Walker231T

I recently purchased a 2003 LS 430 and the carpet is very soiled and dirty. It has coffee stains, a milk shake was spill in the back by kids. I would like to remove the carpet and power spray it and try a good shampoo and scrubbing to see if I can get the stains out and looking good again but if I can't I'm going to replace it. I've done several searches but could find an answer to... Does the center console have to come out? I've found references to getting the front seats out....just take the 4 bolts out and undo the connections. The back seat is just a matter of pulling the bottom up and out of the slots it in correct?

I found this post - https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...t-removal.html
But this is for a 1st gen SC. Is there a tutorial for our cars that I'm just not finding? Thank you for any help.

rkw77080

Please take a look at the attached... It looks like a pretty big job!

Salsaman06

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wow.

Walker231T

HOLY SMOKE!! That is a major job! I may try to shampoo it in the car and see if I can get the stains out.

Thank you very much for that link.

FatherTo1

Walker, have you tried a product called Folex? It's available at Home Depot or Amazon. Works amazingly well on carpet stains! I was prepping our Sienna for sale and the previous owner had spilled coffee in the car. I only noticed the stain after owning the Sienna for four years! It was in that space between the driver's seat and center console. Very hard to access. Fortunately I was able to pop off the center console and the Folex completely removed the coffee stain that was at least four years old!

The trick is to blot and not rub too much. I used probably a quarter roll of paper towels to soak up all the nasty coffee residue but the point is the Folex worked like magic with minimal effort and without discoloring the original carpet color. We have since used Folex to remove all sorts of carpet stains caused by our 5-year-old. Hope that helps.

Salsaman06

Second that. This is an incredible product. I have used this on beige carpet in the house. Didn't even think about auto carpet but it should work just a well.

tallcaguy

Any aroma? Most cleaning products have scents.

FatherTo1

It smells nice and fresh and not strong. It's not a floral scent or anything like that, just a fresh clean scent. I prefer it to the smell of many other products you'd find at the autoparts store.

Walker231T

Have never hear of it but will give it a shot. hopefully that will do the trick and I won't have to get into tearing the whole interior out. Thank you very much for the tip.

LSGarry

Thumbs up on Folex also. Works like magic on red wine which I tend to spill a lot but not in the car mind you.

tallcaguy

Any difference driving the 02 vs 05? If the 02 has 17's and the 05 has 18's, that's going to make a difference. Ever drive a older Base w/ 5 speed? I just sold mine. Lots of subtle differences. I call Sport "luxury sport" and Base "luxury plush". The 04 Sport feels faster. Some of that is the different trans/differential ratios. Some of it is probably the increased road feedback. I'm running 17's with soft Premiers since I had them sitting around. Would Premiers on 18's be a good idea? Goal is sharper handling but keep most of the comfort of the Base. I'm going to drive (maybe buy) an '06 Base. Curious to see what the 18's feel like. It will probably have the "standard" tires (Michelins)

LSGarry

We're hijacking this thread.

If you want sharper handling than I would go with Michelin Pilots or Pirelli equivalent.
Both of mine were CPO cars and the '05 came with Pilots. The handling differences were subtle but definitely noticeable along with more road feel with the Pilots. Alot of it was because of the lower profile of the 18's on the '05 compared to the higher sidewall of the 17's on the '02. When the '02 needed new tires I put Primacys on and loved the soft ride and long life so when it came for new tires on the '05 I put primacys on also as I'm not a boy racer but do enjoy the flat handling of the sport suspension as opposed to the body roll of the non-sport.
A buddy who traded from a '99 LS 400 to an '05 Merc S 430 challenged me to an autocross comparison of his against mine. I took him up on it and brought the '05 to the track with the tires pumped up to 43 psi and the skid control off. It was fun doing it and I learned a lot. The PA announcer introduced us as the "Chauffeured Division" lol in the end tho I beat his best time by over 4 seconds. The Primacys did their job but the Pilots would have been even better as the Primacys lost traction every now and then when they were really pushed.

I still like Folex and use it regularly on the carpets.

tallcaguy

Apologies to everyone on the hijack. Sounds like the Folex works well. I'll try it on my tires..oops, I mean on the carpets we're discussing. Thanks for feedback on tires and the car generally. MUCH appreciated as I just bought my Sports. Not into Eagle GT's or similar. The race track story is great. Premier seems to be pretty much the standard Primacy replacement. Is there some way to access Sports related messages long term? In the meantime, I'll check out the Folex. Actually do need to clean dirty mats.

Walker231T

I purchased some Folex Saturday and took the seats out, did a good vacuum of the carpet then used the Folex on the stains. That stuff works GREAT! It got 95% of all the stains out. There were only a few spots I couldn't get out I think it may have ink, they were red and blue spots, but it got the coffee and milkshake stains out...no problem. Thanks for the tip FatherTo1!

FatherTo1

Glad to hear the Folex worked out well for you, Walker231T. I believe Folex claims to get blood stains out too but fortunately we've never had to test out that use case at home nor in the car.