Clean those chassis drains early and often

[san rensho]

My car was out in a torrential rainstorm today. When I get into the car and reach for a magazine I had put behind the passenger seat, its soaked. Not surprising since theres about an inch of standing water there. So I drive home, put the top in service mode and sure enough, the main drain on the passenger side is full of leaves and what feels like mulch, from decomposed crud. So I check out all the other drains and theres crud in all of them,but no others are clogged.

I used a hose to flush all of the drains and followed with a bicycle brake cable to roto router the drains to make sure they were clear.

Well, I learned a lesson, even though I clean the drains at least twice a year I guess I have to do it more often, even though I rarely park where the car is exposed to leaves.


So, how do I dry out the carpet and has it done any damage?

[Alfieg23]

I had the same thing happen to me last week (also in South Florida), though mine was on the driver's side. After clearing out the drains with a high stream garden hose nozzle, I placed a thick terrycloth towel onto the carpet to soak up as much of the water as possible. I did this with three towels, replacing each one when saturated. I also made sure that the towels were soaking up any water that was coming close to the electronics located under the driver's seat. After the towels, I moved the seat up as far as it would go and left the car with the top and windows down in my garage overnight. I was going to follow up the next morning with a blow dryer but the carpet was dry to the touch. I hope this helps.

[san rensho]

I was a bad boy. I went to the gas station where I spend about $60 on gas a week and used their vacuum ($2) and sucked up all the water. If its sunny tomorrow, I'll leave it with the top down in the sun.

[srad34]

They seem to take ages to dry out properly due to the plastic base layer in the carpet. Mine felt slightly damp after weeks out of the rain!
Some folk recommend taking the seats out and drying the carpet indoors so when i took mine out, as a precaution, I made a plastic membrane for the electronics unit, This was vented at the top for air/heat circulation. just in case!

[Frodo]

I've not had this problem in the Box yet (hope not to!), but I had a Camry as a DD at one point. Occasionally I'd have one of those summer days when I'd drive to work in sunny weather and I'd leave the windows open an inch or two, only to be surprised mid-afternoon by a sudden torrential, drenching, cats-and-dogs kind of downpour.

Once home, I'd mop up what I could---towels, and I've also got a Shop Vac. Following that, I used to set up a box fan (on High) in the open door of the car, sometimes changing its orientation after a couple of hours to hit spots that were still damp. If it's nice out, I'd leave the car in the sun in the driveway while I did the fan thing, otherwise in the garage. Obviously, open all the doors---consistent airflow over a few hours and things were dry as a bone.