How To Deep-Clean The Carpet In Your Jeep

The Jeep brand of vehicles has long been associated with the go-anywhere lifestyle. 

For years, Jeeps have been the prized vehicle for offroad adventures such as mudding, rock crawling, or overland travels.

While these adventures are a lot of fun, they are also extremely dirty. 

For this reason, I decided to write this article detailing how to deep-clean a very, very dirty Jeep’s interior.

How To Deep-Clean The Carpet In Your Jeep

When the carpeting in your Jeep is extra dirty, you can consider breaking out your powerwasher to deep-clean your carpets. It’s a complicated and dirty process to do correctly, but by protecting your electronics, removing your drain plug, and power washing away the grime, you’ll be able to restore even the dirtiest of Jeep carpets.

I have used all three of these methods and they all work depending on the severity of dirt, mud, or gunk caked into your dirty Jeep carpet.

#1 – Extreme Carpet Cleaning For Your Jeep

Break out the pressure washer! Yes, that’s right. 

For a really dirty automotive carpet we might need the extra power of a pressure washer to get the interior carpet of our Jeeps clean.

I have used a pressure washer to clean out two of my Jeeps. I pressure washed the carpet in my 1987 Jeep Grand Wagoneer and I also had to use one to wash the inside of a Jeep Wrangler I purchased off eBay that was absolutely disgusting.

The seller said it needed a little interior cleaning… he didn’t say I would be power washing animal poo and what I suspect might have been a flood vehicle.

I’ll leave that Jeep for another story, but let’s just say it was terrible. I would not let my kids or wife near the inside of that Jeep until I had deep cleaned it all very well.

How To Clean Extremely Dirty Jeep Carpet

Just know you can do part or all of these steps based on your judgment, but this is how I have done it for the best results.

Step #1: Remove the seats and carpet

Remove the seats and carpet from the vehicle and lay it to the side.

For Jeep Wranglers, Jeep Gladiators, and other Jeep models with drain plugs, follow steps #2, #3, and #4.

Step #2: Pull The Drain Plugs

Now that the carpet and seats are out, pull the drain plugs. If you own a Wagoneer, Cherokee or other Jeep model, you might not have drain plugs.

Step #3: Cover your steering wheel, dash, and electronics in plastic

Put plastic over your steering wheel, dash, and electronics. 

Tape it down and make sure no water can get behind the plastic to ruin your electronics. 

You will not directly hit this area with water, but you want to be careful. 

Water and electronics usually don’t go well together… just sayin’

Step #4 Rinse out the mud, dirt, and grime

Rise out the mud, dirt, and grime still inside the floorboards and down the open drains of the Jeep with a water hose using light to moderate pressure. 

You want to use just enough water to rinse off the mud, but not so much as to splatter it all over the windows and sides of your Jeep.

Step #5 Wipe out the mud, dirt, and grime

If you don’t have drain plugs, this is where you need to get all the gunk off of the floorboards. 

If you did rinse everything out with a hose, you will still probably have some grime to get off.

Use a shop towel and some all-purpose cleaner like simple green, purple power, etc. to get the job done.

I like to use these high-quality shop paper towels from Amazon.

I can believe it is so cheap to get 200 of these to use around the shop.

Last update on 2023-06-05 / If you click this affiliate link and make a purchase, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

PS: These paper towels also work great for soaking up bacon grease when you cook bacon for the family or better yet when you are camping in your Jeep!

Step #6 Pre-Soak Your Carpet and Seats

Lay out your carpet and seats in the driveway and pre-soak any stains or spots that you think will be especially stubborn.

You can use an all-purpose cleaner or a dedicated carpet solution.

I first used Simple Green all-purpose cleaner/degreaser

Last update on 2023-06-05 / If you click this affiliate link and make a purchase, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

I started by soaking any set-in stains and providing a good covering of the carpet.

Then followed it up with Folex Carpet Cleaner for any remaining stains

Last update on 2023-06-05 / If you click this affiliate link and make a purchase, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

If you have a Jeep Wrangler, chances are your interior will be getting wet or muddy. 

These two things often lead to your Jeep interior smelling like a high school locker room.

If your Jeep smells anything like my high school locker room did after football practice, you may not be able to stand driving around in your Jeep.

The reason Jeep carpet starts to smell so bad is moisture gets into the carpet, and the jute heat barrier under the carpet and it starts to mildew and mold.

If you have a Jeep Wrangler and you don’t want the constant headache of cleaning the carpet in your Jeep, remove it!

Sure you could rip it out and go without anything, but the heat that will radiate from under your Jeep may be more than you would like.

I didn’t like riding around in my wrangler without some heat barrier so I found two great options that are super easy to clean, they look great and it also is much easier to clean when you get it dirty… and you know you will be getting your Wrangler dirty, right?

Related Questions:

How Do I Clean Mud Out Of My Jeep?

How do I clean mud out of my Jeep? Cover your steering wheel, dash, and electronics with plastic, remove your carpet, pull the drain plugs (if you have a Wrangler), and hose it all down with soap and water.