General Vomit

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General Vomit

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That got your attention...:)

Anyway, I've seen a 500L, diesel, 86k, MPW, that is for sale. Internally its been covered in vomit. I mean, how does one person vomit that much? If I were to buy it then I'd have to clean 5 seats, would the vomit ever come out? I seem to remember it being a permanent fixture and only new seats would get rid of the smell.

And are 500L MPW diesels any good?
 
The other half's mother has one that we bought to ferry her ailing mother about, it's performed fine in the 9 months she's had it or so, being the 1.3 it's not exactly quick; but does her alright.

Rent, or buy a carpet cleaner (Vax on Black Friday perhaps) and give the seats a good couple of going overs, You can buy enzyme cleaners which kill off most smells.

I'm keen to see exactly how much vomit 🤢
 
Here are some pics :D

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That is quite a bit! It wouldn't put me off having a go, if the car were cheap enough.

I'd strip the seats out completely to make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies.

The seats foams are generally closed cell so wouldn't have absorbed much, I reckon, if you could strip the covers you could put them in a cool wash.
 
That got your attention...:)

Anyway, I've seen a 500L, diesel, 86k, MPW, that is for sale. Internally its been covered in vomit. I mean, how does one person vomit that much? If I were to buy it then I'd have to clean 5 seats, would the vomit ever come out? I seem to remember it being a permanent fixture and only new seats would get rid of the smell.

And are 500L MPW diesels any good?
It needs new seats, but £500 would sort it. Bet it needs carpet too. You didnt have to post the pix...... 🤢
 
That is quite a bit! It wouldn't put me off having a go, if the car were cheap enough.

I'd strip the seats out completely to make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies.

The seats foams are generally closed cell so wouldn't have absorbed much, I reckon, if you could strip the covers you could put them in a cool wash.

Not sure if the covers come off, but i'd think so, then deffo cold wash, or they might shrink...:)

It needs new seats, but £500 would sort it. Bet it needs carpet too.

I found seats on ebay, hundreds, yes.


You didnt have to post the pix...... 🤢

My wife just saw them and had a similar reaction....
 
Not sure if the covers come off, but i'd think so, then deffo cold wash, or they might shrink...:)



I found seats on ebay, hundreds, yes.




My wife just saw them and had a similar reaction....
Most seat covers will peel off with care. You need to get spray adhesive to replace. New seats may well loose bits of foam that pull off with the covers however. Watch wheeler dealers for a how to they have done a few. Ive done the odd few old seats and teh covers came off OK.
 
I'm tempted by this car, i mean, i could clean them, and if it really didn't stop smelling buy new.

I've also never owned a diesel and i'm somewhat concerned that sooner or later either me or wife will put petrol in it, or vice versa with one of the other cars.
 
Vomitus, removed by removing seat covers and leaving them in a deep steep, then washing at 40c. Vomitus in the air vents impossible to remove the smell. Unless you remove the whole system.

Had to do this multiple times, and It was mostly my brother in laws Panda back seat and carpet.

Puppies, I hate them. Mostly diarrhea as well. My sister thanked me. Sorry don't have any photos of an exorcist's dog.
 
Vomitus, removed by removing seat covers and leaving them in a deep steep, then washing at 40c. Vomitus in the air vents impossible to remove the smell. Unless you remove the whole system.

Had to do this multiple times, and It was mostly my brother in laws Panda back seat and carpet.

Puppies, I hate them. Mostly diarrhea as well. My sister thanked me. Sorry don't have any photos of an exorcist's dog.
The vents? Where are they? I've never thought aout them.
 
No matter how much you clean it, or replace seat covers, and even the internal foam, the smell will always be there, even if only feint. If you have small children, your nose might be used to it, otherwise, it may perpetually annoy you.
When I worked in the trade, whenever a young couple with children came in with a trade-in, the salesman would stick his head inside and sniff. Any hint of vomit, and the value plummeted, as we could only sell it to another young couple with children. We had two lads in the valeting bay, who were brilliant. They'd strip out the seats and carpets, strip the covers off the seats, steam clean the covers, carpets and foam, and dry them out over a few days, then refit. And still there'd be a hint of vomit.
 
If its the 1.3 Multijet, as much as I love that engine, it is just not powerful enough for the 500L MPW. That being said if you are used to driving asthmatic Grandes with the 77hp 1.4 engine, nothing gets worse than that.

I have to agree with many of the comments above, if the car is full of vomit.. Which it is, it is unlikely you will ever get rid of the smell.

Nielsen Low Foam is a product we used to carry when I worked in the trade, I seem to remember that had some Enzymes and other powerful cleaning agents in it. I am sure some 20 years on it would be even better now, but you would need a proper carpet/upholstery cleaner to do a proper job.

Seats and carpets out would be my advice.
 
No matter how much you clean it, or replace seat covers, and even the internal foam, the smell will always be there, even if only feint. If you have small children, your nose might be used to it, otherwise, it may perpetually annoy you.
When I worked in the trade, whenever a young couple with children came in with a trade-in, the salesman would stick his head inside and sniff. Any hint of vomit, and the value plummeted, as we could only sell it to another young couple with children. We had two lads in the valeting bay, who were brilliant. They'd strip out the seats and carpets, strip the covers off the seats, steam clean the covers, carpets and foam, and dry them out over a few days, then refit. And still there'd be a hint of vomit.
I get this. I bought my Evo without realising it's had a dog in it. The seats were cleaned but occasionally I still get a faint whiff.

