On 23/12/2019 14:11, The Other Mike wrote:
On Sun, 22 Dec 2019 14:28:28 +0000, newshound
wrote:
Had this problem in my CX days. (That has very thick moulded foam all
around the floors). Only solution, remove seats. Remove carpets. Remove
foam.
If only things were always still so simple!
After the front to back wiring loom the carpets might be the very next
thing fitted on the production line, often in one piece, and besides
the obvious things like the seats removing the carpet might also
entail the removal of much of the trim, centre console and mind
boggling the removal of the dash, which then might mean the degassing
of the aircon. A two minute install of a carpet on the production
line can easily translate to 30+ hours of work at a dealer and 650
euros for the carpet.
One could for instance back a car into a location on a very sunny day,
wind down a window to ease positioning of the car close to a wall and
then accidentally leave that a window open for a day or two, with
torrential rains overnight and then have a saturated seat and an inch
or two of water in the footwell and then think it's an easy job to
remove the carpets and then find the above situation. DAMHIKT 
The running of a dehumidifier for a few weeks was the easiest option
and while that dried things out there was an enduring stench of what
resembled a cross between rotten milk and bubble gum coming from the
carpets and seats. It's hopefully now fixed after lots of repeat
applications of carpet cleaner and upholstery cleaner.
Believe me, while the odour of once damp carpet is bad enough, the odour
of carpet that has been subjected to milk is in whole different league!
When our middle son was just old enough to hold a bottle and drink from
it himself, he left a half-full bottle, teat down, in the hole in the
seat that the centre rear seatbelt emerges from.
A few weeks later a part-full 6-pint bottle of milk was accidentally
left in the boot for some time. While shopping, we returned to the car
and heard a hissing in the boot. Before I could stop her, my wife
prodded the bottle, which blew the cap off and exploded over the boot
carpet
SteveW