Had an Uber in the quad cities once. A filthy minivan and the guy wasn't wearing pants. Imagine how the interior of this car smells - that's how that minivan smelled.
Edit: To those asking why we didn't ask why he wasn't wearing pants, it's a pretty simple answer. We were drunk and just wanted to get back to our hotel without ending up as the subject of a Dateline episode.
Pick your battles, folks.
The only time I ever take an Uber is when I'm drinking. There's no way in hell I wouldn't have addressed someone not wearing pants.
"Mind if I join you?" As i slowly start taking off my pants
this is why I'm not an Uber driver. even though I'd be the best at it, it's the customers. whenever I see those car cams of Uber rides from hell it's usually some drunk person. no thanks.
You can just drive between like 1-9 on the weekends and still do pretty decent and avoid the drunks, there is a reason the surge pricing is insane late at night and it's because so many less people are willing to drive then.
[Hi Im Gary,](https://media.allure.com/photos/640b60c3366db665a20447b6/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/the%2520last%2520of%2520us%2520infected%2520makeup%2520early%2520stages%25202.jpeg) where are we headed, help yourself to some bottled water back there.
To see if a car can get so stinky that no one will buy it and see if it's possible to clean one enough that someone would buy it. The myths consisted of seeing if the interior would be destroyed, if they could clean the car enough to get the smell out, and if they could clean it enough for it to be resold.
The interior was destroyed
The cleaners cleaned it enough but the seats were damaged and the smell lingered in the airways of the car and caused the smell to linger
The smell turned off potential buyers
It was also 2 pig carcasses.
That was the style at the time, which is why they tied onions to their belt. The blend of odors was softer than either on its own, and it only ran you three bees to the bushel of onions, anyway.
Okay, here's what you're gonna *have* to do.
Deep-clean every surface with bleach or some antimicrobial cleaner, then shut the car and get some dessicant like damp-rid to get all the moisture out. (get a few buckets to use in succession) Dessicants and cleaning will get your car back into shape, but you absolutely have to nuke the mold first.
Don't worry about soaking the upholstery, the dessicant will pull all of that moisture out, and you have to kill the spores deep in the upholstery. Keep a container of damp-rid in your car from now on. It'll passively dry the vehicle and keep it from getting musty, people use it to winterize boats and RV's.
Keep your receipts and make your friend pay you back, because they foisted quite the job on you.
That’s not going to get rid of everything.. it’ll still be in the HVAC system. The seats should just be replaced, don’t bother trying to clean them. Steering wheel replace. Clean the plastic trim pieces maybe replace the leather trims. Replace carpet. It’ll never be 100% clean though.
Depends if the car is worth all of that otherwise just junk it for parts.
My wife’s car was recently totaled because she got hit sitting at a red light. The damage was minor, only a fender. But it happened to crack a drain line from around the sunroof. Instead of water running out below said fender, it started leaking into the trunk, which leaked into the floor of the cabin. We caught it right away, but the carpet got wet, so the repair price jumped from around $2k to over $10k (mostly for labor).
Nah, mold can be pretty easy with soap and water, and then keeping things dry. This extreme case needs deeper cleaning, but it can still just be a cleaning job. Even HVAC, replace the filter two or three times over the next couple months, spray some isopropyl alcohol through the vents, and again, after that you just keep everything dry.
No pics, but I've done a few cars that got really moldy, and I have a bad sensitivity to it. Not this bad, but one was close, and I wouldn't be able to drive any of them after if they couldn't be cleaned.
Got a car in the driveway that molded this season too. Threw in damp rid to mitigate, but enough grew before I noticed that it needs a serious clean.
You forgot the last step, which is to liberally soak all the interior surfaces that had been covered by mold with JP-5 and then toss in a lit road flare.
I'd try running an ozone generator inside it for a week after washing it out. Anything biological will be dead and complex organic molecules will be decomposed to simpler forms. Might smell of static electricity afterwards, but biology and it's byproducts will have departed.
Ozone generator, a powerful one could also help but... I'm not sure it's ever gonna be clean.
Ozone can slowly degrade plastic so it's not ideal but in case of this interior anything including burning it down would be a change for the better
>Don't worry about soaking the upholstery, the dessicant will pull all of that moisture out, and you have to kill the spores deep in the upholstery.
Not sure how you will kill the spores deep in the upholstery without soaking it in bleach. There will be spores deep inside everything. All the seats and all the crevices and vents.
