Drying out sound-proofing material

[quarryman]

I posted previously in another thread where the passenger footwell of my car had become flooded after a car wash. That's resolved now.

I got the carpet out and it's drying away.

However I can't remove some of the sound-proofing material around the very bottom of the footwell in up against the bulkhead. Also it seems to be wet and "oily" now which is a bit weird. Very greasy.

What is the best way of drying out that material? I'm gonna to leave the carpet out for a few days to help anyway.

 

[guydewdney]

wet-n-dry vacuum?

leave window open and dry naturally?

dive with passenger side set to hot-as-hell and feet only?

contrary to popular conception, drying is mostly air flow, not heat (I dry our clothes almost as fast as a tumble dryer by just hanging up and directing a 12" desk fan at them - 12" fan = 50 watts tumble dryer = 3000 watts.....)

 

[Howard]

I had this problem when I had a little flood too !

I had the water come in on New Year's Eve , I finally put the carpets back in in late February.

You just have to drive around with the heater on that side on full heat , full blast all the time , with a window open a bit. Takes forever but it's the only way.

I originally put a fan heater in the footwell while it was parked , but it made the metal plate in the footwell ( with ECUs on the back ) very hot so stopped it.

Stuff paper towel in each morning , and take it out the next morning ,it will wick the moisture out slowly , repeat until dry. I must have gone through about a kilometre of blue roll ! Lol

Have you taken out the pollen filter and the fan motor housing plate , there will be water in there guaranteed and will bugger the fan motor if you let it sit there.

 

[quarryman]

I had this problem when I had a little flood too !

I had the water come in on New Year's Eve , I finally put the carpets back in in late February.

You just have to drive around with the heater on that side on full heat , full blast all the time , with a window open a bit. Takes forever but it's the only way.

I originally put a fan heater in the footwell while it was parked , but it made the metal plate in the footwell ( with ECUs on the back ) very hot so stopped it.

Stuff paper towel in each morning , and take it out the next morning ,it will wick the moisture out slowly , repeat until dry. I must have gone through about a kilometre of blue roll ! Lol

Have you taken out the pollen filter and the fan motor housing plate , there will be water in there guaranteed and will bugger the fan motor if you let it sit there.

Nice one thanks.

Did you have the water in the sound-proofing too? It's really weird that it seems to get oily now that it's wet.

I can't imagine I'll get it 100% dry for a while. Hopefully it won't cause any rust problems!

 

[SL350_SWINDON]

Is it soapy water not oily water? Caused by car washing. Too great a volume of water for the drains to cope with?

 

[Dieselman]

Newspaper will dry the water up very effectively. Just keep changing it once soaked.

Oil could be ATF being drawn up the loom, if so, the gearbox pilot bush seal is U/s.

 

[quarryman]

Newspaper will dry the water up very effectively. Just keep changing it once soaked.

Oil could be ATF being drawn up the loom, if so, the gearbox pilot bush seal is U/s.

Gearbox oil yeah? Now that you mention it, it seem to be around the loom along the passenger side footwell when I opened it up dry it. It was quite oily?

Can you give more details, how does it get drawn up the loom?

What do you mean the seal is "u/s"?

 

[Howard]

Unserviceable ...... Fooked

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Both my W202s had oily looms in that area, never had any problems with them. Doesnt necessarly mean its doomed.

 

[quarryman]

I think he means the bushing is ****ed but I reckon I should take out the footwell plate and dry off the TCU if possible and get the bush replaced.

The water ingress might have been a fortunate occurrence to help me discover this other (more serious) problem.

 

[quarryman]

Pulled out the alloy panel and the TCU. There was a light film of oil on the wires and very small amount on the connector put nothing major. Took out the PCB and it looks completely dry so dodged a bullet I think.

Gonna get the seal done now to reduce the risk of damage to the TCU.

 

[Howard]

Both my W202s had oily looms in that area, never had any problems with them. Doesnt necessarly mean its doomed.

Sorry , just seen this , my reply was an explanation of what u/s meant , not an indication that the world was coming to an end.