Now that the snow is melting up here in Vermont, I am trying to figure out how to get some salt stains out of my carpet... they are mostly on the passenger side footwell due to some careless guests.

I've already tried a standard upholstery cleaner from the auto parts store and all it did was spread it around. I tried spraying it, letting it sit, blotting it, spraying again, blotting, then scrubbing.

Am I going to have to steam clean this? If so, I'm not sure how I'm going to do that, because I don't have access to that kind of equipment. I would probably be willing to invest in a smaller system, though.

i got the same problem on front two seat floor carpets, last year i got a little bit of it out by scrubbing it with a kitchen knife lol. and i got most of the chunky parts out. but the mark was still there.

Let it dry. Shop vac and a stiff brush. Then damp cloth.

Invest in some Husky liners...

Use your tub and submerge them in warm water for a few minitues using your hands to aggitate. Make sure you get them dried asap after this process using a fan or wet vac to get out the water. It may take more then one attempt.

how can i submerge the carpet from the jeep lol, un less i take it it to the lake:p.

Agree, let it thoroughly dry and brush and vacuum it. Should come out, it works for me.

From the DIY website:

Removing Salt Residue

Ingredients and Materials:

1 part water
1 part white vinegar
Spray bottle
Cloths

Mix a 50/50 solution of the water and vinegar. Spray it onto the salt and really saturate it. Take your cloth and blot, blot, blot until all the salt is removed. You may have to do this a couple of times. You may want to take your carpet spotter and go over it one last time.

Seems like a practical thing to try.

I was thinking maybe a little red wine; some for the salt, a lot for you. Should make it a lot less noticeable. ;)

lol. only applies to removable floor mats.

I use heavy duty rubber floor mats on top of the carpeting so there`s no problem taking them out and washing them from time to time, no salt, mud or any other stains on the carpeting :)

Buy a cheap steamer like you would use to steam your clothes (ironing sucks!). I used to work at a kind of drive through detail shop and we used to steam and extract with a shop vac at the same time to remove salt. It was also a pretty high pressure steamer so the one I bought at macys might have to stick to anti-wrinkle duty. If I remember Ill try it out tomorrow after work and post back

Thanks for all your suggestions! Yeah, this is the carpet on the car itself - I do have good rubber mats but this salt is almost on the side of the footwell, not so much the floor. The dry brush & vacuum method seemed to be working well last night, though I didn't have much time to mess with it.

Yeah, the mats don't cover everything. My left foot rest is filthy. too.

You'll need something to neutralize the salt or else it will keep coming back time and time again and spread. Vinegar as mentioned above will work, but can leave a smell. Look up a janitorial supplier and ask for a salt neutralizing product.

I have a Bissell Spotbot that I bought because I have a dog and a small child, the manual cleaning option works the best for the carpet itself and the automatic part works great on the mats too. I find the trick is to make sure you get everything dry before it dries itself or else you just spread it around and make it worse....done that many times :(

Before that, it was a scrub brush, diluted vinegar and my shop vac.