Friend's Toyota Echo was flooded yesterday along with pretty much every car in her apartment complex. Water got up to the bottom of her seats. Engine and electrical were not affected.

I bring my shop vac over as the tow trucks are towing cars away 2 at a time and suck out the 2" of standing water in the footwells. Then I spend the next 2 hours vacuming as much as I can. Got about 8 gallons of water out. Then I put an air mover in it and left it running overnight with the windows cracked. I'm now waiting to see how bad it's going to smell after sitting in the sun all day today so that I'll know how miserably I failed at getting the water out.

I'm having trouble finding replacement carpet. Only place I could find online had it for $470. Is that about right? Anyone ever replaced carpet before? Should I pull it out and try to dry it myself? Any other tips or recommendations?

Did insurance deny a claim, or are they trying to avoid insurance?

Check Rockauto?

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Did insurance deny a claim, or are they trying to avoid insurance?

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Trying to avoid insurance since nothing was damaged other than wet carpet.

Use the shop vac really well, then put a dehumidifier in the car and let it run. empty the water out regularly I'd it doesn't have a hose.

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Check Rockauto?

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All they have is regular carpet for ~$40 a yard. I was hoping to find something with the contours of the car already in it.

I have pulled carpet before and shampooed real good, rinsed extra good and layed out to dry - flip for front and back. PIA but it will be hard to get it to dry right because the padding on the bottom of carpet. You have already vac and air handler, if that does not work, may have to pull carpet. I would not buy carpet as that can be cleaned, just lot of work.

Edit: well, ballchain beat me to it while typing this

ballchain/coppag92's suggestion is nails.

Yank carpet, shampoo/dry/etc.

Recently did this exact thing on a buddy's truck (bought in CR in 1996, taken to the Tine for most of the rest of its life and Mexi-thoed). Yanked whole interior out (actually found a salsa bowl underneath all of it), thoroughly cleaned the interior metal and rewired a bunch of stuff, added layers of "FatMat" and then recarpeted it with generic carpet like you'd cover a subwoofer enclosure with.

Cheap way to go, but really cleaned it all up.

Anyone know why Toyota called it the echo?

When the first one rolled off the assembly line you could hear everyone say "what a piece of ****!" Over and over again.

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Anyone know why Toyota called it the echo?

When the first one rolled off the assembly line you could hear everyone say "what a piece of ****!" Over and over again.

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And that's exactly what we're gonna do to 'em Ags!!!

I specialize in auto-related dad jokes.

Had an A/C condensation drain unknowingly leaking under the passenger floor carpet once ... Even after the carpet felt dry, I pulled the carpet up to find the sponge foam was still soaking wet and moldy .... Big pain in the rear, but you definitely need to get that carpet and padding up or it will never dry

If you can't remove the carpets for whatever reason then have tons of towels ready. Set them in all floorboard areas and then pat each one until they are wet. Replace with dry(drier) towels and repeat. Do this until your arms get tired then keep going or trade off with someone else. This will take hours and at the end you still won't be done.

Fans everywhere possible.

If you can lift the carpets from the sides slide towels under them and repeat the whole process like you did from the top side.

Vinegar can also help but then your car will smell like vinegar. Oh and her car will likely smell like vinegar, mold and feet anyways.

Invest in gallons of Febreeze.

Good luck.

Running a dehumidifier for a couple days will seriously work wonders. Wife left the sunroof open during a storm once. Just use the shop vac to get all the water you can get up. We also poured baking soda all over the carpet and then used the shop vac again on that hours later.

Removing/replacing carpet can be a real pain in the ass that requires the removal of tons of stuff like the entire dash in some cars.

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Only place I could find online had it for $470. Is that about right? Anyone ever replaced carpet before? Should I pull it out and try to dry it myself? Any other tips or recommendations?

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$470 is about twice as much as I'd pay. Check local body shop suppliers.

I've replaced quite a few when I worked at a body shop. You will have to pull out the seats, console, door sill trim, etc (since the carpet tucks under the trim). Disconnect all wires that were under water, clean the connections, add dielectric grease, and reconnect.

You'll need basic hand tools, screwdriver, metric sockets (6-8mm for most everything and maybe 14mm for the seats).


OR


Yank out carpet and get a gallon of brush-on bed liner in the color of choice.

Try parking it at Texas Direct Auto.

The jute underneath will suck water up like crazy as everyone else has said.

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I'm having trouble finding replacement carpet. Only place I could find online had it for $470. Is that about right? Anyone ever replaced
carpet before? Should I pull it out and try to dry it myself? Any
other tips or recommendations?

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LOLno.

Toyota sells the carpet for 396 online, for a 2004 sedan. I'm sure a local dealer would price match or come close, but I have a wholesale account at Joe Myers anyway.

470 for aftermarket carpet is insane.

