General: any ideas re drying out carpets-coolant leak

[moggs]

Hi

A couple of days ago I replaced the heater matrix on my 850 estate. Successfully I think, thanks to pointers from this forum.
Trouble was I was slow to diagnose the leak as wet carpet in passenger & driver footwells was hidden by heavy volvo fitted mats & I do not personally drive the car that often.
Therfore I am left with soggy carpets.
I have delayed re fixing panels to hopefully aid drying out . On the day I did the job I carefuly used a hand held hot air blower ( paint remover ) but it seemed to have little impact. There is foam "underlay" beneath the carpet. Difficult to tell how sodden this is because of rubber lay on top of this , but it is probably also wet.
Any ideas. ? Are there any safe space heaters I could leave overnight ?

One other thing , just for future reference..
my car is automatic ( that may or may not be relevant )
on the drivers floor well far left is a foot rest pad ( looks like a pedal but fixed to floor. This restricted my pulling back of the carpet on drivers side ( to replace matrix) but I managed. Does this plate just pull off ( i didnt appear to ) or is it bolted from under the car ?

Many thanks for any ideas

regards

Richard

[catflem]

I had the same problem, the previous owner had lived with a leaking matrix for quite some time, so when I bought the car it was soaking wet under the carpets.

Unfortunately the rubber coating on top of the sound deadening material inhibits the drying out process. You think the carpets are dry, but as soon as you step into the car your bodyweight compresses the foam underfoot and releases yet more liquid into the carpet again.

I removed the foam from the footwells (cut through the rubber layer with a stanley knife) and squeezed out as much of the liquid as possible. I then ran an extension lead to the shed, plugged an electric radiator in, suspended the sodden foam above it and left it to dry out overnight.

I wouldn't recommend drying it inside your home as the liquid contains antifreeze, it has an oily feel to it and doesn't have a pleasing aroma.

The foot rest pad should slide upwards 5 or 10mm, you should then be able to lift it clear (this was on a manual V70 - I'm assuming the auto 850 will have a similar method of removal)

[960kg]

Originally Posted by moggs

Hi


One other thing , just for future reference..
my car is automatic ( that may or may not be relevant )
on the drivers floor well far left is a foot rest pad ( looks like a pedal but fixed to floor. This restricted my pulling back of the carpet on drivers side ( to replace matrix) but I managed. Does this plate just pull off ( i didnt appear to ) or is it bolted from under the car ?

Many thanks for any ideas

regards

Richard

It slides up then take off!...it is slotted...

[moggs]

Thanks

Your description of the sodden foam effect is spot on .

I can see that it will be necessary to physically wring out the foam prior to drying. However can you give a bit more detail about removing it please ?
I have not checked again but
Is not the rubber attached to the foam ? so what does cutting through it achieve ?

Is the foam stuck to the car floor ?

How far back under seats & to rear passenger compartment does the foam piece go . Obviously so far I have only had to pull back carpet within the foot wells.

on 2nd thoughts, I suppose that by, cutting into the rubber , you mean that you cut the wet section out . But still , if foam stuck to floor.

Thanks for the info on the floor plate , feel daft that I did not try for movement in sliding direction !

Thanks

[Luxobarge]

If it's got coolant in it (and it should have!) then it will take weeks or months to dry out - if you don't believe me, put a drop of coolant next to a drop of pure water and see which one dries out first - the coolant will still be there weeks later.

So the best thing to do is to dilute it all out with copious amounts of fresh water - at leat that will dry out eventually and leave no smell or stickiness.

The best tool for speeding up the drying out process is going to be a wet'n'dry vacuum cleaner - try and beg steal or borrow one if you haven't got one as this will help enormously.

So, as above, get the carpets right out of the car if you can, suck out as much of the coolant as possible and repeatedly flush them with water and suck that dry - the bonus of all of this is that you will end up with nice clean carpets!

Hope that helps.

[Faust]

When I had some leaks from the windscreen seal on my Amazon, I left the car overnight with lots of old newspapers inside to absorb the worst of the water. I also put a tray of (clean!) cat litter in the car as this also absorbs water.

I then left a mains powered de-humidifier in the car (I was amazed at how much water it got out of the interior). It took a couple of days but the interior was bone dry at the end of the process.

As the OP is referring to coolant rather than fresh water it makes things a bit more tricky, but the above methods will hopefully be of use.

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by 960kg

It slides up then take off!...it is slotted...

putting it back is another story!

[moggs]

Thanks for all of your helpful comments.

I am not in full "getting stuck into it" mode today. But I have just pulled up the foam at the drivers door edge. Sure enough , when lifted a pool of liquid appears below the foam.
At the edge the foam did not appear stuck to the car floor. Is it loose laid sll over ?
Also how big are the foam sections. The damp does not extend further back under the drivers seat. So if the foam does extend , which I suspect , I suppose I will have to cut out the affected sections to wring & dry out.
If it is loose laid then hopefully eventual relaying should not be too much of a problem ???

Regards