# Spilled water in trunk



## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Anyone have a clue as to how to remove the rear seats and carpet from the 2014 CTD? My wife was carrying a large amount of water in the car and about 4 gallons spilled onto the floor of the trunk when someone cut her off. I am open to suggestions on how best to remove the water and keep the car from getting mold or mildew. There is no apparent standing water and she said some drained out near the wheel well. But it feels a bit squishy under the carpet and the rear seat is wet near the back. I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks.


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## Slammed2014Eco (Feb 13, 2014)

wet/dry shop vac?

Get the small tip for the nozzle and should work to get any excess water hopefully that is underneath the carpet too if it is seeped in.


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

I was able to lift the bottom of the rear seat up on the front side but couldn't remove it. This enabled me to slide my hand down under the carpet on the rear floor. There seems to be a fair amount of sound dampening material down there that has soaked up most of the water. It seems fairly saturated so I may have to bring the car to the dealer and have the carpet removed and either dried out or replaced.


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## josh2012eco (Oct 6, 2014)

Too bad its not summertime, just let it bake 1/2 a day and open the windows the other half for a few days.


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## Slammed2014Eco (Feb 13, 2014)

I would think there would be a mildew smell after that even if it did happen to evaporate most of it.


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## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

If you have a garage and a propane or kerosene fueled bullet-style heater, I'd take it inside, use a towel and vaccum to get as much water as possible, then open the rear doors and trunk, place the heater about 8 feet from the car and let 'er cook for about 12 hours, moving it from left door to trunk to right door every hour or so. Should dry it out pretty efficiently. If you don't have a garage, this obviously won't work. If you have a garage, even if you have to buy the heater, it and 5-10 gallons of fuel would cost you a whole lot less than having the dealer dry it out.


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## dhpnet (Mar 2, 2014)

I would remove the carpet in the trunk and the bottom of the rear seat and take them inside to dry. Then I would use a shop vac to suck up as much as possible. Then I would put a fan in there to keep the air moving while it dried.


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Well we have no garage and it's freezing out so we're keeping the windows open throughout the weekend as long as the weather holds. The good news is we called our insurance company and they told us to bring it to an auto body shop on Monday morning where they will remove the carpet and determine if it needs to be dried out or replaced. It would be covered under our policy minus the deductible. So this might work out to be ok.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Ashokan1 said:


> Well we have no garage and it's freezing out so we're keeping the windows open throughout the weekend as long as the weather holds. The good news is we called our insurance company and they told us to bring it to an auto body shop on Monday morning where they will remove the carpet and determine if it needs to be dried out or replaced. It would be covered under our policy minus the deductible. So this might work out to be ok.


In the meantime go to your local grocery store and rent a carpet cleaner. Use it to suck out as much water as you can. The quicker you get the water out the better the final outcome. Keep the receipt for your insurance company.


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## JoeInMilwaukee (Dec 10, 2014)

I vote for taking it to the Chevy dealer.

In Summer 2010 we had a massive downpour overnight. The underground garage where my Oldsmobile Alero was parked flooded and the water rose high enough to get under the doors. The following morning I had about an inch of standing water on the floor of the car's passenger compartment. I was in panic mode!

I bailed out as much water as I could, wringing-out towel after towel, wet vacuuming, and then let the car sit outside during the day in the warm air and sun with the windows open for TWO weeks. Still, when I pressed on the carpeting (which was now dry to the touch) I could hear a squishing sound. I pulled up a small section of carpeting and noticed a plastic or vinyl backing on the carpet, which was keeping much of the water in the padding. (Fortunately the seats were never touched by the water.)

I took the car to a couple of auto body shops for estimates, but ultimately ended up going to a GM dealer. The dealer took out all the carpeting and padding, rinsed and dried it, and reinstalled it. Also had the oil and transmission fluid changed (water could have seeped in). One very critical component the dealer replaced that the auto body shops would have missed was an air bag control module under the front passenger seat (the module was under the floor level and hence got soaked).

All this cost me $1200 (!) but was well worth it. Obviously this was a very labor-intensive job and the new air bag module had the typical over-inflated GM pricing, but when I got the car back I was extremely pleased with the dealer's work.

