Need to dry my car out!

Dades

My 1983 924 has it's NCT on Sunday - and the front carpets are soaked.

I drove to Wicklow and back last Friday in the horrendous weather we had that day, and only discovered when I got home that the two drains in the reservoirs that catch rainwater coming off the windscreen were clogged with leaves... and both were full of water and sloshing into the cabin. :eek:

I don't have a garage I can put it in... so I'm concerned it'll be March by the time the thing dries out!

I've put newspaper down to try and soak the water up - any other tricks?

hi5

Get a small dehumidifier for when your not driving it,the cable running into the house.
When you are driving it,turn the heater on pointed down and leave the window slightly open.

Dades

Might have to go down the dehumidifier route alright, but won't be before Sunday!

mustang68

Can you take the carpet out? if not use the spoon and bowl method to get what you can out, then go to town on it with a hair dryer. Maybe push a dry (old) towel into the carpet to get as much as you can out. Put newspaper under it and change as you use the hair dryer.

ronaneire

Vax or wet hoover? Also would use the dehumidifier if you can get one.

Dades

Don't have a wet hoover but a bowl and spoon I do!

Should I explain the wet floor to the NCT guy before he gets in? He might assume the thing is full of holes rather than just suffering from an "Autumn" design flaw.

ronaneire

Dades wrote: »

Don't have a wet hoover but a bowl and spoon I do!

Should I explain the wet floor to the NCT guy before he gets in? He might assume the thing is full of holes rather than just suffering from an "Autumn" design flaw.

You could always drive it down to your nearest filling station and use their hoover!

superfly35

Hi dades,

The problem you are facing is not so the carpet but the foam/sponge behind it.

There is foam/sponge block which it behind the carpet and the engine bay, it might be soak of water.

You need to determine if it is, as if it is you will have to remove the carpet no other choice I am afraid.

If the foam/sponge is not soaked then easy, use the sponge to remove must of it, and go the a station to use there hoover.

If the foam/sponge is damaged , you will need to take the carpet out and cut the foam, there is polystyrene cube behind it for the sound proofing.

You will need to dry out the foam and the carpet and reverse back.

Hope it helps, I had to do this on one of mine... :rolleyes:

Dades

^^ Yikes!

I think I will try the service station hover trick first... :pac:

SilverBell

superfly35 wrote: »

Hi dades,

The problem you are facing is not so the carpet but the foam/sponge behind it.

There is foam/sponge block which it behind the carpet and the engine bay, it might be soak of water.

You need to determine if it is, as if it is you will have to remove the carpet no other choice I am afraid.

If the foam/sponge is not soaked then easy, use the sponge to remove must of it, and go the a station to use there hoover.

If the foam/sponge is damaged , you will need to take the carpet out and cut the foam, there is polystyrene cube behind it for the sound proofing.

You will need to dry out the foam and the carpet and reverse back.

Hope it helps, I had to do this on one of mine... :rolleyes:

+1 with superfly. There is probably a lot of water that you dont see. Best to take the carpets out and dry them in a boilerhouse or somewhere like it. It may take a few days!!!!

Also, there may be pockets of water left in floor rails and channels which you will only see with the carpets out.
I too.......had to do this on my 300CE but I'm glad I did as there was a lot of water in there. Sponges, rags and kitchen towels to get it out.
G

gyppo

Go to your nearest B&Q, and hire out one of their Rugdoctor machines.
These come with a detachable hose, and they are very powerful at sucking up water.

Use it for the car carpets, and anything thats underneath that.

Then, when you have the car done, do the carpets in the house - might as well get your monies worth, and score a few brownie points too.

deckie27

gyppo wrote: »

Go to your nearest B&Q, and hire out one of their Rugdoctor machines.
These come with a detachable hose, and they are very powerful at sucking up water.

Use it for the car carpets, and anything thats underneath that.

Then, when you have the car done, do the carpets in the house - might as well get your monies worth, and score a few brownie points too.

Mine got soaked on passenger side a couple of days after I got it.
I'd moved the battery to check it wasn't rotten and in the process blocked the drain. it filled up to nearly the top of the box to where someone had a hole for a wire going nowhere...
Basically the water was to the top of the carpet fibers
I mopped up most with kitchen roll type paper. Loads & loads of it
Then when I got home I put in a fan heater on low heat for hours with the Windows a little open
I tock out the seat on that side as some of the water had seeped under.
And again the next evening
I also got one of those salt filled dehumidfer in aldi
All this did a great job.

Dades

Thanks guys. I don't how much of this I'll get done before Sunday!

Drove the car last night and at least it's all working - electrics etc.

My only real hope is the NCT guy doesn't find some horrible issue unrelated to my damp carpets. I can sort the carpets properly next week!

Dades

So just an NCT update...

It was nice and mild over the weekend so between the newspapers and letting the air though the car things weren't quite so soggy for the NCT on Sunday. Will revisit the carpet issue if it doesn't seem like it's going to dry on it's own.

Regarding the test itself - the car was failed because of a "dangerous defect". :eek:

However, once I got over the shock, it turns out there was a small fuel leak on the nearside from a corroded bit of metal pipe that was spotted on a visual check. The car passed everything else!

Although I wasn't officially supposed to drive the car home, my tester was decent enough to suggest he'd say nothing if the car was gone when he came out next, as I only lived 5 mins away.

Dropped into my mech this morning on the way to work and (after having a rant about the NCT people) he's going to to hopefully just swap the bit for me and I'll be good to go.

(And as another plus - while mopping the rear window yesterday I discovered a loose connection to the back window which - coupled with the new relay I put in last week - now means I have working a rear defroster for the first time ever!)


Nervous wait:

hi5

Both you and your car could have gone up in flames:eek:
And still people complain about the €50 for the annual check.

drBill

Sometimes the NCT can be value for money, sometimes not. I'd say this time it was value for money!

I was impressed the time a tester pointed out to a friend of mine that a track rod wasn't properly tightened and was about to fall out - on an Alfa which he had bought from a dealership two months previously. Not so impressed the time the feckers failed me for not having the little 'Baile Atha Cliath' stickers on my number plates though, grrr!

Dades

hi5 wrote: »

Both you and your car could have gone up in flames:eek:

Heh, I don't think there was ever going to be any Michael Bay type explosion.
But they have to flag anything to do with fuel like that as dangerous.
Don't get me wrong - I'm getting it sorted tomorrow.

hi5 wrote: »

And still people complain about the €50 for the annual check.

I was never pushed either way about the NCT - I do see the need for it and this has indeed proven a point.

I generally maintain the car myself and (as you probably know) the 924 has a design flaw that means you often get the smell of gas - particularly after filling up. This means you're more likely to dismiss random fuel smells such as one that might indicate a different issue.