Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[Mandrake]

One thing the water has damaged even though it hasn't damaged the floor - is the headlining.

The headlining had already partially dropped last year due to sweating inside the car but in the last few months when I've been able to do nothing to dry it out the entire headlining has dropped now, so it rests on my head while driving and I have no idea how to repair that...

[mickthemaverick]

Not impossible but time consuming. Once you dry the bottom the water in the back will flow down to the dry area thanks to good old gravity and you can dry that from the bottom in the same way. Hence the kitchen towel to absorb that overnight!

As for the headlining, a similar drying process and then you can at least get it up off your head with double sided carpet tape which won't be too difficult to remove. If you use auto badge double sided you may just give yourself another headache when the time comes to fix it properly.

[Stickyfinger]

Drawing pins.....LOTS of them, you could always spend an hour getting "creative"

[Stickyfinger]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

Use these.....swap them out as often as you can.....keep the absorbent side of these pads in direct contact with as much of the foam as you can. These will draw the water from the foam.




https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/qui ... 0pk-330686

[CitroJim]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

Seconded. That's exactly what I always used to do and in time it'll dry perfectly. Gravity will carry the water down the foam to the lowest point. I used to drive round with the carpets out for weeks to allow a full dry-out. I used to reckon three weeks hanging over the upstairs banister in the warm of the house to dry the carpets and their foam out completely. In the meantime I'd drive the car without any carpets...

You'd be amazed at how noisy they are with no carpets... Driving for a few weeks without any carpets allows you to be 100% sure the car is again watertight...

You're right about the rustproofing Simon and you were really lucky that electrical connector is OK... I once had to cut one out because it was corroded beyond saving and re-join all the wires using crimp butts.

That as an impressive puddle... You could have kept fish in that!

[xantia_v6]

To dry that foam, the technique I used was to fold a bathroom towel in half and push it up behind the carpet as far as I could with at least half of the towel exposed. The towel wicks the water out of the foam and after a couple of days it seemed perfectly dry.

[CitroJim]

One thing the water has damaged even though it hasn't damaged the floor - is the headlining.

That surprises me Simon as the headlining is quite a sturdy item and I always believed pretty much impervious to water with the top layer being impermeable. I've seen water from leaky sunroofs pour onto the top and run across the top without soaking through which can be very confusing as the water exits a way away from where the leak might have originated

I guess if the lining is wet for long enough then delamination, damage and a breach of the impervious layer will occur. How long do you think it was wet with condensation above it?

I'd be tempted to remove it completely - a surprisingly easy task - and then see about doing some repairs to it... PVA glue might fix any areas that have delaminated and a mild detergent ought to remove any straining...

You might need to do some strengthening work with contact adhesive and strips of heavy fabric to allow it to regain and hold its original form and shape...

[Dormouse]

I have a bag of 5 old bath quality towels just for that purpose. They draw moisture out and I rotate them to allow the used ones to air dry fully.

[Skull]

Headlining DIY

[Zelandeth]

Just be careful driving around without carpets...

I've still got a chunk of one of my front teeth missing from getting into one of my Skodas sans carpets, slipping on the metal floor and smacking my face into the top of the door. Didn't half hurt!

That was following the clutch master cylinder dumping the contents of the entire reservoir into the footwell. You can imagine how much fun that was to clean up.

[CitroJim]

That's a good point Zel! Put a mat down and make sure it cannot slip around too much... If it does there's a risk of it inter3efering with the brake pedal.

That was following the clutch master cylinder dumping the contents of the entire reservoir into the footwell. You can imagine how much fun that was to clean up.

Oh gosh yes, on a similar theme in a Xantia, a big leak of LHM leaking from the brake dosuer valve and leaking into the footwell causes no lasting damage to the carpet or the foam underneath it - except to make a good wash in detergent necessary - but it wreaks havoc with the sound deadening pad glued to the bottom of the footwell... It turns it into a horrible, sticky mess.

If this has happened you definitely won't slip and slide around in the footwell and a mat will be necessary to stop you leaving black footprints all over the place!

[Mandrake]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

Use these.....swap them out as often as you can.....keep the absorbent side of these pads in direct contact with as much of the foam as you can. These will draw the water from the foam.




https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/qui ... 0pk-330686

What a great idea. I haven't seen these before but I'm guessing they're basically just a big flat nappy ?

[Mandrake]

To dry that foam Simon I would wedge it off the floor with a piece of wood and then use a hot air blower of some sort, hair dryer, fan heater etc to blow warm air under it. It will take a fair time but will get the job done. Then place kitchen towel on top and underneath to check it overnight!

Seconded. That's exactly what I always used to do and in time it'll dry perfectly. Gravity will carry the water down the foam to the lowest point. I used to drive round with the carpets out for weeks to allow a full dry-out. I used to reckon three weeks hanging over the upstairs banister in the warm of the house to dry the carpets and their foam out completely. In the meantime I'd drive the car without any carpets...

You'd be amazed at how noisy they are with no carpets... Driving for a few weeks without any carpets allows you to be 100% sure the car is again watertight...

Don't worry, the carpets will not be going back into the car until everything is perfectly dry and the leak has been 100% confirmed as a fix.

You're right about the rustproofing Simon and you were really lucky that electrical connector is OK... I once had to cut one out because it was corroded beyond saving and re-join all the wires using crimp butts.

That's exactly what I had to do on Dad's car. The connector was destroyed beyond salvage by much worse flooding than this car had. I think I used solder and heatshrink to basically join every wire and throw the connector away!

That as an impressive puddle... You could have kept fish in that!

Yeah it was pretty bad.

Touch wood but I think the dribble diversion repair might have worked... It was raining pretty heavily when I came home, although I don't know for how long. I popped the bonnet and inspected the vent - completely dry with no drips falling into it! To the right of the vent and in front of it by an inch or so (looking back towards the car) there was a strong drip every couple of seconds coming from under the scuttle - exactly where I would expect it to drip from with the silicone blob diverter in place. So tentatively I think that could be success...

I won't be fully convinced until it has sat through a few more days of heavy rain with no water visible in the vent or in the car though...

[mickthemaverick]

Touch wood but I think the dribble diversion repair might have worked... It was raining pretty heavily when I came home, although I don't know for how long. I popped the bonnet and inspected the vent - completely dry with no drips falling into it! To the right of the vent and in front of it by an inch or so (looking back towards the car) there was a strong drip every couple of seconds coming from under the scuttle - exactly where I would expect it to drip from with the silicone blob diverter in place. So tentatively I think that could be success...

I won't be fully convinced until it has sat through a few more days of heavy rain with no water visible in the vent or in the car though...

Good news there Simon well done, hopefully the drying is going well and soon you'll have it all back together!!

[Mandrake]

To dry that foam, the technique I used was to fold a bathroom towel in half and push it up behind the carpet as far as I could with at least half of the towel exposed. The towel wicks the water out of the foam and after a couple of days it seemed perfectly dry.

That's a good plan too - I have a couple of old towels I could use.

The floors inside the car are dry now apart from that underneath foam section at the front, however it's too cold outside for the de-humidifier to work inside the car for long during the day so I'm going to focus on the carpets for now and come back to that foam later - I need to get the carpets dry before they start moulding again and now that it's raining for the next week I can't leave them outside. (Not that they were drying in the "sun" anyway)

So one carpet is taking its turn in the back porch with the de-humidifier while the other two wait in the garden shed! The first carpet is about 80% dry now, so I reckon it's going to take me about a week of continuous drying to get all three dry. I'll just close my eyes to the power bill for the de-humidifier.