I was an idiot and accidentally left my sunroof open and a torrential downpour came through. What's the best way to dry the seats and the carpeting? I'm afraid I can't get all the water out of the seats since the cover is leather...

 

I would use a shop vac to get excess water out of the carpets, wipe down anything else with a bunch of towels then open all the windows and place the car in the sun to dry it out for a couple of days. There is some electrical devices in the seats that shouldn't get hurt by getting wet if you let everything dry out throughly before using them.

 

In addition, keep all your doors open and keep fans running through your seats to help dry. Maybe a dehumidifier also. Hope that goes well for ya.

 

The right way is to gut the car. If it really got that wet, you are going to have a lot of water under your carpet. If you don't get it all, you will grow mold.

 

this, how much water did you actually get in the car?


try removing carpet and dry out.

 

Yeah man, aren't you in MA? I'm in RI and we got blasted with rain today; sorry to see your situation there and I can only imagine your "oh sh*t!" reaction once you realized your sunroof was open.

I'm sure as you know it's a pretty high chance of rain again tomorrow but supposed to be gorgeous on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; I'd do what someone suggested above with a shop vac and towels for tomorrow and also leave the doors open during the peak sun hours on Sunday and put in some more work.

Good luck man.

 

Not only grow mold, but actually begin rusting the painted metal underneath the carpet pad, as moisture underneath the pad has no way to escape.

The proper way to fix this is, as suggested, to remove the molding around the carpet, where it meets the door sills, footwell edging, etc, and remove the carpet and carpet pad from the car and dry them out in the sun until ALL the moisture is gone. A lot of work, but if you intend to keep the car, this is worth the trouble.

I know that back in the old days, when I was still buying used cars, I ALWAYS removed enough molding to check out the floor underneath the footwell carpet, as well as underneath the padding/mat in the lowest part of the trunk (usually under the spare tire).

Lots of cars have a sensor that turns on the wipers when rain begins to fall. I would MUCH rather have a sensor that closes the sunroof and windows when rain begins to fall.

 

That makes sense, although the issue that occurred with OP is that he forgot to close the sunroof before it began raining.

 

Which is the exact situation in which a system that would automatically close the sunroof if rain was detected would have saved him. I am talking about a system that operates whether the car is occupied or not, and whether the ignition is on or not. If I am asleep in bed at 3AM and it begins raining, I want any windows or sunroofs I may have forgotten to shut to close themselves.

Yeah, not realistic, but would be so nice for forgetful old fogies like me.

 

It's 2014. That's totally realistic. We have cars now that use solar panels to help power the air conditioner and keep the car cool. You should write Nissan Corporate! Or shoot, patent the idea and sell it to a car company!

 

VW did this in 2011, just sayin...

http://www.my-gti.com/204/volkswagen...ws-and-sunroof

 

Thanks for all the tips guys. I think it's all dry since it's been baking in the 95 degree weather for a few days with everything open, but I may yet pull the seats and carpet to check the padding. The first day my audio/ac controls weren't working (except for the turn *****)(wet connections I guess) but everything seems fine now. Hopefully it doesn't give me trouble down the line...