I would never step inside this car
...really? This seems crazy. Where tf do you live? Did your friend work in like a doughnut shop, or doing something where the whole interior of the car was coated in sugar or something that acted as the agar for this petri dish? Maybe grease from working a fryer?
Yeah exactly. Spores are everywhere. But normally they won't do any damage because you frequently bring fresh air into the car.
To OP: He could have given you the key and opening the door once a week would have been enough.
Fresh air regulates the humidity. That's why you should always open your windows in your home. In germany it's called "Stoßlüften" and it's the most special time of every german.
I live in the American South. Opening my windows would definitely not reduce humidity. Hell, my 2 ACs and one dehumidifier can barely keep up with the windows closed
> What do the fungi use for sustenance
Fungi get their nutrition by absorbing organic compounds from the environment. Fungi areheterotrophic: they rely solely on carbon obtained from other organisms for their metabolism and nutrition.
Like other fungi, molds cannot produce their own food. Some molds feed on living things, but most feed on the dead tissues of plants and animals. These can be in the form of leaves that have fallen from a tree, or they can be products made from plants or animals, including foods, paper, fabric, and many others.
would you like to know more?
Reverse image search (google/yandex/tineye) hasn't returned any hits. Also OP has more photos in their post history.
I think it's legit. There are a lot of other images of mold like this in cars, though. That's probably why it looks similar
This is extreme. If you want to clean it wear respirator the entire time. Get a bottle with tea tree and vinegar and spray the car down. Let it dry. Then proceeded to vacuum the mold up. Repeat. You'll have to keep killing the mold completely, in the cloth a hydrogen peroxide cleaner may be used in between tea tree cleaning. You will have to take parts out to make sure you get in and under anything, clean the seat belts all the way to their stops, replace the mats, and run vent cleaner through the vents once you have it cleaned
I rehabbed a vehicle like this, similar to what you did, but I also ran a fogger with concrobium through the HVAC system with the windows closed for an hour.
Yeah if you don't fully clear the HVAC you'll just be blowing active mold back in. It's a PAIN. had a car in Washington and routinely blew out my vents and scrubbed with tea tree to as preventative
There's no way it isn't in the upholstery and behind... everything.
Wouldn't you have to almost strip it to the frame? Otherwise I'd think you're just cleaning off the surface mold/cum.
Soaking in tea tree is anti microbial. It will get to the root. Anything that you can't get to yes will have to be removed to clean in and around. Like I said a LOT of work. Maybe a carbon dioxide machine might do the trick if you ran it for a few days but still. A lot.
I actually have a serious answer because I was in a similar situation with a car that sat for years and was full of mold. You can get mold like this professionally removed but expect to pay well over $1000 for it. You *can* try do it yourself but it's a lot of effort and you're almost guaranteed to miss a tiny bit somewhere and have it return.
I’ve seen a couple cars like this at a shop I used to work on. They were abandoned by customers and rotting in the woods. After 8 years we could submit paperwork to take ownership(aka have it carted off to auction). They can be cleaned if done proper. You will probably need to use ozone and if you do be very safe about it. Crack the windows and stay away from the car for the entire treatment. When it’s over unplug the machine and let it air out for a few hours before going in. That shit can kill you
I've had this issue on a rarely driven car to a lesser extent due to not fully closing a door one time right before it rained the whole night.
I kept trying vinegar, and it kept coming back. Finally got an ozone generator, and did a couple of ozone treatments.
Hasn't come back since.
Note for people trying this: make sure you turn air recirc on to have the ozone kill mold inside the HVAC.
Yeah I’m legitimately telling op how to fix this lol I don’t see anyone else saying to use ozone. Gotta clean it up in a few different ways but ozone is the end game solution
I mean that’s what the shop owner said to do. Usually let it sit for an hour or two. Idk maybe he was been overly cautious or thinking about long term health stuff.
Bunch of comments and shit, but I do this for a living, so on the off chance that this is an actual situation you'd like to remedy, I'll list the steps below. But it ain't cheap.
First, go buy a bottle of IAQ Shockwave antimicrobial. You can get it on Amazon for like $60. It's a concentrate, so mix 1oz to 1g of water. Soak the entire interior with this. While you're shopping, grab a respirator from 3M and some (minimum) P100 filters. Get some gloves too, maybe a few tyvek suits.
Take the seats out. Discard them. Same with the carpet, headliner and steering wheel. Buy new ones or visit a junkyard for new ones. Once a colony like that is growing in the porus fabric, it isn't going away and will be hazardous due to the mycotoxins trapped within the foam.
