My Z Roadster stalled in an L.A. rainstorm today as the road filled with about a foot of water. After about 20 minutes, the interior began to take-on water, just like the Titanic.

My Z ended up with 6 inches of water inside before the condition returned to normal, an hour later. Most of the water drained out but the carpet remains moist, even though I have worked it with towels.

I am worried about getting a mildew smell in the car. Any thoughts? Will the engine be O.K.? (it ran fine once I got it restarted)

JIM

 

Jim,

Sorry to hear about it. I am in the LA area too. But I have a coupe and was not driving much during the rain (car was parked at work).


Tony

 

1 for coupe

 

I'm pretty sure theres a place in LA that specializes in water dmg. From experiences, the sooner you deal with it, the less costly it will be. As for engine dmg, ask your dealer or a good machenic

 

If it isn't dried (completely), it probably will smell of mildew (at least in theory). Unfortunately, from what I've heard, there's not much sun/heat to leave the doors open and dry out the car (I'm missing out in all the fun and freezing my donkey here in the Northeast).

My only experience with water in the car was a 911 with a crappy install of an amp under the driver's seat which let in water. Car didn't smell too great after rain, but eventually dried out and doesn't see too much moisture.

 

if your car stalled your engine is probably done for

 

damn im in la and i had the same problem. except not that much water entered my car and none on the carpet. just my driver side kickplates was pretty much wet. what the hell is up with that?

 

Febreeze is your friend

 

Man, that sux... sorry to hear

 

at least is running... right?

For now, park it in the garage, open all the doors, top,get a space heater and a fan... Blow warm air into the car and hopefully it will dry out quick enough before mildew can grow..

 

crazy puddles out there. itd be fun in an SUV tho.

 

I've had mine get fairly wet from a freak rain storm with the windows down. Get one of those plug-in space heaters, open the doors, top, etc. and in a sunny place (or at least a dry one), use the heater to dry out whatever you can't get with towels. It takes a little while for mildew to set in and get really funky so if you get to it early, I wouldn't worry as long as everything else (electronics, etc.) seem to be working fine.

 

Get your shop vac out and suck the water out of the carpet. If you don't have one, go to the coin-op car wash. Then air it out in a heated garage. Sunshine tomorrow, use it.

 

The first sign of something mechanical or electronic going bad is your lights on the cluster. I barely bought a 2005 Altima SL 2.5 and days later from the past heavy rain storm, it got flooded. All my sensors on the cluster were going haywire and my stereo sounded like crap. The car ran fine but when i took it to the dealer they found about 10 shortages. My insurance considered it totaled. FYI the dealer charged the insurance about $500 to just tear out the interior and check for water damage. Good luck man.

 

Take off the kick sils and pull up the carpet on the edges. You can dry up and blow some air in there with a little fan or heater. My mom's jeep got left in the rain for about 1/2 hour and was totally soaked. We just pulled the carpet up a little bit and put a few little fans blowing under it. Ideally you will want to blow air from under the carpet up to get the water to evaporate. If you blow air at the carpet down toward the floor panels all that will do is push the water in and it will take longer to evaporate.

 

You should probably get the transmission and differential fluidds changed as well.

 

My grandpa bought a used chrysler seabring and I borrowed it while I was on vacation up there. Everytime I stopped or accelerated hard I heard a swooshing sound. Everyone else figured it was just the gas tank but apparently it had been left in the rain with the top down and it filled with water! LOL...Just inspect inside the vehicle VERY VERY carefully for puddled water. How high up did the water get? Above the door speakers?

 

I used to drive a 04 Highlander limited.... I left the moonroof open, the navigation screen, the clock, the cup holders were over flowing, and finally the leather/upholstery was saturatered with water....

The only solution that actually worked was a $300 detail that involved a completed removed the carpet, leather, etc spraying some "anti mildew" solution, and and reinstalling all the upholstery.

Omer A.

 

I was stuck on the 110 N. Harbor Fwy yesterday for almost 2 hours due to flooding. I thought it was an accident until I got to what seemed like a lake. I inched my way across hoping my engine wouldn't die. Luckily, nothing much happened. You guys should have seen the faces on all those people driving trucks/suv's. They were having a blast. B*st*rds!

 

Yesterday night I decided to go over my girls house and for some reason I decided to take my buddies tacoma lifted. It wasnt even raining I thought it had stoped. Didnt even think about my car or why I shouldnt take it. When I left my Girls house there was a bout two feet of what looked like a river flowing where the truck was parked man was I glad I took the truck. I had a blast in it. Sorry to hear about the Z.