I had all 4 windows cracked and my sunroof tilted during a monsoon yesterday afternoon. I came back a couple hours later and it didn't look like too much water got in but I was obviously wrong. My car smelt horrible this morning. I just took the mats/back seat out to dry out. Is there anything else I can do to help the smell? I bought some chemical last night that is supposed to dry out RV's, boats, etc but it isn't working too fast in my car. Should I leave the windows down and try and let it air dry or close them and let the chemical do its thing? When I drive around I have the a/c on full blast in recirculate but it smells - is that the best thing to do?

 

Go get your interior detailed and shampooed and cleaned by a car detailing place. It'll be expensive but you need professional help.

 

wow, that has got to suck, going professional is the only thing I have heard that can do the trick, one of my friends did about the same thing, filled it up with car fresheners and traded it at the stealership before they knew it.

 

are you guys serious? why not just do it all your self.

Shampoo the carpets, mats.

Leather cleaner / condition - leatherque

 

Why not dry it up as much as possible with old towels, then paper towels, then a hair dryer and go from there? What can a detailer do at this point? I would go that route if you have problems you can't remedy once its dried out and worked on for awhile.

 

taking out carpet mats won't help. Go to any gas station with a powerful vacuum cleaner (commercial grade) and vacuum all that moisture from the carpet and seats. If that won't help, then get the whole damn carpet out of the car, shampoo, vacuum, and dry out under the sun. Detailers will do exactly the same but will charge you a lot.

 

I left my sunroof open once when it poured. Entire car was soaked. I just left all the windows open and let it air dry. This was in a different car, not my Max by the way.

 

get a wet dry vac. take out the seats. go to town. if you want reach under the carpet an pop out the drain plugs.

 

Wow that is just aweful. I had a car along time ago get flooded out once and it did the same thing with smelling terrible. What I did was wet vac out all the water and dried everything as much as possible then put the car in the garage with all of the windows and trunk lid open and leaving the garage door open over the weekend. Then my wife knew of a trick to take fresh coffee beans (ground up) and put down paper towels on the carpet around the car and place the coffee on top of the paper towels. She also took fabric softener sheets, the kind you put in the dryer, and stuffed them under the seats and in the trunk.

Well after a few days it made a tremendous difference with the smell.

Give it a try and see if it helps. Good luck.

 

u know, a full replacement carpet is only like $150-200

 

we get insurance pool cars all the time at the shop with water inside them. What we do is completely strip the interior and everything thats wet and hang it up and let it air dry, then shampoo it. Some cars you cant even tell there's water in them untill you lift up the carpet and there could be water just standing there. If i were you i would strip the carpet and make sure all of the water is out.