jimmykoss

My wife ran into flood water in my new Lexus ES350. The vehicle did not stall but she was apparently sitting idle for 30 seconds. She brought the vehicle home and the floorboards in the front and back were wet. I immediately took the floormats out...there was no actual water in the vehicle...just damp, wet floorboards. I had a professional detailer come to the house and he shampooed the floor mats and the carpet but told me that they moldy smell may continue for a few weeks or so. He also sprayed 'Zap' on the carpet. He explained to me that in his experience, the material under the carpet was affected and that the smell would eventually evaporate but the new car smell would not be able to be restored. The vehicle is 1 month old and I am sick about it....the odor is obvious when I first enter the vehicle in the morning.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of situation or have any suggestions?

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

sucks for the water but there is nothing u can do unless u take out the carpet and clean the material under.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

let it dry out and try an ozone generator?

PlatES300

iTrader: (1)

I had a similar case happen to me a few years ago...I let my brother borrow my es300 and he left the windows down - it rained that night and my car got soaked. I ended up taking all the seats out vacuumed all the carpet with a wet dry vac. I left the car in the garage with the windows rolled down for about a week before it dried. I got a heat gun and dried the carpet/floorboard every chance I got.

LXMN

If you have access to a dehumidifier, you could try running that inside the car to help draw out the moisture. Let it run overnight.

aznxenon

What's the story behind the flood water tho?

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

Ouch, what happened? I'm pretty sure the flood didn't sneak up on her O_o

Get a wetvac and dry the thing to death, then go to your local auto store and buy some air freshners

bound

I had water in my car and it never did smell right. I hope yours works out ok.

Guitarman

You definitely don't want mold & mildew getting in underneath the carpet. I would remove the seats and carpet and use (as mentioned) a dehumidifier, or Damp-Rid pellets in the plastic container as much as necessary for a day or 2 or 3.

There's no effective way to do this simply and without the inconvenience of losing the use of the car for a couple days, IF you really want to solve it.

The carpet will breath very slowly, and in the interim mold can get started underneath in that damp environment, which is why you need to remove the carpet asap.

If the detailer that shampooed it wet the carpet further, and didn't suck it till (almost ) dry, that could have added to the problem. Wish the news could be better & easier.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

^^^^^ agree the dehumidifier will do the trick....