Interior Flood - Tips and Advice Please
Discussion
On Saturday I had no choice but to drive through a "puddle" which turned out to be deeper than I expected. The upshot is that the interior of my car had about 1.5 inches of water swilling about the floor for a few mins.
Most of the water quickly drained away/was soaked up by the floor-mats and my passenger's coat. Drove the rest of the journey home (60 miles) with the heater on full to try and dry things out. When I got home I put the car in the garage, removed the mats, mopped up the rest of the water on the floor and left the windows open.
Yesterday night I checked on the car and sprayed the seat-rails/bolts with WD40 and gave them a bit of a wipe.
The small mats behind the seats are still damp (particularly the passenger side as I can't really get to it). The thin strip of "carpet" that is stuck to the sills is a little damp on its bottom edge.
Luckily there have been no electrical gremlins, warning lights, etc., so I think I may have got away with this. However, I am unsure as to whether I will have caused any lasting damage.
Any advice welcome. Thanks
TT
Edited to read a bit better
Most of the water quickly drained away/was soaked up by the floor-mats and my passenger's coat. Drove the rest of the journey home (60 miles) with the heater on full to try and dry things out. When I got home I put the car in the garage, removed the mats, mopped up the rest of the water on the floor and left the windows open.
Yesterday night I checked on the car and sprayed the seat-rails/bolts with WD40 and gave them a bit of a wipe.
The small mats behind the seats are still damp (particularly the passenger side as I can't really get to it). The thin strip of "carpet" that is stuck to the sills is a little damp on its bottom edge.
Luckily there have been no electrical gremlins, warning lights, etc., so I think I may have got away with this. However, I am unsure as to whether I will have caused any lasting damage.
Any advice welcome. Thanks
TT
Edited to read a bit better
Edited by theturbs on Tuesday 16th December 16:14
I'd be inclined to take the seats out (they unbolt without too much difficulty), remove all carpets and then give the inside a thorough wash-down with warm, mildly-soapy water then rinse with plenty of clean water.
Even clean-looking 'puddle' water isn't clean (especially with roads being salted at this time of year) and any residues - especially in tiny gaps (eg. floor-to-sill areas) can start crevice corrosion.
Dehumidifyer after that is an excellent suggestion and I'd also suggest giving it a wipe over with ACF-50 anti-corrosion liquid.
This is the stuff Lotus used for the floor corrosion problem and is widely used in the aircraft industry for preventing aluminium airframe corrosion. Costs about £12 for a large spray can on eBay or from your local aero club
Rinse any fabric trim with fresh water, too. If you can get the trim off, all the better so you can make sure nothing's left behind these (precisely the cause of the aforementioned floor corrosion - residues under the badly-fixed 'soundproofing' mats).
Apologies if that all sounds a bit over the top but shouldn't take more than a couple of hours 'happy time' in the garage and will ensure you've no immediate or future probs!!!
Even clean-looking 'puddle' water isn't clean (especially with roads being salted at this time of year) and any residues - especially in tiny gaps (eg. floor-to-sill areas) can start crevice corrosion.
Dehumidifyer after that is an excellent suggestion and I'd also suggest giving it a wipe over with ACF-50 anti-corrosion liquid.
This is the stuff Lotus used for the floor corrosion problem and is widely used in the aircraft industry for preventing aluminium airframe corrosion. Costs about £12 for a large spray can on eBay or from your local aero club
Rinse any fabric trim with fresh water, too. If you can get the trim off, all the better so you can make sure nothing's left behind these (precisely the cause of the aforementioned floor corrosion - residues under the badly-fixed 'soundproofing' mats).
Apologies if that all sounds a bit over the top but shouldn't take more than a couple of hours 'happy time' in the garage and will ensure you've no immediate or future probs!!!
tlracing said:
I'd be inclined to take the seats out (they unbolt without too much difficulty), remove all carpets and then give the inside a thorough wash-down with warm, mildly-soapy water then rinse with plenty of clean water.
Even clean-looking 'puddle' water isn't clean (especially with roads being salted at this time of year) and any residues - especially in tiny gaps (eg. floor-to-sill areas) can start crevice corrosion.
Dehumidifyer after that is an excellent suggestion and I'd also suggest giving it a wipe over with ACF-50 anti-corrosion liquid.
This is the stuff Lotus used for the floor corrosion problem and is widely used in the aircraft industry for preventing aluminium airframe corrosion. Costs about £12 for a large spray can on eBay or from your local aero club
Rinse any fabric trim with fresh water, too. If you can get the trim off, all the better so you can make sure nothing's left behind these (precisely the cause of the aforementioned floor corrosion - residues under the badly-fixed 'soundproofing' mats).
Apologies if that all sounds a bit over the top but shouldn't take more than a couple of hours 'happy time' in the garage and will ensure you've no immediate or future probs!!!
I recommend you immediately dismantle the ENTIRE car and lay out in individual pieces within your garage. Then dry each component by hand using an indirect warm air stream from a hairdryer. Then coat each component with oil made from the blubber of a narwhal, before reassembling the entire car.Even clean-looking 'puddle' water isn't clean (especially with roads being salted at this time of year) and any residues - especially in tiny gaps (eg. floor-to-sill areas) can start crevice corrosion.
Dehumidifyer after that is an excellent suggestion and I'd also suggest giving it a wipe over with ACF-50 anti-corrosion liquid.
This is the stuff Lotus used for the floor corrosion problem and is widely used in the aircraft industry for preventing aluminium airframe corrosion. Costs about £12 for a large spray can on eBay or from your local aero club
Rinse any fabric trim with fresh water, too. If you can get the trim off, all the better so you can make sure nothing's left behind these (precisely the cause of the aforementioned floor corrosion - residues under the badly-fixed 'soundproofing' mats).
Apologies if that all sounds a bit over the top but shouldn't take more than a couple of hours 'happy time' in the garage and will ensure you've no immediate or future probs!!!
For added effect, self-administer one thousand lashes for being so stupid as to take your car out in the wet
THT's
My car was outside most of Saturday and it must have rained very hard as mine also had a fair bit of water in it (have since re water proofed the roof again) on my 80mile drive home I very wet seats and also had a few warning lights on (figured it was caused by some of the wires (like the seat belt warning light) being in the water. Put a plug in oil filled radiator in the car over Sunday and its all nice and dry again now (mine doesn’t have carpets in though).
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