My GP had an old man's aftershave smell for months after I bought it. I never cleaned the seats because it didn't smell awful, very rarely do I notice that these days.

If its the 1.3 Multijet, as much as I love that engine, it is just not powerful enough for the 500L MPW. That being said if you are used to driving asthmatic Grandes with the 77hp 1.4 engine, nothing gets worse than that.

I have to agree with many of the comments above, if the car is full of vomit.. Which it is, it is unlikely you will ever get rid of the smell.

Nielsen Low Foam is a product we used to carry when I worked in the trade, I seem to remember that had some Enzymes and other powerful cleaning agents in it. I am sure some 20 years on it would be even better now, but you would need a proper carpet/upholstery cleaner to do a proper job.

Seats and carpets out would be my advice.
The car above is a 1.6 diesel, I couldn't guess about the engine type because I'm too unfamiliar with the fiat diesels.

My Evo is 77HP and GP 65HP.. The acceleration profile of the Evo isn't flat, so it does appear to be asthmatic! The GP is slower but no wheezing.

My wife bought a carpet cleaner to get rid of the dog smell, but the machine isn't very good.
 
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The car above is a 1.6 diesel, I couldn't guess about the engine type because I'm too unfamiliar with the fiat diesels.

My Evo is 77HP and GP 65HP.. The acceleration profile of the Evo isn't flat, so it does appear to be asthmatic! The GP is slower but no wheezing.

My wife bought a carpet cleaner to get rid of the dog smell, but the machine isn't very good.
Same engine that was in my Punto Evo Sporting, but de-tuned to somewhere around 100hp. (I forget the exact figure)

One thing I would say is that the 1.6 is basically a Van engine and is quite loud and rattlely by modern diesel standards. can get moving but I would think a 0-60 is around ?9-10 seconds, not sure without looking it up but its still probably a bit quicker than your current EVO and GP and would probably use less fuel especially if you have a decent commute to work.

Anything less than a 20 - 30 minute drive to work then its not worth the hassle the DPF will quickly clog and you'll spend your time chasing faults on that.
 
Same engine that was in my Punto Evo Sporting, but de-tuned to somewhere around 100hp. (I forget the exact figure)

One thing I would say is that the 1.6 is basically a Van engine and is quite loud and rattlely by modern diesel standards. can get moving but I would think a 0-60 is around ?9-10 seconds, not sure without looking it up but its still probably a bit quicker than your current EVO and GP and would probably use less fuel especially if you have a decent commute to work.

Anything less than a 20 - 30 minute drive to work then its not worth the hassle the DPF will quickly clog and you'll spend your time chasing faults on that.
It's interesting you mention fuel economy, I've been meaning to do some calcs but haven't got around to it. On the surface the extra cost of diesel per litre would seem to cancel out the advantage of higher mpg.

I'm currently thinking about getting a 500L, Tipo or similar. So I need to look at savings I could make, and which engine.
 
You could easily do a bit of maths and work out what would be cheaper.

Say you had 12 gallon tank which is not too far off a normal size.

Right now petrol is about 1.30 and diesel about 1.35.

So a tank of petrol would be £70.82 and a tank of diesel £73.55

A petrol doing 45mpg would do about 540 miles on a tank
A diesel doing 50mpg would do about 600 miles on a tank

So fuel wise a petrol would cost about 13.1p per mile
A diesel would cost about 12.2p per mile

It’s not a huge difference, maybe a saving on fuel of £90 a year if you do 10k miles a year.

Depending on when it was made and how it is registered the road fund licence can be drastically cheaper my Punto was £30 a year versus a petrol version which could be up to £150, so you could technically save more on tax than on the cost of fuel.

I have owned diesels continuously for the last 15 or so years and I have never found service costs to be any higher. It’s still just oil and filters, and I have not found them to be unreliable in any way which are the arguments a lot of people like to make.
Right now diesels can be bought cheaper than petrols as well, so there are plenty of savings to be made.
 
If you did buy the vomit machine
I think that name might stick lol

You could easily do a bit of maths and work out what would be cheaper.

Say you had 12 gallon tank which is not too far off a normal size.

Right now petrol is about 1.30 and diesel about 1.35.

So a tank of petrol would be £70.82 and a tank of diesel £73.55

A petrol doing 45mpg would do about 540 miles on a tank
A diesel doing 50mpg would do about 600 miles on a tank

So fuel wise a petrol would cost about 13.1p per mile
A diesel would cost about 12.2p per mile

It’s not a huge difference, maybe a saving on fuel of £90 a year if you do 10k miles a year.

Depending on when it was made and how it is registered the road fund licence can be drastically cheaper my Punto was £30 a year versus a petrol version which could be up to £150, so you could technically save more on tax than on the cost of fuel.

I have owned diesels continuously for the last 15 or so years and I have never found service costs to be any higher. It’s still just oil and filters, and I have not found them to be unreliable in any way which are the arguments a lot of people like to make.
Right now diesels can be bought cheaper than petrols as well, so there are plenty of savings to be made.
Thanks for that! So diesels are still cheaper mile for mile. I guess this stands to reason, because a lorry uses diesel. Having read your post a couple of times i'm thinking i could have fallen into the trap of thinking diesels are much more unreliable than they really are, based upon internet chat, which isn't always the best informed.

I'm going to give the vomit car a miss. I'm still interested in buying a 500L though, i could do with the extra boot space.

Now i'm researching the different engines in the 500L, the 0.9 TA gets a lot of mention, i'm fairly dubious about its purported high mpg.
 
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