Floor Mat Cleaning

[Howard]

I wanted to pass along this cleaning tip. While this worked great for me, I want to advise anyone who tries this that they do so at their own peril. Over the weekend I must have stepped into some oil in a parking lot. My driver's side mat was covered with oil. Up until now, my mats were very nice. Even the Reatta seals are still present. Not bad for 125,000 miles. I really felt I could not mess it up any more than it was, so after removing the "teeth", I stuck it in the washing machine. I put in some Tide, just a very small amount of Cascade Complete, and two scoops of Shout Oxypower. I was delighted with the result. The mat looked new! I did have to glue one of the seals back on however. The drivers mat looked so good, I tried it on the passenger mat as well. The result was the same. It looked great. I placed them in the drier on "low heat". When they were dry, I sprayed them with ScotchGard and returned them to the car. Now the mats look almost better than the carpet. Howard

[Charlie B.]

Howard,

Thanks, I needed that.

Charlie

[Guest]

The best method I have found to clean the mats and the carpet is to use a Hoover Steam N Vac. Use the upolstery attachment. This is designed to clean carpet and as an added bonus you can clean the carpeting in your house. Also, you don't need to dasassemble the mats and there is no need to worry about any damage.

[Rawja]

Just to second Howard's method of floor mat cleaning, Both my dad's '87 Allante and my '88 Cimarron had floor mats of the 88-89 style (reversible with the grid) and in the owner's manuals it stated that they could be run through a washing machine. I don't know if its a great idea to do so for the 90-91 style mats as it could break down the bonding to the rubber under layer.