Subaru Carpet Sucks.

H

HappyWax

New member
today: 2004 Scooby Forester Maroon exterior ....tan (uggg) interior



After 4 hours, I could NOT get the carpet to look good. Sorry no pics (I was too ashamed)



Process:

1. Vacuumed - (multiple passes, but the carpet is like Velcro on steroids)

2.Brushed...and brushed since the carpet was tan I could still see TONS of little debris -plus this carpet pills very easy.

3 Spot treated with biokleen traffic lane

4. Carpet extractor. -about 10 passes (AT LEAST) on the drivers side and I could still see dirt and discolored carpet.

5. Spot treated AGAIN with biokleen brushed in -let it sit 10 minutes

6. 1 more pass with extractor.

7. vacuum to fluff-



I could still see tons of dirt though- and the Subaru "tan" is very light -they might as well call it "white with some yellow we accidentally added."



I am wondering if my vacuum is not strong enough? OR if I am using the wrong type of brush? ? Or is the Biokleen not strong enough (this was my first time with biokleen) ?



notes: I did not use a solution in the carpet extractor, just straight water. (Mytee lite btw) I have read much of Grouse's (sp?) threads on carpet cleaning so I wouldn't consider myself a complete ignorant...



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PS. Subaru carpet pills like putting a Cashmere sweater on heavy duty cycle in washer, then drying on high temp...twice.

So cheap. grrrrr



EDIT** I love Subaru, I even bought the original 2.5 RS long before the WRX made Subaru cool...The carpet issue is one of my only complaints with Subaru (and the MT clutches )
 
i never cleaned Subaru carpet but I have vacuumed them (grey not tan) I don't remember it being any more or less difficult than any other car. Also, this car isn't cleaned regularly and the carpets did not peel or shed any fibers either....:think:
 
In certain areas, the carpet looked like those troll dolls from the 80s. -very long fur person-ish.



-looked like this BEFORE not after my treatment.
 
HappyWax said:
ggestion box



PS. Subaru carpet pills like putting a Cashmere sweater on heavy duty cycle in washer, then drying on high temp...twice.

So cheap. grrrrr
Click to expand...



LOL!!



I feel your pain. The best thing Subie owners can do is to get the rubber mats because the "carpet" they use is hopeless. I spent literally half a day on my drivers side floormat the other week. If I had not been doing the work for myself, I would have actually BOUGHT a new mat because the time lost on doing it would have cost me more money. No, I am not kidding.



Worst carpet and mats of any car manufacture I've ever seen.
 
SCoach said:
LOL!!



I feel your pain. The best thing Subie owners can do is to get the rubber mats because the "carpet" they use is hopeless. I spent literally half a day on my drivers side floormat the other week. If I had not been doing the work for myself, I would have actually BOUGHT a new mat because the time lost on doing it would have cost me more money. No, I am not kidding.



Worst carpet and mats of any car manufacture I've ever seen.
Click to expand...



+2 I have a client with the wrx (WAGON) very cool little car but the carpets are a friggin nightmare.Porsche trunk carpets I am no fan of either.
 
The only issue I have with my Subaru carpets on my '01 is I've had a hard time loosening the salt around the pedals. But other than that, it seems no worse than any other carpets. My '01 Toyota sucks like you wouldn't believe, I cannot get the smell or light stain out no matter what method I try. At first it smelled of the previous owner's dog, then last night my bf was commenting it had a scent of vomit. Lovely! I may take my neighbor up on his offer to use the professional carpet extractor he owns for his carpeting business. And as for the mats, BLECH! :hmph:



Saab carpeting seems to be of a different material and I didn't have fun trying to clean a few of the spots out of my 9-3 last year.
 
Any carpet, when neglected, can get to the point where it simply will not come completely clean. Years of ground in dirt and sand will damage the carpet fibers. When I run into this situation, I explain to the customer why it did not come clean. Usually they completely understand.
 
LOL, love the carpet description...



I've been cleaning the carpets in a rental house the past few days. So of course, I had to do a ton of reading on all the different extractors, wands, processes, and chemicals.



Autopian Grouse has a great thread here on cleaning carpets, and he recommends Prochem chemicals. The Prochem chemicals that I got are making quick work of rental house carpets. I'm using the following chemicals: Prochem Ultarapac Traffic lane Cleaner as a spray-on pre-treatment. Let it dwell for ten minutes, then extract with Prochem Liquid Slurry. Repeat until carpet is totally clean, then extract again using either Prochem All Fiber Rinse, or Prochem All Fiber Deep Clean.



The last step of using either of the All Fiber chems is optional. but IMO worth it. It's kinda like an LSP for carpet; it makes the nap soft, removes any "browning" caused by the alkaline cleaners, it neutralizes the alkaline cleaners and rinses them out of the carpet. Carpets treated with the All Fiber rinses just look and feel better.



You can buy their chems online at prochem.com. I got my order the very next day, as they will route the order to their nearest distributor, and they have distributors in every state.
 
HappyWax said:
In certain areas, the carpet looked like those troll dolls from the 80s. -very long fur person-ish.



-looked like this BEFORE not after my treatment.
Click to expand...



:har:



This is really interesting. I can't wait until I get my hands back on my aunt's '05 Forester and see what her carpet is like...
 
To me its not so much the cleaning of the carpets, as it is the vacuming.....Subaru had to have gone out of there way to find the Cheapest carpet in the Universe.They would have been better off putting Full-Rubber, kinda like the old plain jane work trucks.:spot
 
I own a WRX and vacuum about once a month and yeah it's kind of a pain. But I find if I keep up like once a month it doesn't get so entrapped in the fibers that it's ok.



I also bought the rubber floor mats when I got the car which with the salt around here, it's much needed.
 
I feel the same way about most VW's. Some models have a decent carpet, but some have the "velcro on steroids" things going on and I absolutely hate working on them.
 
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