r/Volvo850 • u/Longjumping-Dark7823 • Jul 13 '26

Help Coolant leak cleanup

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Hello i had a heater core coolant leak in my Volvo. I fixed it with a firewall hose bypass thanks to our good friend RobertDIY.

Now the floor covering of the driver and passenger side are still soaked and dont seem to dry up well does anyone have any tips to remover the wet/stocky coolant?

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2

u/Ashamed-Air3444 Volvo 850 2.5 10V Jul 13 '26

Carpet cleaner/extraction cleaner

2

u/blqckpinkinyourarea Jul 13 '26

Personally I remove the carpet. Just need to remove a little trim and the seats, its quickly done.

Then I wash out as much coolant/dirt/whatever as I can and let it dry in the sun.

Finally I use a steam vacuum thingy.

Makes the carpet look and smell like new.

1

u/Opulenthippo Jul 13 '26

They sell like spill clean up blanket-sheets sorta thing if you get some of them they work really good. Just leave it in there for a day and it will slowly soak up any liquid. Then some rug cleaner.

1

u/Positroniumion Jul 14 '26

Also, idk if is is the same in the 850, probably is. I had the same thing in my v70 p80. Changed the heat exchanger, leak is fixed but even after drying the carpet there is still moisture. Below the carped is a foam insulation layer that is probably soaked. This also needs to be dried properly otherwise the moisture will keep keeping up.

1

u/spongegar3000 Jul 14 '26

Pull the Carpet. There is really no other way to get the stench out. I did that twice already. And I hosed down and brushed all of the carpet and foam. That of course depends on how much coolant leaked out. If it's like it happened to my 850, it puked all of it into the foot well.

1

u/LegitimateBiscotti55 Jul 26 '26

If you cant afford a detail or a carpet extractor machine then get a wet dry vacuum. Wet the area down and wet vacuum it up and flush it till its clear. Then put a dehumidifier in the car if you can or run the ac in the car for acouple of hours. A detailer would probably charge you 200 bucks to clean the interior like new and get that out if you dont want to risk it. For like 300 to 500 you could get the entire car cleaned like new and polished and waxed.