Need advice, 4L distilled water emptied in to foot well.

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2DIE

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Hey guys,


I picked up a 4L of distilled water, put it in the driver side foot well and drove home.


I was diving carefully but the bottle slowly slide over to its side from leaning on to the tunnel and I didn't think anything of it.


Now I just got home and went to take out the bottle and 90% of the content is in the drivers side foot well about 1cm deep of water.


Immediately I ran to grab some large cotton towels and soak it up, most of it is contained to the foot well area but I can feel it a little damp under the seat and can feel wet metal where the carpet is cut out for A/C ducts under the seat.


I'm thinking along the lines that I may have to take the seat out and lift the carpet up and rotate dry towels under it for a coupe of days.


There is only a few hours of light left, any advice?


Cheers.
 
I pulled out the seat and unclipped all the passenger side trim then went to the car wash and noticed this on their vacuums so I didn't bother trying.

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I drove to my brothers and grabbed about a dozen plain white cotton bath towels from his shed and lifted up the carpet, some of the underlay was stuck to the floor of the car and other bits were stuck to the carpet. It wasn't very nice but I did my best not to rip any.

Surprisingly there is more water in the back foot well than the front so I guess its lucky I did take the seat etc out pull the carpet up, I mopped up as much as I could then put 1 towel under the carpet and another one on top of the carpet. I have 3 towels washing, 2 in the car soaking up the moisture and about 8 to 10 dry ones left that I'll keep swapping over until everything is dry. I also put all the windows down about half a cm but I'll have to put them up over night.
 
This is where a good wet/dry shop vac comes in handy..

As far as going to the local car wash bays and using their vacuum? That would've been my next best bet. [never mind the "shock" warning, those vacs can handle a bit of water] Lol.

Another good tip is to use waffle weaves instead of regular cotton terry towels. Even synthetic chamois work great for this. I've recently had a mysterious reoccurring "flood" in my trunks tire compartment, I went to the 99 cent store and bought a couple synthetic chamois to soak up all the water. Much better than sacrificing any of my good towels. But the car wash's vac would've been the 1st bet.
 
Only reason they have the warning sticker is cuz it's a mess to clean up when water mixes with all the dirt sucked up. They jus wording it in a way that you feel like you shouldn't use the vacuum to suck up water
 
This is somehow late, but anyway (just going to post it for the record):

If possible I'd turn on the heater on maximum and redirect it to your feet. I'll keep the windows closed and after half an hour, I will partially open the windows (don't worry, water doesn't need to reach 212F (100C) for it to evaporate).

If you want to get one step further, get some dry rice or silca-gel and put them there (You could vacume them any time, and in theory they will absorbe musture and water).

Other than that, you could dissamble everythings apart and clean them but consider yourself lucky it just a water and if it didn't stink you are good to forget this incident. :)
 
Not really a big promblem.vac crank up the heater for 30 minutes wait for remaining water to wick up vac again.
 
done the same thing more than once in my vehicles... actually had my girlfriend spill milk once and purposely doused the inside footwell with water/cleaner to dilute the milk out in hopes of nout leaving a souring smell... then used a wet dry vac to suck the worst up. followed that up by running an extension cord with a fan in on the seat leaning against the dash blowing down towards the floor at night. For the next few days then whenever i drove I had the floor heat cranked all the way up... dried out in two days i think but still did so for 3 or 4 and never had any problems
 
Using the blower attachment on your shop vac is another way to dry situations like this in a hurry...
 
Extractor if you have one or if you don't a wet/dry shop vac. Work it until no more water is coming up then press towels into the carpet to soak up that last little dampness.
Then put a fan on the front seat pointing down into the footwell and leave the windows down for 24 hours. Preferable in a garage. The carpet will not only be dry, it should be much cleaner too.
 
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