Associate
will make a change from lying in it
Wife left car window open for 3 days!
- Thread starter the_worrier
- Start date
This was quite a few years ago now, circa 2008-10, and one of my clients bought a brand new Range Rover with a panoramic glass sun roof.
On the second night of ownership, having enjoyed having the roof open during the day, they went to bed. Upon waking, after a restless night due to a storm, they soon realised they had left roof fully open all night.
Interior was properly drenched and took 3 days to dry it out with dehumidifiers. All was well in the end and the car lasted the 3 years without problems until it was traded in.
However on some cars there are sensitive electronics under the seats for airbags and steering angle sensors etc...
It would be a good idea to do some research to find out what may be wet and whether to shorten the length of time you would have been willing to keep the car.
On the second night of ownership, having enjoyed having the roof open during the day, they went to bed. Upon waking, after a restless night due to a storm, they soon realised they had left roof fully open all night.
Interior was properly drenched and took 3 days to dry it out with dehumidifiers. All was well in the end and the car lasted the 3 years without problems until it was traded in.
However on some cars there are sensitive electronics under the seats for airbags and steering angle sensors etc...
It would be a good idea to do some research to find out what may be wet and whether to shorten the length of time you would have been willing to keep the car.
As has been stated , electric heater and dehumidifier. Dry up the puddle first,
Car electricals are generally weather sealed, whether inside or out, main ECU tend to be in engine bay these days with countless other ECUs located internally for various comfort functions. Where these are located in the floor they will be water ingress proof for such things as this (not for full on floods) so I wouldn't be too worried about the electrics, especially as the dehumidifier will be drawing out the moisture.
Car electricals are generally weather sealed, whether inside or out, main ECU tend to be in engine bay these days with countless other ECUs located internally for various comfort functions. Where these are located in the floor they will be water ingress proof for such things as this (not for full on floods) so I wouldn't be too worried about the electrics, especially as the dehumidifier will be drawing out the moisture.
Dehumidifier in situ.
Nice one
Be honest The best way is strip the insde if it's bad it will take a few days to dry out the underlay it will hold a lot of water, left alone it will make the car smell .
Last edited:
Associate
soak up excess water with rags then run the aircon. aircon removes moisture.
Permabanned
- Joined
- 10 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 2,553
It's pretty worrying how non car people give bodge advice blindly...
I guess that's the lack of hands on knowledge/ignorance from paying someone else to fix your car/financing it and not caring cause you can get another one if it breaks vs maintaining a classic/rarer/custom order...
Cars are literally written off due to simple water damage, damaging/destroying the interior/engine looms/ecus... Just because it might all work now doesn't mean it won't start to cause damage later on/started the early stages of rusting all the grounds/connections to the loom/modules underneath etc etc...
BMW for example and most RWD/AWD cars run stupid amounts of wiring looms along the gearbox tunnel/under the seats, all the way to the footwells, on both sides...
Every car will have the wiring for the seatbelt tensioner/heated/electric seats (wether you spec'ed them or not the loom will be there still unconnected) SRS airbag system, electric windows, fuel pump wiring, main wiring for the rear lights/brake light switch/main battery live if your battery is in the boot which leads up to the engine bay via the firewall, etc etc etc...
If the carpets are soaked, you'll want to remove the seats/carpet as there will be wiring under there along with modules for some stuff depending on the car, and those wires are often exposed in places and have multiple grounds that WILL rust/mess up over time due to this so be warned.
You will literally be trapping soggy foam under the carpet like a sponge and rusting away the floor, you'd be shocked how the top of the carpet can feel bone dry but the foam underneath is soaked/puddles underneath it on floor of the cars shell and yeah bad times if left!
Removing the carpet means taking the kick plates off and the glovebox/drivers side under the steering wheel lower trims off to access the top half of the carpet, so expect to buy a load of new interior panel clips as they're usually one time use and brittle over time so will break.
Just trying it out on the surface is a false positive and you're just lying to yourself that it's sorted, as aforementioned there's wiring/grounds/modules for stuff along with the fact carpet is literally bonded to a huge sponge like foam to fill in the crevices in the floor pan to make it flat/uniform. So just because the top half feels dry, it doesn't mean your floor pan isn't now a swimming pool ready to blow fuses/rust all the grounds and rot your floor out! If there's already a puddle in the footwell then that is very bad!