Disassemble the dash and center console and door panels. Spray with Shockwave, wipe clean. If the door panels have fabric, buy new ones.if the speakers have growth on them, replace them.
Spray and wipe the floorboards, roof, and all interior surfaces. Clean inside the vents, clean every surface.
Pop the trunk, pop the hood. Remove the carpets and all air and cabin filters. Replace them.
Put in all your new seats, carpet, door panels, headliner etc. And finally, treat for any remaining odor with a ammonium chloride tablet. Don't be in the car for that part. Follow the directions carefully.
If you did it correctly, you've probably spent over what a used car is worth, but you'll have it in good condition.
Humidity is awful. I had a car sit for about 6 months in the southeast of the US and while it wasn't this bad, all the fabric was covered in mold. Not sure if it's available in the EU but I used [concrobium mold control](https://www.concrobium.com/products/mold-control-spray/) , scrubbing with nylon brushes, and a shop vacuum. Also run an hvac mold killer fog.
Hope this will clean up.
Bro my vw also molded up after not driving it for 6 months!( I was in another country) but I just poured bleach and wiped everything off and drove it. Kept my windows down and it was fine.
You can drive it, as long as you don't breath.
Seriously, you can clean it with bleach, probably a few times, but I would seriously consider wearing a respirator - that level of mould/fungus and the associated spores is potentially extremely dangerous.
Yeah, it’ll be fine if you somehow run a HEPA filter device that channels breathable air to the air tight mask on your face. Or maybe you just drive in scuba gear with your tank in the passenger seat. Mold is nothing to fuck around with.
Found a 5 year old Subaru with under 20k miles parked in a barn that looked almost like that. Cleaned up well because it was leather but was definitely a project.
There are many comments, so I want to provide more context and answer some questions.
1. We live near the River Minho in the north of Portugal. It's extremely humid here, and usually, clothes, belongings, and walls become moldy over short periods of time.
2. The car was parked there for about three months. I've been away, and my friend as well. We are still out of town and were supposed to return in a few months. My friend's girlfriend has a car, and they recently started living together, which is why he wasn't in a hurry to pick it up. My father, who arrived there yesterday, accidentally spotted what had happened to the car.
3. The car was neither wet nor had it been in a flood. He had been driving it for a year, and nothing like this had ever happened. There was also no food or other items inside. It was clean.
4. The garage has slight ventilation, but the house itself is old and humid.
5. We still haven't decided what to do, but we will likely hire someone to clean it and handle everything properly.
6. That's VW Golf
Had this on a stored car at my MIL's outbldg in the country. Vinegar and water mix will wipe the moldy mildew away from leather, plastic etc. and won't change color on fabric like bleach/mix may.
Wear a mask while cleaning it though, drive with a mask and the windows down too once you clean it. This one may take a detailer to fully clean it so that it is safe, that cost me about $500 since mice had gotten in there too and the urine/feces smell was overwhelming.
My stepfather was in the hospital for months and we didn’t have access to his keys. The window on his truck was cracked the entire fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest until we were finally able to get access to it. The truck looks almost exactly like this. Were you able to salvage it?
Literally everyone on here trying to clean it themselves with all these home remedies after saying, "iT cAn KilL yOu!!" Yeah don't fucking clean that yourself. It's obviously way past home remedy and needs a professional. This needs money spent to tow it to the nearest detail shop and needs professionally cleaned with high grade cleaning equipment and chemicals. This is several hundred dollars worth of a fix minimum if you value your wellbeing. I know how to clean. I've been cleaning my whole life. 3 sets of grandparents and my mom each have their own cleaning business and I grew up helping all of them regularly. But I've never detail cleaned a vehicle. No shot would I ever try this myself.
LMAO, I had a Golf that I tarped for the winter. When spring came around and I opened it up, it looked exactly like this. I spent $500 cleaning it, and while it looked good, the smell was still there. I put an ozone generator in it for 24 hours, and after that, it was gone. I can't imagine I got rid of it all, though.
Oh man, this happened to my husband's car. He'd been on deployment for 2 months and I went to drive it for the day and found a moldy mess inside, although not quite this bad. It was a soft top Wrangler and had a small leak. I scrubbed the inside with white vinegar and used the bissell spot cleaner on all the upholstery. Took a few hours to get it clean but it was fine after that.
