hi...
so i parke d my car last night and i thought everything was closed and good to go...just didnt notice my sunroof was left open about 3 inches...rained hard last night...all night...

so my car was soaked this morning, i noticed water coming down by the side pillars where the airbags are...down by the map light assembly and around the sunroof opening (of corse !!) i tried to drain as much water as i could, used my hand to squeeze it out and paper towels and regular towels to absorb it...

QUESTION:
will this water cause any damage?? i mean like damage the airbags or anything like that ?? i dunno what goes on the the roof between the trim and the actual metal but is tere anything that could g*** damaged ?? should i take my car to the dealer and have them take that apart and dry it off ?? help !! i am really tripping over this...my nerves are sky high at this time !! ant wait to get off work to see if need to take it to the dealer...

 

well call dealer to see what they say. I'm sure there's a draining system for the sunroof. is the interior at all wet? i'd be worried about the seats smelling.

 

well, seats are ok, the water sliped really easy because of the leather...the carpet on the floor is not that bad either...my only worry is the roof, basically the airbags and/or any electrical system or wiring that might go trought the pillars .... also, no smell (yet) .... i am so upset !!

 

Wipe it all down, leave the car in the sun with the windows open to air it out, check occasionally for more rain, should be OK...

 

ASAP!!!!!!!!

dont turn it on until at least 24h if you want all your electronics to work, providing they got wet.

You can also stick a small fan heater on the inside and open the sunroof, hot air rises, close windows, the heat inside should evap any moisture.

Good luck,

Kam

PS- makes you think about that skyview/sunroof poll?

 

I had a similar thing happen to me. Somehow that autodown on my windows triggered, lots of rain overnight. I didn't have the pillar problem but my seats were very wet as was the floor and the door fleece. I took it to a detail place and they used a wet vac to get as much as possible out. Still had some dampness in the seats so ran the seat heaters everytime I was in the car for about two weeks.

I remember Lightonthehill commenting about a similar situation where the sound damping material under the carpet had gotten wet on his. He didn't realize it for a while, thought everything was dry and then checked under there and had a whole lot more soaking up to do. Fortunately on mine the water didn't get deep enough to flow over into the damping material.

Good luck, I know how nerve wracking this can be.

 

Assuming you don't let any more water in, and assuming you can find a few warm dry sunny days to open all the windows to help let the moisture out, you may escape electronics/airbag trouble. So far I haven't heard of others (including myself) having roof leaks also having electronic problems as of yet.

But Rathmax brought up something very important; water can drain from most places in the Maxima, but it can't drain from the footwells. Ever. It just sits underneath the pads and rusts.

Remove the sill of one of the front doors, as well as the plastic part that runs along the footwell wall in front of it. That enables you to lift up the carpet and the big thick absorbent pad underneath. If those are even damp, that damp is forever, unless you dry it out.

Parking it with the carpet lifted at an angle that lets the sun shine underneath helps. A fan pointed under the carpet will help. Whenever I had to close the carpet up and use the car before the pad was dry, I layed lots of absorbent paper towels under the pad, so when I opened things up again, I was able to get some moisture out simply by removing the paper.

In this case, if water was under the pad in one footwell, it almost surely is also under the pad of the other front footwell, and possibly under the pads in the rear footwells.

I know we are talking lots of work, but I would not leave moisture under the pads in the footwells. It will definitely start rusting. It could even possibly start a case of the dreaded (and sometimes toxic) mold.

Try not to let this get you down. With a little airing out and checking on things (and elbow grease if water is in the footwell pads), you might well come out of this with no appreciable harm.

 

another thing you can do is go to lowes, they have these buckets with stuff like silica and all you do is poke holes in the top and leave it in your car overnight for a couple of nights and that should take car of any moisture, they work really well i cant remember the name thought. but they'll know what your talking about. we had to use them in an office one time and they were unbelievable how much they soaked up. definatly check that out and let me know how it did. i promise you will thank me.

 

I would take everything apart and wipe it down to make sure it is dry, run a fan after that, and double check wires....any signs of problems, take it to the dealer while it is under warranty...

 

well, after all it seems i panicked more than i should....i took my car to the dealer that same day...but before i did, while i was at work i left the windows up and the sunroof open, i figure the windows up wuld allow the car to get nice and hot while the open sunroof would allow the moisture to exit the car...evry now and then i went to my car with fresh paper towels and used them to absorb any visible water...by th time i got off work and head off to the dealer, they took me in, took a look and say everything was fine and there was nuthing but very slight moisture...nothing a couple of hot days wouldnt fix. weaTHER is pretty crazy around here, it could be rainin, at 60 degrees in the morning and be 95 by noon...
i guess there wasnt that much water into my car since there has no been any smell problems and since it kinda dried out fairly quick.

scary experience i tell you to come to your car and realize something was left open and everything is wet inside...glad everything seems to be ok so far...

thanks for all the advice and helpfull tips...

luigi

 

That is very good news, luigi. . . at least on the surface.

Did they bother to check the pads under one of the front footwells? Bet they didn't. But that's OK. For the time being . . .

At least I'm glad you feel better about the situation.

 

yeah, they didnt check the footwells, but for what i saw, it wasnt really that much water and i honestly dont think it made its way down there...i think i will check that myself just in case...

thank you guys...

 

This is a little off topic, but its been HOT around here lately, (85-95, feels like miami) and I was driving next to a 50 something lady in a volkswagen rabbit convertable..could tell it was going to pour...she kept on going. Finally we drove right into a torrential downpour, I mean the kind where you must keep the wipers on full speed in the max. People were pointing and everything, I could only imagine what that 5-10mins of driving and finally pulling over did to the interior! It was soo funny though.

 

I knew a guy this happened to. Where the bottom seat cushion and seat back come together, there is a space between them where sometimes the elather doesn't cover. This area may grow mold if it is not dried properly. Especially if you live in the south where pollen or spores could have gotten in the rain relatively easily. What he did was to actually remove his seats and dry them with a hair dryer. This also allowed him to get around the base of the console which is carpeted as well.

Good Luck

 

There shouldn't be any water damage in the pillars. There are several drainage holes in the sunroof area that are connected to 4 tubes. Each tube runds down a pillar and under the car.

 

Yikes! Been there, done that. Just let her dry out many times in the sun.