[Meeni]

I was transporting a gallon of fuel for lawnmower purpose. Of course, this is the day some cheerleader cuts in front of me and I have to slam on the brakes. The container opened and started emptying in the trunk, I caught it quickly and could stop it after maybe 200ml went of. Carpet was damp already...


First , a spill in the trunk smell as bad from inside the cabin. But it is not the end of the world. I managed to get rid of most of the smell in only 3 days.
1. work as quickly as possible.
2. remove all stained carpet if possible.
3. let the trunk/windows open in the sun, let it dry
4. ONCE DRY, pour generous amount of cat litter in a bean (or in the plastic area under the carpet).
5. ONCE DRY, pour generous amount of carpet deodorizer powder (usually found in animal supply, contains baking soda and other stuff to clean carpet areas stained by feces/urine), on the stained carpet itself.
6. let the trunk/windows open in the sun for a day
7. use a shop vacuum to clean the carpet
8. repeat if necessary, for me it wasn't

9. Once the smell is mostly gone, leave some cat litter in the plastic bean under the trunk carpet. It helps absorbing the leftover smell



Things not to do:
* pour cat litter or carpet cleaner on wet carpet. It will make morcels and attach to carpet hair.
* try to clean with water (at least early on). Fuel is not solvent in water, it will just set it in even worse and delay evaporation of the gasoline.
* Close the trunk on it and let fumes accumulate: the car could set itself on fire!!!

[tofu-]

a carpet extractor wouldn't have worked in this situation?

[E902009]

Might be a bit messy, but perhaps baking soda would do the trick as well?

I used baking soda once in my luggage. I was bringing home some awesome bourbon from Kentucky. I thought I had it padded pretty well, but the knuckle draggers at baggage handling proved me wrong, so my clothes and my luggage smelled like really good bourbon, which made the baggage claim conveyor belt smelled like bourbon.

After cleaning out the mess, I just spread baking soda all over the affected area and left it in the garage overnight. The next morning I took a wet brush and went through the entire luggage. Rinsed it off and left it out in the backyard to dry. The smell was pretty much gone. There's a tiny hint of it, but nowhere near as bad as when I first picked up my luggage.

[Meeni]

Carpet deodorizer powder is mostly baking soda, mixed with another clay that also helps absorbing (the name escapes me at the moment, but it's well known to do miracles on animal smell, works for gas too ).

[Meeni]

After 3 weeks and another round of cat pee carpet deodorizer, the smell is completely gone.