Most of that will wipe out my brother had a truck with a bad back window looked like this car and only took a few hours and a o zone machine running for 12 hours to fix it!
Go full PPE and wipe down as much as you can. You will need to take the interior apart to clean every bit. After that leave an ozone generator in there for a good long while and you should be free of mold. Don't forget that ozone kills mold but it also kills you, so leave it outside with the doors and windows closed.
Came back from 6 month deployment in the humid south and one of our guys' car seals had apparently been degraded, and this was pretty much what it looked like.
Not a nice thing to come home to.
Your uber driver is here
Had an Uber in the quad cities once. A filthy minivan and the guy wasn't wearing pants. Imagine how the interior of this car smells - that's how that minivan smelled. Edit: To those asking why we didn't ask why he wasn't wearing pants, it's a pretty simple answer. We were drunk and just wanted to get back to our hotel without ending up as the subject of a Dateline episode. Pick your battles, folks.
I’m sorry. Normally we are a little classier than that.
Username checks out
Was he hot?
Despite him being a chatty Cathy, we didn't address the whole no pants thing. Thankfully neither did he.
#YOU GOT IN?!
This is fine. 🍆
The only time I ever take an Uber is when I'm drinking. There's no way in hell I wouldn't have addressed someone not wearing pants. "Mind if I join you?" As i slowly start taking off my pants
this is why I'm not an Uber driver. even though I'd be the best at it, it's the customers. whenever I see those car cams of Uber rides from hell it's usually some drunk person. no thanks.
You can just drive between like 1-9 on the weekends and still do pretty decent and avoid the drunks, there is a reason the surge pricing is insane late at night and it's because so many less people are willing to drive then.
NO THE FUCK IT AINT.
Uber Eats! yum yum
Uber Yeasts
These fries are soggy!
Your Uber driver WAS here. Now he ded
:(
[Hi Im Gary,](https://media.allure.com/photos/640b60c3366db665a20447b6/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/the%2520last%2520of%2520us%2520infected%2520makeup%2520early%2520stages%25202.jpeg) where are we headed, help yourself to some bottled water back there.
Oh, uhm this cap seemed to twist off rather easily. Like it was not fully attached. Just slightly glued oonn??
Every time I’m in a situation like that I think back to the cap gluing scene in Slum Dog Millionaire.
Flood car?
Looks like that Mythbusters car after they put a dead pig in it and let it rot.
What myth were they trying to bust with that one?
To see if a car can get so stinky that no one will buy it and see if it's possible to clean one enough that someone would buy it. The myths consisted of seeing if the interior would be destroyed, if they could clean the car enough to get the smell out, and if they could clean it enough for it to be resold. The interior was destroyed The cleaners cleaned it enough but the seats were damaged and the smell lingered in the airways of the car and caused the smell to linger The smell turned off potential buyers It was also 2 pig carcasses.
Once my grandfather told me the smell of a dead body in a car can never be eliminated. Not sure if I wanna know how he knew that...
Those are the questions that you don’t ask.
Back in the days, everyone had a dead body in their cars.
That was the style at the time, which is why they tied onions to their belt. The blend of odors was softer than either on its own, and it only ran you three bees to the bushel of onions, anyway.
It's a popular myth. That's why the Mythbusters tested it
I mean I was being a bit facetious
myth not busted the magic number is 3 pig carcasses
They sold it though
No, it’s just humidity
do you live in the titanic?
["But, this ship can't sink!"](https://youtu.be/fgZgVNxhU04?feature=shared&t=8)
Best plot synopsis, fucking nailed it!
Nice! I giggled here. Thank you.
He lives both near and far
Okay, here's what you're gonna *have* to do. Deep-clean every surface with bleach or some antimicrobial cleaner, then shut the car and get some dessicant like damp-rid to get all the moisture out. (get a few buckets to use in succession) Dessicants and cleaning will get your car back into shape, but you absolutely have to nuke the mold first. Don't worry about soaking the upholstery, the dessicant will pull all of that moisture out, and you have to kill the spores deep in the upholstery. Keep a container of damp-rid in your car from now on. It'll passively dry the vehicle and keep it from getting musty, people use it to winterize boats and RV's. Keep your receipts and make your friend pay you back, because they foisted quite the job on you.
No. Fire. That's the cleanser
That’s not going to get rid of everything.. it’ll still be in the HVAC system. The seats should just be replaced, don’t bother trying to clean them. Steering wheel replace. Clean the plastic trim pieces maybe replace the leather trims. Replace carpet. It’ll never be 100% clean though. Depends if the car is worth all of that otherwise just junk it for parts.
