Windows left down overnight in rain

Morpheus

Left the windows down by accident. It lashed rain all night. What should I make sure of? Carpets and seats are damp in a few spots, dried as much off as possible and have run Aircon with heat on full for a couple hours. It's mostly feeling dry but what should I be aware about? Gutted

Tropheus

Can easily happen. Did the same with my car during the summer and left the sunroof wide open when parked outside the house. Once heavy shower later, it was soaked.

I have a humidifier. I stuck it in the back seat over night and ran it. Car was as dry as a bone in the morning. Do you have access to one? Otherwise heat an aircon is your only option. I'd doubt if you did any other damage if the car is running ok.

JAMES VTI S

Run the cat on with air con
Air circulating to the foot well
Seat should be all the way forward and to the highest position.
lay the seats all the way back.
chec ever 20 minutes and check engine temp at the same time.

vectra

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

Run the cat

You and your cat :pac:

JAMES VTI S

I hate my phone lol

Curran

You can purchase de-humidifier bags from the likes of Home Store & More, for a few quid. Throw them in the foot well and on the seat. Will slowly absorb any moisture in the car. Will do the job over night.

vectra

Curran wrote: »

You can purchase de-humidifier bags from the likes of Home Store & More, for a few quid. Throw them in the foot well and on the seat. Will slowly absorb any moisture in the car. Will do the job over night.

Wonder would they help fogging windscreens?

punisher5112

I bought 2 off grab one that you re new by putting in microwave.

Seem ok but don't stop fogging when people are in the car.

corsav6

vectra wrote: »

Wonder would they help fogging windscreens?

A bag of silica like you would find with new shoes or the likes would help fogging windows

greasepalm

if spare wheel in boot make sure it is dry as water leaks in boot things will go mouldy,my take on aircon is its frozen air through heater system but have either aircon on and heat off as it dries windows quicker than aircon off and heating system on hot.
people do seem to be in a habit of recirculating damp internal air,set it to take in fresh air,i also use window deflectors to get ventilation in and keeps rain out.

Chimaera

If you're using the aircon system to dry the car out, set it to defrost.

Airconditioner systems in cars have two sections: cooling and heating. Actively cooling air has the side effect of dehumidifying it (as the air temperature drops its ability to hold water vapour is reduced and the water vapour condenses out).

In normal operation, aircon systems minimise the cooling output to reduce fuel consumption: they cool the air just enough to meet the temperature setpoint.

In defrost mode however, the cooler is turned up to its maximum which dumps out as much water as possible, then the heater element is used to bring the temperature back up to the setpoint. Dry air can absorb lots more moisture so it dries the windscreen faster (or your seats and carpets in this case).

mik_da_man

vectra wrote: »

Wonder would they help fogging windscreens?

Yep they do, quite handy for that, I got a decent one in halfords that's re-useable for the Pug

Not really on topic, but I used to have an enormous amount of those bags of silica gel on my dash (for fogginess) and they never made a bit of difference for me.

I switched from using lots of small bags (like the ones that come with shoes) to 3 big bags (the big bags that come with furniture). Neither made any difference. Of course, other people may have different experiences.

mik_da_man

The one I got in halfords is quite big, about 18" x 5"
Sits under the passenger seat or in the footwell.

Curran

KKV, by any chance had they reached their maximum absorption? As, left in the open, they'll absorb moisture in the air.

Chimaera

The thing with silica gel is that it can only absorb so much moisture before it has to be recharged or dumped.

The better stuff can be recharged by heating it up to drive off the water: it'll usually also change colour. The older stuff used to go from pink (dry) to blue (wet) but that's banned now because it contains heavy metals. The newer stuff goes orange to red.

You can get it from lab supply companies if you really need it.

Morpheus

Well the car seems relatively ok now.

i ran the Aircon for hours on saturday morning.

the carpet may be a bit damp in one or two spots, but will get a vacuum onto it later today.

will also get the car valet'd to make sure of it.

there wasnt buckets of water, just a soaking from rain spray but it was enough to make carpet and seats wet to touch.

fingers crossed its not that bad.