The amount of customers ive seen have a leaking heater matrix and not realise and then we lift the footwell section of the carpet up that feels mildly damp and the floorpan is a swimming pool underneath... So imagine how bad having a window open for 3 days is with no stop rain...
I guess that's the lack of hands on knowledge/ignorance from paying someone else to fix your car/financing it and not caring cause you can get another one if it breaks vs maintaining a classic/rarer/custom order...
Cars are literally written off due to simple water damage, damaging/destroying the interior/engine looms/ecus... Just because it might all work now doesn't mean it won't start to cause damage later on/started the early stages of rusting all the grounds/connections to the loom/modules underneath etc etc...
BMW for example and most RWD/AWD cars run stupid amounts of wiring looms along the gearbox tunnel/under the seats, all the way to the footwells, on both sides...
Every car will have the wiring for the seatbelt tensioner/heated/electric seats (wether you spec'ed them or not the loom will be there still unconnected) SRS airbag system, electric windows, fuel pump wiring, main wiring for the rear lights/brake light switch/main battery live if your battery is in the boot which leads up to the engine bay via the firewall, etc etc etc...
If the carpets are soaked, you'll want to remove the seats/carpet as there will be wiring under there along with modules for some stuff depending on the car, and those wires are often exposed in places and have multiple grounds that WILL rust/mess up over time due to this so be warned.
You will literally be trapping soggy foam under the carpet like a sponge and rusting away the floor, you'd be shocked how the top of the carpet can feel bone dry but the foam underneath is soaked/puddles underneath it on floor of the cars shell and yeah bad times if left!
Removing the carpet means taking the kick plates off and the glovebox/drivers side under the steering wheel lower trims off to access the top half of the carpet, so expect to buy a load of new interior panel clips as they're usually one time use and brittle over time so will break.
Just trying it out on the surface is a false positive and you're just lying to yourself that it's sorted, as aforementioned there's wiring/grounds/modules for stuff along with the fact carpet is literally bonded to a huge sponge like foam to fill in the crevices in the floor pan to make it flat/uniform. So just because the top half feels dry, it doesn't mean your floor pan isn't now a swimming pool ready to blow fuses/rust all the grounds and rot your floor out! If there's already a puddle in the footwell then that is very bad!
The amount of customers ive seen have a leaking heater matrix and not realise and then we lift the footwell section of the carpet up that feels mildly damp and the floorpan is a swimming pool underneath... So imagine how bad having a window open for 3 days is with no stop rain...
Last edited:
I've seen a garage quote like that for replacing a light bulb.
Associate
So what you are saying is OP should fill the car to the roof with rice ?
That's a bit personal asking how old his wife is
Caporegime
It is called having children and not putting the rear windows on parental lock!
Last edited:
It was a common fault with the mk1 Audi TT's. Owners would regularly come back to the car to find one or both of the windows half open. I think it was something to do with the switch which detected an object in the way and reopened it for safetly.
Commissario
Pretty much everyone should have a basic vac capable of wet work, at least if you've got space for it.
We've got a couple (one is a hoover from the 80's or 90's), as they are a life saver if there is a leak, and for something like this they can make the difference between getting it dry fairly quickly by actively sucking the water out of the carpet before you try to use a dehumidifier/heater and trying to sponge it out and leaving a load more that'll have to evaporate.
There is a lot of assumptions there - where I park my vehicles for instance you wouldn't walk past unless going to them and I don't tend to take walks locally (not out of laziness).
Seems to be an issue with some new VWs and/or VW group cars - I know a couple of people who've had their vehicles (leased) in and out with VW due to it and the eventual resolution was to give (well not really give as it is leased) them a whole new car...!
Last edited:
Soldato
It was more the look of it, she may well have been the one at fault but it would not be my choice to name and shame on here. Rather just look for advice on rectifying the situation.
Associate
After reading the OCUK forum handbook the correct course of action is for OP to take his wife to a small claims court.
Wait, you work on your own cars. You should mention that, in every thread... Possibly in a condescending way to those who pay people to work on their cars.
Seriously though, the guys window has been left open, it hasn't stood in flood water for a week.
Soldato