Wet rear seat...?

[SebRogers]

Afternoon all...

Yesterday I washed a week and a tank of diesel's worth of salt and grime off my car, and last night we had heavy rain and strong winds. This morning I noticed that the section of the rear O/S seat squab nearest the door was damp, and a bit of the carpet nearest the door was also wet to the touch.

The car has manual winder rear windows, so that was the first thing I checked. Stupidly I managed to wind it the wrong way to start with, so I have no idea whether it was actually slightly open... or not. I have noticed it's easy to knock the window open a tiny bit, particularly with 3 1/2 year old daughter occupying the back seat occasionally. I've never had rain coming in before, but then it was a particularly stormy night.

On the other hand, the ONLY sign of water ingress was the dampish section of seat squab and a few square inches of carpet. No trace of wetness anywhere else.

Window is now firmy closed and carpet / seat has been dried as best I can with towel / hairdryer. Which leaves two questions:

1. Is an ever-so-slightly open window the most likely answer, or is there something else I should check? A quick investigation hasn't revealed any obvious alternative route into the car.

2. I've read elsewhere that damp carpets can be a pain to dry out because water collects in the recess / foam underneath. Should I be concerned about this and, if so, how would I go about lifting the carpet to dry out the area underneath?

Thanks in advance!

[kite]

Get someone to sit in the car and hose it down, get the person inside to look for water getting in.

[spartacus 68]

Wouldn't worry about the wet patch drying properly. In time it will dry out sufficiently. The problem starts if it is getting wet all the time (damaged door seal).

If you are concerned - then should be straight forward to lift carpet, however you will need to remove rear bench seat, door sill trim, etc. Personally I wouldn't bother. If it was milk on the other hand...

[SebRogers]

Thanks Kite, I'll give that a go as soon as I can find a willing volunteer.

Spartacus, you've put my mind at rest on the drying side of things I'm pretty sure it's not a door seal at fault, since as far as I can see that would result in a wet footwell but not a damp seat.

I'll be keeping an eye on it (and making sure I keep that window wound all the way up ;-))...