It may not have been mentioned yet, but I'd most definitely pull the carpet and pad out.

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Anyone know why Toyota called it the echo?

When the first one rolled off the assembly line you could hear everyone say "what a piece of ****!" Over and over again.

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And that's exactly what we're gonna do to 'em Ags!!!

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I think Mother Nature did your friend a favor.

"friend" who is a girl. Is this going to get you laid? That is the important question.

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"friend" who is a girl. Is this going to get you laid? That is the important question.

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And if it is, hopefully not on said carpet, once out of vehicle. At least until it's cleaned.

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The jute underneath will suck water up like crazy as everyone else has said.

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I'd be surprised if they used jute in that car. Foam padding is cheaper and lighter. Either one does hold water and needs either replacement, or thorough drying, as stated before.

Pull all carpet, run fan in interior for a couple days.

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"friend" who is a girl. Is this going to get you laid? That is the important question.

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It better. I don't work for free.

First of all, why the **** do women keep so much **** in their cars??? Had her clean all her **** out of it before I'd get started.

As expected, after sitting in the sun all day, it stunk to high heaven and the windows fogged. I mentioned I'd previously vacumed out the carpet the day before. After I pulled up the carpet, I realized vacuming it out was pretty much useless on its own. There was still standing water UNDER the carpet. So pulled out the carpet, pulled out the pads, vacumed up the standing water, put the air mover in it for a few hours and it seems like the smell is completely gone. Or more accurately , relocated from inside the car to the carpeting that's now outside the car. No sign of mold or mildew at all.

I am glad that I didn't trust her when she said that the trunk didn't get wet. I opened it up, pulled the carpet back there and the spare is submerged in water. Pulled the drain plugs (why don't they have those in the passenger compartment?) and dried it out after the water drained out.

The floor mats were previously vacumed and left inside. After a day in the AC, they are now completely dry. So I vacumed the foam pads, vacumed them, and left them in the AC. I'm expecting them to be dry tomorrow.

Now all I have left to worry about is the carpet. I didn't expect it to be a relatively thick rubber material with a carpeted top and more foam attached to the bottom. It smells, but no signs of mold or mildew yet. Getting the carpet side dry is easy with the shop vac. The foam side isn't as easy since the vacume only gets some of the water out. Threw it in my truck and am going to hang it up in my garage tonight with fans blowing on it to hopefully get it completely dry. If the smell's completely gone like it is from the car interior, I'm not going to bother shampooing it. Otherwise, I'll shampoo the carpet let it dry, and put it back in.

Some Carrie Underwood for the help, and no, the photo isn't too big:

Hate to say it, but while you went to the trouble and have the carpet out, might as well shampoo it. Should not take that long. It may dry and not smell now but on the first rainy day when you get carpet wet again from the water from shoes and wet umbrella yada, yada and then sun comes out after rain and car sets in sun with windows rolled up.........may smell horrid and you will be wondering why you didn't the first time. I am sure she will appreciate it. (wink, wink)

Edit: For light cleaning, and on the cheap, we used to use a bucket of water and mix up some Woolite and use scrub brush. Rinse thoroughly. Does a pretty good job for light cleaning and did not leave harsh smell

This is the fix. For those that pay careful attention you might recognize this was my red Civic, and this is why I sold it. We had rising water on our driveway and it penetrated the car through the weep holes.

Mr Dubi took apart the interior, dried it with fans, then re-assembled. NEVER AGAIN.



High water mark on the Tundra that was also on the driveway.



Our street

Do not shampoo carpet. Carpets are oil based and shampoos are oil based. They will bond and create a place for dirt to bond to the carpet, which will get you those dirty spots that never really go away no matter how much you steam clean them.

This goes for any type of carpet except wool. Polypropeline, polyester and nylon make up like 99% of carpet in homes or cars and oil-based shampoos should not be used on any of them. Car interiors are usually Polypropeline, also called olefin. Same material used for water skiing ropes. Polyester is the same used in ****ty clothes and coke bottles.

Water as hot as you can get it + water-based cleaning agents only.

I was a rep for the biggest carpet company in the world for a while. Also, when you see warranties on carpet of any kind, just completely ignore it.

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High water mark on the Tundra that was also on the driveway.

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Looks like it rose up about 23 inches. /QuickerSticker

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High water mark on the Tundra that was also on the driveway.

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Looks like it rose up about 23 inches. /QuickerSticker

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/POTD

DubiDumbass

My daughters car last week AFTER the water started going down. Water was up to the seats (over in the back seat). That's the center stripe of highway 105 at the bottom of the pic. Waiting to see what insurance does.

Lights were still functioning?!

And that's the daughter with the "built" engine, right?

This is why we can't have nice things

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Lights were still functioning?!

And that's the daughter with the "built" engine, right?

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You call them "engines"?