Hey Everyone,

Just thought I'd post a little update on my horrible first experience with the S40 I bought about a month ago. It experienced one of those bad sunroof leaks which made the original carpets smell of a musty odor. Had the car detailed and it would still not go away, so I decided to pay and have the carpets replaced. $1100 job.

Anyways, I was able to find three of the four carpet pieces (the ones with the actual foam padding underneath) new, and the last one (front passenger) from a used Volvo parts store. This last one is apparently in good shape and doesn't smell. Luckily, my upholstery guy also had sympathy for the situation and replaced ALL of the sunroof drainage tubes with new tubing. He did that for $300, which I think was fair. Since he's doing the carpet from start to finish, he told me he'd help out since he knew I didn't want to go through this again.

What an ordeal. The car looks and drives great, but had this interior issue and a lingering musty smell. I'm confident that after this, the smell will be gone. I'm thinking of having my upholstery guy paint the floorboard underneath the carpet, just to seal it up and prevent any rust, mold or mildew from appearing. I went and checked it out yesterday, and it looked clean (no rust), but after this I'm all too weary.

Comments appreciated!

 

lingering musty smell may actually be your HVAC system. Try changing the pollen filter and then see if your detailer will do a "fridgi fresh" treatment to remove mold in the ventilation tubing, heater core and AC evaporator. Not sure if the S40s have the same problem as the 850s with the evaporator drain clogging (again leading to retaining moisture around the AC.

 

Thanks for the tip. I will tell my mechanic about it. Also, today we will be disinfecting the floorboards with an anti-mold and mildew agent, just in case. There is no visible mole anywhere in the car, but I want to be safe.

 

If you are getting a syrup sweet smell, it may be the o-rings on your heater core going. These are fairly common to leak. If you pull back the carpet panel on the right side of the console, look for 2 parallel aluminum pipes behind the stack. There is a black plastic clamp on each. Look (feel) there for coolant leaking.

 

Oh, I spent a lot of money and time destroying the rotten smell in the car.
But it still seems to me that the problem is not solved...
Probably, this result is caused by the fact that I tried to solve the problem on my own. Maybe someone has contacts with special cleaning companies that specialize in cleaning car carpets? I'm wondering if cleaning companies that clean ordinary carpets can offer such a service? I remember when they were restoring the rug after a hell of a party at my house. I did not think that the consequences would be so large-scale. But my friends did a great job. I knew my parents were supposed to be back in 3 days. I couldn't clean the carpet myself. I just couldn't throw it away (my parents would have killed me). And I turned to carpet restoration services. Mentally, I was ready for my father and mother to scold me, but these guys did an incredible job. So I thought, once they did the impossible, maybe now they will help me with carpets.

 

Dude, you're obviously doing something wrong if the problem isn't solved.

 

That's a spammer.