations of fairy liquid / WD40 but I'm not in any rush to start spraying that all over my carpets.
Help!
I put it in the rear cubby hole behind the passenger seat and forgot all about it.
Fast forward to a few months back and I had to reach behind the passenger seat when I noticed what looked like water running down from the cubby hole / plastic trim. I wiped it away assuming that some water drops had fallen in when lowering / raising the roof and didn't think any more of it.
I went to give the car a good clean this weekend and went to reach behind the seat to get the gel box out. The cubby hole was absolutely soaked in water. I thought the roof was leaking at first but after realising it had an oily texture I know the box must have leaked and silica was in the carpet. I removed the cubby hole box (luckily it's sealed so no water has leaked anywhere else), scrubbed it with interior cleaner and left it to dry. 4 days later and it's still damp to touch and you can still feel the oily residue.
I've since found out that it's leaked down onto the carpet behind the passenger footwell - it's not damp to touch but peel it back and it's as if it's gathered on the floor pan. I'm really pissed off, all the moisture has been accumulating on the floor pan for months without me realising.
Has anyone got any suggestions on what I can use to get it out the carpet? I thought about removing the seat, giving it a proper scrub with carpet shampoo and using a wet vac to suck the water out but I've done that on a smaller scale with the cubby box and it hasn't worked.
I've searched online and found some recommendations of fairy liquid / WD40 but I'm not in any rush to start spraying that all over my carpets.
Help!
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