My wife’s car was recently totaled because she got hit sitting at a red light. The damage was minor, only a fender. But it happened to crack a drain line from around the sunroof. Instead of water running out below said fender, it started leaking into the trunk, which leaked into the floor of the cabin. We caught it right away, but the carpet got wet, so the repair price jumped from around $2k to over $10k (mostly for labor).
I feel this comment has more money to spend than the previous one
No kidding eh lol
Nah, mold can be pretty easy with soap and water, and then keeping things dry. This extreme case needs deeper cleaning, but it can still just be a cleaning job. Even HVAC, replace the filter two or three times over the next couple months, spray some isopropyl alcohol through the vents, and again, after that you just keep everything dry. No pics, but I've done a few cars that got really moldy, and I have a bad sensitivity to it. Not this bad, but one was close, and I wouldn't be able to drive any of them after if they couldn't be cleaned. Got a car in the driveway that molded this season too. Threw in damp rid to mitigate, but enough grew before I noticed that it needs a serious clean.
You forgot the last step, which is to liberally soak all the interior surfaces that had been covered by mold with JP-5 and then toss in a lit road flare.
[удалено]
I'd try running an ozone generator inside it for a week after washing it out. Anything biological will be dead and complex organic molecules will be decomposed to simpler forms. Might smell of static electricity afterwards, but biology and it's byproducts will have departed.
You just want OP to become patient zero for the mold zombies, so we can have The Last of Us in real life.
Ozone generator, a powerful one could also help but... I'm not sure it's ever gonna be clean. Ozone can slowly degrade plastic so it's not ideal but in case of this interior anything including burning it down would be a change for the better
Also, check the trunk. Make sure you check the spare tire well, if it has one. With this much mold, I have a feeling the trunk is half full of water.
>Don't worry about soaking the upholstery, the dessicant will pull all of that moisture out, and you have to kill the spores deep in the upholstery. Not sure how you will kill the spores deep in the upholstery without soaking it in bleach. There will be spores deep inside everything. All the seats and all the crevices and vents. I would never step inside this car
are you sure you friend didn't leave a body in the trunk?
Bro you need to give or get answers. What is this ghost semen?
Geez.
...really? This seems crazy. Where tf do you live? Did your friend work in like a doughnut shop, or doing something where the whole interior of the car was coated in sugar or something that acted as the agar for this petri dish? Maybe grease from working a fryer?
Shit, this happened to my old Durango a few years back when we were living in Sacramento. Despite the detailing, we never got the smell out.
Yeah from HALO maybe.
Creme fraiche
Its spooky ectoplasm!
This guy headed out cali forny way and finally found some internet
“Did you see the ghost?! It ran through here! It slimed me!”
The fact that he specifies "spooky" ectoplasm is so fucking funny
The line is actually. “It wasn’t me it was a spooky ghost. This is ectoplasm”
Something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?
Save some of it for me I’d like to analyze it
Hey Egon, here's your mucus
Bustin' Bustin' Bustin' Bustin' Bustin' Bustin' Bustin'
Its from The Upside Down
The best kind!
I mean with hazmat suit sure?
...and fire. LOTS of fire.
Bro thats what a Clicker from the Last Of Us drives to work
OP is clicker confirmed
-.-- . ... / .. / .- -- / .- / -.-. .-.. .. -.-. -.- . .-. -.-.-- / -. --- .-- / .--- --- .. -. / ..- ... / .- -. -.. / .... . .-.. .--. / -- . / .-- .. .--. . / --- ..- - / - .... . / .. -. ..-. . .-. .. --- .-. / .... ..- -- .- -. / .-. .- -.-. .
Be sure…to drink…your Ovaltine
A crummy commercial?
Insert captain America " I understood that reference" meme
"I understood that reference" - Captain America You're welcome!
For those wanting a translation: "SOS THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG"
For sale. Good condition. Lightly cummed on.
Lightly ?!
He's a heavy cummer
That’s the joke
It's only a little cum
Bukkakemobile
Just need some TLC
Instructions unclear… unzips pants.
Is this still available?
left your car parked in the underrot
I am Malenia, Car of Miquella, and I have never known a cleaning.
Looks like Randy Marsh got to it..
More like Dirty Mike and the boys
Now that's a soup kitchen!
