GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well my sister took the Vibe today and when she left it parked, the sunroof was in the tilt position. Just my luck it rained like crazy for about a half an hour. So the headliner, carpet and seats are soaked. I attempted to dry it all as much as possible with rags, and now I have our house dehumidifier inside the back of the car and all the windows are closed to help remove the moisture from the interior. Will I experience any problems now because of everything getting wet? It appears that most of the water ran to the area near the pillar between the back doors and rear side window. The front seats and rear floor were also wet. I am SO ticked off right now.....Any help from anyone who has been in this situation would be appreciated.

Talk to Ragin Mike here, he can tell you how to take down the headliner cause he has removed his before. I'd advice removing that to dry everything inside. Any water or moisture will end up becoming rather moldy in odour.

let your car set with the windows open, if you close your windows ints gonna mildew fast.

Ah yes, those storms were nasty tonight weren't they. Anyway, get a shop vac and really suck out as much water as you can. Other than that, you just have to let it dry on its own, you can use a blowdryer to dry the seats down, it will help a little.

thanks, i hope that the dehumidifier helps remove as much water as possible. I am just worried about any electrical or mildew problems down the road. Id hate to pull out all the interior to remove the headliner but if it needs done I may have to.

You probably won't have any serious issues. I left my moonroof open in the rain once. No ill effects. You'll see more rust than you would expect to...I notice rust by the seat bolts now, and down in the seatbelt buckle anchors...but you should be ok. As was said, use a wet vac of some sort, if you can, to remove as much as possible. The humidifer should help a bit, but sadly, the only true solution will be time.

you shouldnt have any electrical problems. those wires can handle alot. if you get any smells you can use a "fogger" it should sanatize as well as remove odors. similiar to oust, lysol, fabreeze those sort of things. you can check with detail guys at a dealership they should know what your talking about.

well i just took the dehumidifier out for the night and set it by the car with the windows down. It had about 1/2 tank of water in it. I think tomorrow I will park it outside with all the windows open so it can heat up and have air moving through it. From what I could tell the headliner and carpets feel dry to the touch after using the dehumidifier.

The headliner probably won't soak as much water as the carpet will. The headliner is mostly varying forms of fiberglass and cardboard, with a bottom layer of carpeting. The floor carpet, however, has padding under it. If need be, I suppose it could be pretty easy to replace..

My buddy who used to own a Vibe had some serious water leakage back in the rear floor, and one day we did some h2o extraction... In the rear, the seat is quite easy to take out... Just remove the bolts to take the bottom cushions off and then you can get access to the carpet to peel it back... It's just held in by a few plastic retainers under the seat. Try to suck as much out as you can with a wet/dry vac (we actually used a carpet shampooer on his.) You should be able to get some water out of the padding farily easy. Guess you could also remove the front seats and console, do the same there... But that's a lot more work. If the carpet is ok up front you may be able to skip that part. lol!Sounds like you're on top of it though, good idea w/ the dehumidifier. Just try to get all the water out you can, that's about all you can do... Like Mike said, the rest is something that only time can cure. Let it bake out in the sun and see if that helps you.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Guess you could also remove the front seats and console, do the same there... But that's a lot more work. Damn, if this had been my thread, that so would've been interpreted as "I dare you to!" You KNOW I'd be all over that!