Hi all,

The other day i was driving through a flooded section of road when the guy in front of me stalled, causing me to stall as well, and we both had to be pushed out by 4x4's - very embarrassing :(

The car was left overnight to dry out and in the morning it started! (after choking loads of water out) 

Had a chap from the AA come out to check it over and he said its a miracle but the engine sounds completely fine!

The carpets on the other hand, were not so lucky!

I had my mechanic drain the water out and we mopped up the worst of it with sponges and rags etc

But that lovely smell of the river still remains, as does the constant fogging up of my windows :(

Does anyone else here have experience of this and what i should do next?

I've been driving round with the heater on full blast at my feet and the windows slightly open which seems to have made a slight improvement - in damp not in smell!

Have also bought one of the moisture crystal boxes but there's no sign of any water collected in it yet - starting to wonder if i wasted my money there...

Thanks in advance

New carpet time. I don't think any amount of demisters would cure that.

Luck that the engine is ok, could have been worse.

Any ideas on price of new carpet etc? 

AA said my saving grace was that water only went up exhaust and not the intake - filter and box were both bone dry

You can hire a proper dehumidifier, stick it in the boot with the parcel shelf removed, run a lead out to the car and run it all weekend, should suck it dry, don't forget to empty the dehumidifier tank!

a dehumidifer wont remove the smell .... 

your lucky .... even water going up the exhaust can enter the combustion chamber 

you could maybe try removing carpets / seats etc .... from the car and cleaning them with a carpet cleaner .... or just do them in the car its already wet ....

and avoid flood water lol 

The smell could just be the damp, and will likely diminish once the water has dried up. Failing that, don't buy a new carpet. get a second hand one from a breakers. There is a Fabia vRS being broken for spares on this very forum, see if you can buy the carpet.

Most of the smell is being caused by the damp, once the car is bone dry it'll smell very little indeed, a bit of shake 'n' vac will get rid of what remains.

 

I know this because I once left my sunroof wide open on an old Passat estate, there was a cloudburst and I came back to find about two inches of water on the floor. I hoovered all the water out with a wet vac, ran the dehumidifier and did the shake 'n' vac once dry, the seats were the biggest pain, the seat foam had absorbed the water like a sponge!

Go get it valeted, i would worry about it causing problems with the earths and electrics, i would strip out as much of interior as possible as a start.

Ouch, rip the carpet out I bet there's water still looking underneath.

I'd take the carpet out and use a Vax on it. Clean the floorpan with soapy water and leave a heater in there with the windows partially open until thoroughly dry.

Here's the only way to sort it.

 

Soundproofing was hung up for a week and carpet was wet vacced as well as the seats.

 

I think you will have to start with stripping the carpets out.

 

You may be able to revive them with drying them out.

 

I know it's too late now but in future you should always wait for the vehicle in front to clear the flood before following.

 

Phil

This happened to my friend just before Christmas. The engine was fine but they could not get rid of the smell. In the end the car was written off by the insurance company 

Don't forget what flood water contains,  .....................its not nice. Remove and replace carpet and sound proofing if poss and do a deep clean of car floor. You`ll need a couple of them dehumidifiers left in the car over a few days, to really see results. Once fully dry and clean, then replace but don't reuse your old carpet