Bought my LX in December. Was waiting for it to warm up enough to do a deep clean of interior and carpets. Finally got to it this weekend. Thanks to the amazing cup holders in the 200, there were stains down the carpet on both driver and passenger side, coffee for the driver and slurpee for the passenger. Removed the following parts to begin work.
Leaving me with this to deal with.
The carpet under 2nd row didn't look so bad so i didn't bother pulling the other 2nd row seat. The truck has always had a strong chemical/cleaner smell since i bought it. It has dissipated a little since I've had it, but not enough that I was happy with the odor. Opening a door after the car has sat for a bit always offered an alarming wash of chemical smell. After purchase i also discovered a leak through the HVAC air intake into the passenger floorboard. I suspect the dealer had also found this and sprayed a bunch of something to make sure the truck never smelled mildew-y. Or possibly just years of Lexus Dealer "care" of spraying shampoo into the carpets and never cleaning it up.
The below is what happened after I sprayed water (no soap) into the floor board and swashed it around with my hand. The passenger side was the worst, but most of the carpet was like this. I used 10 gallons of water from a 2gallon sprayer and my shop vac to try to remove all this soap and really could have done more, just got tired of doing it.
On the plus side, getting all the soap out made a huge improvement on the odor in the vehicle. I could still smell a hint of it when really trying, but now it just smells like someone sprayed a little deodorizer after a car wash and not like you were swimming in chemicals. Also scrubbed all the plastics down with an enzymatic cleaner (normally for pet odors) but worked great here. (Angry Orange Citrus Pet Odor Eliminator) I'm sure it was great for odors as well, but it really cut through the grime on all the plastic pieces. Even one's i had already "cleaned" previously with regular soap/water, came out looking brand new. It's amazing how much stuff looks worn out and sun beaten, but turns out to just be dirty, and once cleaned looks brand new again. I was not able to get out any of the slurpee stains, or the yellow coffee stains. I was a little hesitant to really get a lot of water in either of those areas with all the electronics under the carpet there.
Here's the finished for now product, pretty hard to see once interior is back in and certainly can't see the smell. But it's a marked improvement.
After I finished, I looked up a picture of the factory carpet, and now think that I was one seat and a few vent registers away from where I could have just slid out the whole carpet (I assumed the console would need to come out originally, but see now that it is cut around the console). I suspect if I ever do that, I'll probably replace it as there are tears in the carpet in front of both passenger seats. Also, the previous weekend I installed 2013 style floor mat clips so that I could use the new model floor mats, since there seem to be more factory and aftermarket options for the new style. Right now i have the OEM dark brown All Weather floor mats. They look the part and the material (rubber) is nicer than the "liner" style plasticky mats. They don't provide a lot of coverage, so if you want real protection they don't offer much.
Next on my list for interior stuff is to start soaking the leather in conditioner over the next few weeks and see if I can improve on the terrible die job the dealership did while they were trying to sell the truck (it even shows up on the carfax, if I had done this work, i don't think I'd be proud of it..). You can see it in the above pictures, notice the arm rest top is completely different color than the sides, and a lot of that going on with the front seats as well. There was also a ton of overspray on the plastic of the seats where the controls are. The cleaner listed above took care of that though.
Anyone have thoughts on a good leather conditioner for leather that has seen better days? Probably going to order the Chemical Guys Leather cleaner/conditioner kit. Luckily, I have no tears, just some cracking in the dye. So I'm hoping if i can get the leather back to soft, that it will look/feel better and I can decide from there if i care to try to get it all one color again and repair any cracking.
Leaving me with this to deal with.
The carpet under 2nd row didn't look so bad so i didn't bother pulling the other 2nd row seat. The truck has always had a strong chemical/cleaner smell since i bought it. It has dissipated a little since I've had it, but not enough that I was happy with the odor. Opening a door after the car has sat for a bit always offered an alarming wash of chemical smell. After purchase i also discovered a leak through the HVAC air intake into the passenger floorboard. I suspect the dealer had also found this and sprayed a bunch of something to make sure the truck never smelled mildew-y. Or possibly just years of Lexus Dealer "care" of spraying shampoo into the carpets and never cleaning it up.
The below is what happened after I sprayed water (no soap) into the floor board and swashed it around with my hand. The passenger side was the worst, but most of the carpet was like this. I used 10 gallons of water from a 2gallon sprayer and my shop vac to try to remove all this soap and really could have done more, just got tired of doing it.
On the plus side, getting all the soap out made a huge improvement on the odor in the vehicle. I could still smell a hint of it when really trying, but now it just smells like someone sprayed a little deodorizer after a car wash and not like you were swimming in chemicals. Also scrubbed all the plastics down with an enzymatic cleaner (normally for pet odors) but worked great here. (Angry Orange Citrus Pet Odor Eliminator) I'm sure it was great for odors as well, but it really cut through the grime on all the plastic pieces. Even one's i had already "cleaned" previously with regular soap/water, came out looking brand new. It's amazing how much stuff looks worn out and sun beaten, but turns out to just be dirty, and once cleaned looks brand new again. I was not able to get out any of the slurpee stains, or the yellow coffee stains. I was a little hesitant to really get a lot of water in either of those areas with all the electronics under the carpet there.
Here's the finished for now product, pretty hard to see once interior is back in and certainly can't see the smell. But it's a marked improvement.
After I finished, I looked up a picture of the factory carpet, and now think that I was one seat and a few vent registers away from where I could have just slid out the whole carpet (I assumed the console would need to come out originally, but see now that it is cut around the console). I suspect if I ever do that, I'll probably replace it as there are tears in the carpet in front of both passenger seats. Also, the previous weekend I installed 2013 style floor mat clips so that I could use the new model floor mats, since there seem to be more factory and aftermarket options for the new style. Right now i have the OEM dark brown All Weather floor mats. They look the part and the material (rubber) is nicer than the "liner" style plasticky mats. They don't provide a lot of coverage, so if you want real protection they don't offer much.
Next on my list for interior stuff is to start soaking the leather in conditioner over the next few weeks and see if I can improve on the terrible die job the dealership did while they were trying to sell the truck (it even shows up on the carfax, if I had done this work, i don't think I'd be proud of it..). You can see it in the above pictures, notice the arm rest top is completely different color than the sides, and a lot of that going on with the front seats as well. There was also a ton of overspray on the plastic of the seats where the controls are. The cleaner listed above took care of that though.
Anyone have thoughts on a good leather conditioner for leather that has seen better days? Probably going to order the Chemical Guys Leather cleaner/conditioner kit. Luckily, I have no tears, just some cracking in the dye. So I'm hoping if i can get the leather back to soft, that it will look/feel better and I can decide from there if i care to try to get it all one color again and repair any cracking.
