A quick question. My car had a blocked drainage and got wet inside the cabin, particularly around the rear controller module, ie behind seat on floor. There is also foam/sponge under the carpet there which is also very damp.
My Dad recommended drying the interior by simply leaving the car idling with the heater on full and directed to the footwell. Question is, how long would this take? My guess would be about 3h, but I'm sure people on this forum have a better idea, and any other tips for rapid drying. With a convertible car I'm sure it's not uncommon. Realistically it's probably the cheapest and easiest fix too as only probably £20 fuel for idling is preferable to pulling all the lining out. I'm in London where the weather is so cold and wet that people get married just to say warm at night, so simply leaving it open won't work. Also, the car is parked outside (usually under a cover) so I don't have the convenience of a garage.
Thoughts?
(The obvious answer is 'as long as it takes' however I'll need to make plans as I can't just leave it running unaccompanied.)
Lots of damp rid bags, I use them in my safe to protect the hardware, you’ll be surprised how much fluid they remove. I’d make sure to use the cover religiously, see also threads about computer brain box wetted failures. Keep those drains open too.
Lots and lots of airflow, too. Too bad you don’t have access to a garage, but if you are able and the weather permits, I would open everything fully and place a fan into one of the door openings and just blast air throughout the compartment. This, in addition to the damp rid bags. Unfortunately, as you say, if the weather is that damp and rainy that might not be an option for you unless you can find someone with a garage to aid you.
Hi there
@windsurfingstew
- Welcome to P9! Here's the scoop, and unfortunately it is not going to be good news (from past experience). If that amount of water has come in, especially around the control box, the padding underneath your carpets (hopefully just one side) are absolutely soaked (ask me how I know). The problem here is that the moisture is totally trapped underneath the carpets, so the carpet surface may feel dry but all the highly absorbent padding underneath is soaked, trapped, and there's no way for it to escape. Sorry.
You are absolutely going to want to find a garage space in which to work somewhere, remove the seat(s), remove the carpets, use a gazillion towels to squeeze out as much as you can, and get about a week's worth of fans blowing. Otherwise, the car is going to mildew/mold and it will smell just terrible. A positive thing you have on your side is that the car is likely cold -- which will help slow the development of mold/mildew.
When things settle down, definitely please introduce yourself (ideally with car photos) over in the new members section -- it's a strong tradition here before asking tech questions. Cheers and let us know how you get on with it. Cheering you on here from the other side of the pond -- you've got this!
What your dad suggested might work with normal vehicles - but this is different - this is
Porsche
. If it's possible to over-do something,
Porsche
engineers usually do. They love to add inches of foam under carpeting. It's more foam then you'd ever imagine. It's more foam than any home has. It's also open cell and very happy to suck up and retain moisture.
I know from your other posts here that you already found you have a dead rear control module. That's a darn shame. And expensive.
You should start asking around your family and friends. Someone must have a garage slot you can borrow for a week or so to dry the thing out... doing it on the street just won't do it. I've used small electric heaters equipped with fans to direct air into a flooded cabin. It still takes days. What you want to do - and it's a PITA to do - is remove the seat and lift up the carpeting around the edge of the recess/hole in it where the rear control module was and squeeze out all the moisture you can. Stuff old bath towels up under the foam, then press down on the foam from the top. That will force water out of the foam and into the towel. Change towels frequently. Repeat until the towels come out dry. Then move on to another section.
There's no shortcut here. If you have access to a portable dehumidifier - that would be useful.
Also - the drains -
Let's clean those drains..
- this is a sticky in the 987 DIY for a reason..
Thanks food biker! Will do a post once things are fixed back up
