vintageracer

We had some heavy rain a couple days ago and to make a long story short I had 2 inches of water under the carpet on the driver's side. The car runs, but I am worried about problems down the road. Anyone have experience or insight?

siberian

I drove my old car (96 Ford Probe GT) through high water once, hydrolocked the motor, and got a couple inches of water in the back seat floor area that created a strong musty/mildew smell after a couple of days.

Insurance (State Farm) totalled it, and when I spoke to the adjuster, they said if it was just the motor, they will sometimes try to fix/replace it, depending on the age and value of the car. But whenever they see any evidence of water on the interior, they usually just total it because of potential rust/electrical problems that could plague the car in the near future.

I'm not saying that is their official policy, but that was how this particular adjuster approached it with me.

Avantadrive_Original

my car developed a leak a while back, had a bunch of water under the passenger side carpets. There are important electronics under there that you need to deal with, so I would advise getting the water out of there ASAP. If you have any mechanical knowledge, and the right tools, you can do it yourself. Basically, you remoev all trim components (knee bolster, door sill, side trim, etc. etc.) and pull up all the carpeting. The carpeting is very thick, for sound muffling I guess, so it absorbs a ton of water. The best thing is to use a shop-vac and suck up all large quantities of water. Also use it to suck water out of the carpeting itself, and use as many towels as you can get your hands on. Since you probably can't remove the carpeting entirely without pulling the seats, the following works: prop up the carpeting so the floor pan is exposed, as is the underside of the carpet. After removing all excess water, place as many fans as you can squeeze in there on the area, and allow them to blow-dry the carpeting and under-carpet area at least overnight, if not longer. You may consider using Lysol or something as well to kill any bacteria that could potentially create foul odors.

That should really do the trick, but you have to get creative. I called Audi when it happened to mine, and they said it would take them 2 weeks with tons of labor, which I thought was rediculous. I did it myself, and solved the problem quite easily (although it was really kind of a pain). Good luck!

floorit

This happened to one of the cars that the company i work for owns.The insurance agent said it is some kind of law in illinois. I don't remember if it is 2 or more inches of water in the cabin. What avantadrive_original said, if you get the water out right away and pull the carpet back to see if anything got in the electronics you should be fine. I know audi puts some very important things in the knee bolsters etc.