I lost my car in a river, what should I do now?

[ollieboy]

Tonight A series of events unfolded that lead to my car being submerged in water for about half an hour, how it happened is not important.

When I eventually got the car out it was really wet obviously but thankfully the engine didn't go underwater.

What I'm wondering is what should I do now in terms of getting it back to how it should be? I've undone the bungs in the bottom and drained quite a few litres of water out but is there anything else I should drain water out of?

Help is appreciated

Ollie

[Mr_procrastination]

Lol sounds like a hell of a night,
Depends how well you want to do it, id pull the seats and carpet out and dry it in the sun tomorrow, and that way all the dampness will evaporat from the floor. You dont want to leave any part of the inside of the car damp for any real length of time, maybe the door trims too. Would pay to run the car after then check the gearbox, engine and diff oils for contamination too.

[Mr_procrastination]

Hell I hope your not talking about the starlet in your profile????

[Jazza]

Being completely serious. If you have a garage, put a dehumidifier(sp?) in your car and close the doors. Use towels to soak up as much moisture as possible, and double check no electrics are damaged...

DONT FORGET TO EMPTY THE DEHUMIDIFER!

I did this with my civic and in under a week it was completely dry. It hadnt been driven in over a month and had a leak in the windscreen. When i inally opened it there was 10cm of water in the bottom.

[Ae92typeX]

I'd agree with the top two suggestions, but would check box fluids etc before trying to start.

How deep did it go in? depending on that I would def remove all lower interior, door trim etc, if there was the chance of any silt getting into stuffs. Have seen a few japper imports over the years which had been like that (silt under carpet and inside doors).
If there is a positive point to this its that you submerged it in a river, not the sea, so at least it is fresh water.

[escortman]

wen u pull the interior out u may as waterblast, it just a bit of a clean, ull be suprised how much cleaner supposedly clean carpet becomes

[Mr Revhead]

if i were you id look at the way u do things!

you seem to have some interesting dilemmas

[snwtoy]

Pics/story or it didn't happen?

[RS13]

Pics/story or it didn't happen?

Yeah come on Ollie, tell us what happened..

[l1ttle_d3vil]

yeah stick a dehumidifier in the car they work pretty good, and lift the carpet and put a heater under it or something.

[crnkin]

wen u pull the interior out u may as waterblast, it just a bit of a clean, ull be suprised how much cleaner supposedly clean carpet becomes

I wouldnt do that, just incase all the carpet comes off, like paint... not too sure tho, depends on the quality of the carpet

[fangsport]

Pics/story or it didn't happen?

Yeah come on Ollie, tell us what happened..

the truth is out there, i'll try and extract it tomorrow.

[RS13]

When my car got soaked, I just took the carpet and seats out, and dried them in the sun. Flush all fluids, and change them. Take door skins off to dry electrics if you have them..

[escortman]

wen u pull the interior out u may as waterblast, it just a bit of a clean, ull be suprised how much cleaner supposedly clean carpet becomes

I wouldnt do that, just incase all the carpet comes off, like paint... not too sure tho, depends on the quality of the carpet

spose but i did that with my 20ur old ae82 was covered with mud inside, how i bought it, and pulled it out waterblasted, only with lowest setting and cleaned it really well and made carpet all fluffy lol

[Crucible]

I did this with my civic and in under a week it was completely dry. It hadnt been driven in over a month and had a leak in the windscreen. When i inally opened it there was 10cm of water in the bottom.

Haha my accord has a mushroom garden growing out of control on the passenger floor lol, the leaking windscreen keeps them nicely watered. Good for the sunday Bacon & Eggs ,suppose hondas are good for something aye

[ollieboy]

Ok the story.

Me and two friends were driving on Friday night, we were on a track next to a riverbed and we came across a ford. We waded through to check depth and strength of bottom. The water was only about ankle height. All seemed ok so we proceeded. When the car got about halfway across the ground went suddenly soggy and the back of the car just dropped through loose gravel into what seemed like nothing. The car from the B-pillar backwards went under and the engine went way up in the air. It ended up on about a 30- 40 degree angle. We had to jump out of the two front doors and water was flowing right through the back doors. The car stayed running and the exhaust sat there bubbling away for about half an hour while we tried to free the car. We were out of cellphone range so couldn't call anybody. We tried putting weight on the front to bring it down and we tried pushing it but in the end we jacked it up as high as the jack would go then all three of us pushed it with all of our strength and we eventually got it free. Thats my shameful story of the week

[ollieboy]

And for the illiterate here it is in storybook format:


Oh bloody hell, lame jokes, I'm off to bed!

[Adydas]

ah man, your title says lost in river, that sounds like a creek if that :p just hassling but that sucks i just dont understand how the back of the car went down and not the heavery front? with motor weight etc.

Sounds like the advice has been gave out tho, take things out and let them sun dry etc, check liquids and electronics.

Good luck geting it sorted, it allways sucks when things like this happen i remember with a mate we went out hooning around the bottom of wellington ( where that guy was found handless ) and got stuck in the real lose rocks, no cell phone range. Fortunatly was only for like 20 mins bit of wood from around the beach broke us free. Sad thing was another made did the same thing in the same area but couldnt get out.

But we all have simlar stories

[fangsport]

Ollie, golden rule number 1: never trust a ford or a Ford