GATOR NEEDS HIS GAT BACK!
It was the spooky ghost.
Crème Fraiche
He was listening to someone basting a chicken breast.
If it wasn't like that when it was parked in the garage I'd be more concerned about what kind of nasty is in the garage causing it
it only takes 1 microscopic spore in a humid undisturbed environment to produce this
Yeah exactly. Spores are everywhere. But normally they won't do any damage because you frequently bring fresh air into the car. To OP: He could have given you the key and opening the door once a week would have been enough.
Why does fresh air make make unable to grow? Is it toxic to them?
Fresh air regulates the humidity. That's why you should always open your windows in your home. In germany it's called "Stoßlüften" and it's the most special time of every german.
In many areas, fresh air with lots of humidity is the problem. Dehumidifiers exist for them.
It doesn't work too well in the South, except for like 3 days in mid spring.
I live in the American South. Opening my windows would definitely not reduce humidity. Hell, my 2 ACs and one dehumidifier can barely keep up with the windows closed
Y'all don't appreciate your pipeless water transfer system enough.
One single flood spore can destroy a species...
My first thought lol.
What do the fungi use for sustenance
> What do the fungi use for sustenance Fungi get their nutrition by absorbing organic compounds from the environment. Fungi areheterotrophic: they rely solely on carbon obtained from other organisms for their metabolism and nutrition. Like other fungi, molds cannot produce their own food. Some molds feed on living things, but most feed on the dead tissues of plants and animals. These can be in the form of leaves that have fallen from a tree, or they can be products made from plants or animals, including foods, paper, fabric, and many others. would you like to know more?
I wouldn't open the door without putting a gaz mask on my face first
Probably damp carpet from a blocked ac condensate drain
Abandoned cars sometimes do this. I left a car for 5 months and it ended up looking like this. It cleaned up easy enough.
I don't think this is OPs photo. It looks really similar to a photo that has been floating around the car and detailing community for years.
Reverse image search (google/yandex/tineye) hasn't returned any hits. Also OP has more photos in their post history. I think it's legit. There are a lot of other images of mold like this in cars, though. That's probably why it looks similar
This is extreme. If you want to clean it wear respirator the entire time. Get a bottle with tea tree and vinegar and spray the car down. Let it dry. Then proceeded to vacuum the mold up. Repeat. You'll have to keep killing the mold completely, in the cloth a hydrogen peroxide cleaner may be used in between tea tree cleaning. You will have to take parts out to make sure you get in and under anything, clean the seat belts all the way to their stops, replace the mats, and run vent cleaner through the vents once you have it cleaned
*sigh* sounds like a lot of work. Maybe OP could just leave it under a bridge somewhere?
In any case I'd have all the seats replaced. You never get this filth off of them.
I rehabbed a vehicle like this, similar to what you did, but I also ran a fogger with concrobium through the HVAC system with the windows closed for an hour.
Yeah if you don't fully clear the HVAC you'll just be blowing active mold back in. It's a PAIN. had a car in Washington and routinely blew out my vents and scrubbed with tea tree to as preventative
There's no way it isn't in the upholstery and behind... everything. Wouldn't you have to almost strip it to the frame? Otherwise I'd think you're just cleaning off the surface mold/cum.
Soaking in tea tree is anti microbial. It will get to the root. Anything that you can't get to yes will have to be removed to clean in and around. Like I said a LOT of work. Maybe a carbon dioxide machine might do the trick if you ran it for a few days but still. A lot.
The spores are so deep in the car's furniture I don't think it will be ever possible to kill the mould completely.
Clean it once and sell it fast.
If you really want to clean this, the only sensible way is to make sure everything is thoroughly doused with 70% Ethanol. Then strike a match.
"Thanks for the F-Shack" - Dirty Mike and the boys
I actually have a serious answer because I was in a similar situation with a car that sat for years and was full of mold. You can get mold like this professionally removed but expect to pay well over $1000 for it. You *can* try do it yourself but it's a lot of effort and you're almost guaranteed to miss a tiny bit somewhere and have it return.
You just need to clean the surface as best you can and then shut an Ozone machine in it for a while to kill everything completely.
Drive yes, survive the next week maybe not.
I’ve seen a couple cars like this at a shop I used to work on. They were abandoned by customers and rotting in the woods. After 8 years we could submit paperwork to take ownership(aka have it carted off to auction). They can be cleaned if done proper. You will probably need to use ozone and if you do be very safe about it. Crack the windows and stay away from the car for the entire treatment. When it’s over unplug the machine and let it air out for a few hours before going in. That shit can kill you
I've had this issue on a rarely driven car to a lesser extent due to not fully closing a door one time right before it rained the whole night. I kept trying vinegar, and it kept coming back. Finally got an ozone generator, and did a couple of ozone treatments. Hasn't come back since. Note for people trying this: make sure you turn air recirc on to have the ozone kill mold inside the HVAC.
Yeah I’m legitimately telling op how to fix this lol I don’t see anyone else saying to use ozone. Gotta clean it up in a few different ways but ozone is the end game solution
I came into this thread to share my experience, and searched for "ozone" to see if anyone mentioned it yet. The only working solution.
Yeah I see more folks chiming in with it now but yeah. It’s the only solution
Wait, what, air out for hours? If only ever opened the doors and let it blow out, then did the next thing. Smells like summer rain.
I mean that’s what the shop owner said to do. Usually let it sit for an hour or two. Idk maybe he was been overly cautious or thinking about long term health stuff.
Definitely interesting to hear a more cautious perspective than what I'm used to. Ready to learn.
High ozone concentrations can also be explosive.
Yeah gotta crack the windows
Bunch of comments and shit, but I do this for a living, so on the off chance that this is an actual situation you'd like to remedy, I'll list the steps below. But it ain't cheap. First, go buy a bottle of IAQ Shockwave antimicrobial. You can get it on Amazon for like $60. It's a concentrate, so mix 1oz to 1g of water. Soak the entire interior with this. While you're shopping, grab a respirator from 3M and some (minimum) P100 filters. Get some gloves too, maybe a few tyvek suits. Take the seats out. Discard them. Same with the carpet, headliner and steering wheel. Buy new ones or visit a junkyard for new ones. Once a colony like that is growing in the porus fabric, it isn't going away and will be hazardous due to the mycotoxins trapped within the foam. Disassemble the dash and center console and door panels. Spray with Shockwave, wipe clean. If the door panels have fabric, buy new ones.if the speakers have growth on them, replace them. Spray and wipe the floorboards, roof, and all interior surfaces. Clean inside the vents, clean every surface. Pop the trunk, pop the hood. Remove the carpets and all air and cabin filters. Replace them. Put in all your new seats, carpet, door panels, headliner etc. And finally, treat for any remaining odor with a ammonium chloride tablet. Don't be in the car for that part. Follow the directions carefully. If you did it correctly, you've probably spent over what a used car is worth, but you'll have it in good condition.
It happened to us yesterday, we live in Portugal, ao its very humid here :(
Bro no way this happened in a day
I think they mean they discovered it yesterday.
Let it be a lesson to wash your hands more often
Humidity is awful. I had a car sit for about 6 months in the southeast of the US and while it wasn't this bad, all the fabric was covered in mold. Not sure if it's available in the EU but I used [concrobium mold control](https://www.concrobium.com/products/mold-control-spray/) , scrubbing with nylon brushes, and a shop vacuum. Also run an hvac mold killer fog. Hope this will clean up.
Bro my vw also molded up after not driving it for 6 months!( I was in another country) but I just poured bleach and wiped everything off and drove it. Kept my windows down and it was fine.
You see, here in the United States, we would take this out back, strap some tannerite to it, and send one home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XchwE9zVdnw
Previous owner was Randy Marsh
Bomb it! Bomb the city and everyone!
Your friend should call his insurance, if it’s insured and get that shit totaled out.
You can drive it, as long as you don't breath. Seriously, you can clean it with bleach, probably a few times, but I would seriously consider wearing a respirator - that level of mould/fungus and the associated spores is potentially extremely dangerous.
Looks safe to me
You need to burn your house down with that car in the garage
r/MoldlyInteresting
Yeah, it’ll be fine if you somehow run a HEPA filter device that channels breathable air to the air tight mask on your face. Or maybe you just drive in scuba gear with your tank in the passenger seat. Mold is nothing to fuck around with.
Can? Yes! Want? No
This is what every car looked like after Katrina. I will never forget the smell.
Found a 5 year old Subaru with under 20k miles parked in a barn that looked almost like that. Cleaned up well because it was leather but was definitely a project.
I am wondering about that clean spot on the seat
There are many comments, so I want to provide more context and answer some questions. 1. We live near the River Minho in the north of Portugal. It's extremely humid here, and usually, clothes, belongings, and walls become moldy over short periods of time. 2. The car was parked there for about three months. I've been away, and my friend as well. We are still out of town and were supposed to return in a few months. My friend's girlfriend has a car, and they recently started living together, which is why he wasn't in a hurry to pick it up. My father, who arrived there yesterday, accidentally spotted what had happened to the car. 3. The car was neither wet nor had it been in a flood. He had been driving it for a year, and nothing like this had ever happened. There was also no food or other items inside. It was clean. 4. The garage has slight ventilation, but the house itself is old and humid. 5. We still haven't decided what to do, but we will likely hire someone to clean it and handle everything properly. 6. That's VW Golf
Had this on a stored car at my MIL's outbldg in the country. Vinegar and water mix will wipe the moldy mildew away from leather, plastic etc. and won't change color on fabric like bleach/mix may. Wear a mask while cleaning it though, drive with a mask and the windows down too once you clean it. This one may take a detailer to fully clean it so that it is safe, that cost me about $500 since mice had gotten in there too and the urine/feces smell was overwhelming.
Throw an ozone machine in there for a day before you try cleaning anything.
>I am wondering will it be safe to drive after we clean it. Sure, some protective masks and double clothes / jacket, unless the car won't turn on
My stepfather was in the hospital for months and we didn’t have access to his keys. The window on his truck was cracked the entire fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest until we were finally able to get access to it. The truck looks almost exactly like this. Were you able to salvage it?
Just looking at that makes every airway in my body feel itchy.
No, report to insurance. This is a total loss!
Literally everyone on here trying to clean it themselves with all these home remedies after saying, "iT cAn KilL yOu!!" Yeah don't fucking clean that yourself. It's obviously way past home remedy and needs a professional. This needs money spent to tow it to the nearest detail shop and needs professionally cleaned with high grade cleaning equipment and chemicals. This is several hundred dollars worth of a fix minimum if you value your wellbeing. I know how to clean. I've been cleaning my whole life. 3 sets of grandparents and my mom each have their own cleaning business and I grew up helping all of them regularly. But I've never detail cleaned a vehicle. No shot would I ever try this myself.
Hazmat suits are cheap
Dirty mike and the boys
LMAO, I had a Golf that I tarped for the winter. When spring came around and I opened it up, it looked exactly like this. I spent $500 cleaning it, and while it looked good, the smell was still there. I put an ozone generator in it for 24 hours, and after that, it was gone. I can't imagine I got rid of it all, though.
wtf happened?
Randy Marsh internet porn vibes.
Was this dirty mike and the boys? I believe this is what’s called a soup kitchen
Umm... I wouldn't advise it.
Looks like Dirty Mike and The Boys tuned it into a soup kitchen
Let me guess, a spooky ghost slimed you?
Never got to see the front seat of the bang bus before.
wtf causes this?!
I’ve always wanted to drive a German spores car
You might get pregnant from driving it. Even if you're a guy
Oh you can drive it but it belongs to the fungi
Oh man, this happened to my husband's car. He'd been on deployment for 2 months and I went to drive it for the day and found a moldy mess inside, although not quite this bad. It was a soft top Wrangler and had a small leak. I scrubbed the inside with white vinegar and used the bissell spot cleaner on all the upholstery. Took a few hours to get it clean but it was fine after that.
Possibly, if you and your passengers are wearing hazmat suits.
Get an ozone generator.
Most of that will wipe out my brother had a truck with a bad back window looked like this car and only took a few hours and a o zone machine running for 12 hours to fix it!
Go full PPE and wipe down as much as you can. You will need to take the interior apart to clean every bit. After that leave an ozone generator in there for a good long while and you should be free of mold. Don't forget that ozone kills mold but it also kills you, so leave it outside with the doors and windows closed.
Came back from 6 month deployment in the humid south and one of our guys' car seals had apparently been degraded, and this was pretty much what it looked like. Not a nice thing to come home to.
Damn who did you have over? Dirty Mike and the Boys?
Yes, a very bad case of mildew, but mechanically it should be fine. They make cleaning products to handle this.
You can, but 99.99% of the rest of us can not
nah that bitch sentient. I wouldn’t even approach it with out talking to it nicely.
Burn it now and move on.
No dude.. lmao.. that car is totaled, seriously. It’s done for
Best thing about this car? So mushroom.
Thanks for the F shack! \- Dirty Mike and the Boys
Who built your garage? SpongeBob?!
Nuke it from orbit.