If you don't take the car to a GM dealer, be absolutely certain that no electronics got wet!


- Joe


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## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

JoeInMilwaukee said:


> I vote for taking it to the Chevy dealer.
> 
> In Summer 2010 we had a massive downpour overnight. The underground garage where my Oldsmobile Alero was parked flooded and the water rose high enough to get under the doors. The following morning I had about an inch of standing water on the floor of the car's passenger compartment. I was in panic mode!
> 
> ...


That brings up a good point. Since your Cruze is a Diesel, you have all of the DEF-related equipment under your trunk floor. There shouldn't be anything electronic under the rear seat or on the rear floor, but if it made it up past the back of the driver's seat, the electronics under the front seats could be effected. However, because of the DEF-related equipment, it may be wise to use the dealer's body shop rather than an independent body shop so that their service department can inspect the wiring and modules below the trunk floor to make sure your DEF injection system has not been compromised by the incident. If insurance is paying, the cost will be the same for you either way, but if you start having problems with your DEF-injection system later after the claim has been closed, it could cause you a lot of difficulty, up to the point of putting you into a limp mode or effectively disabling the vehicle by triggering the 5mph ultra-limp mode.


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## bigluke (Aug 18, 2013)

Pull a long power cord from home and install a portable heater or two If possible on rear floors and let them dry the car as long as necessary with windows an inch open. Than to take out all the moisture put cat litter in some socks and leave them on the floor mats and everywhere where you think moisture can trap. To finish I would put 1/2 liter of white vinegar in an open tupperware overnight to take out any odors left. If you can find a heated garage same process but a lot faster. Good drying.


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## jalaner (Dec 28, 2013)

Be sure to replace any absorbent materials that are visibly moldy or odorous. Mold can only be completely removed from nonporous surfaces. The EPA has mold remediation guidelines (online) for building carpet and furnishings that could also applied to cars.


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## Barefeet (Jan 1, 2014)

This might be a good lesson for people who are tempted to drive thru flooded streets.


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## TX CTD (Oct 24, 2014)

Not sure how you would pull this off with the below freezing weather, but it works well for me. I put a small fan 2 or 3 cups of damp rid in my boat when we get done skiing in the winter. Takes a couple of days to completely dry the carpet out. It won't dry in the winter without this, but we rarely have times where we stay below freezing for more than a day. Maybe throw in a light to keep the temp above freezing.


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Here's the update. We went with the body shop affiliated with the insurance company for several reasons but mostly because they provided a written lifetime guarantee for the work. I know there are always loopholes but that sounded pretty convincing to me. 

They removed and are drying out the front and rear seats as well as the carpet. The entire sound pad is being removed and replaced as mold already started to form. They are replacing the rear air bags which were wet and doing an ozone treatment on the car (whatever that means). Total cost $1124 and we are covered for a rental car.

I'll be sure to have them check the DEF in the trunk as well as any electronics in the center console.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

As you found out, and is often forgotten, that jute fiber mat that is between the carpeting and floorboard.

Once wet, that stuff makes mold like crazy and it also will cause the floorboards to rust out because it stays wet.....for YEARS.
Automotive carpeting is run across a hot plate to melt the bottom closed.

This prevents the water you carry into the car on your shoes (as well as melting snow) from going through and saturating the jute and causing floor rust.

The shop that has it clearly knows their stuff and is following the correct method of resolution.

Wise decision,
Rob


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Got the car back and everything seems fine. :goodjob:

They dried everything out and replaced anything wet or with mold or mildew including the under flooring sound absorbing material, 2 rear airbags, and the front firewall jute. All electronics checked. Took about 9 days to get parts and the work completed but it was over the holidays. So far, so good and I'm confident in the lifetime warranty. 

One question I'm curious about...does this report become available to future buyers of the car on services like Carfax? it wasn't an accident so it was in any public record. I'm more curious than anything as we'll probably drive this car for at least 5 years or more upon which time the issue should be nonexistent.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

Ashokan1 said:


> Got the car back and everything seems fine. :goodjob:
> 
> They dried everything out and replaced anything wet or with mold or mildew including the under flooring sound absorbing material, 2 rear airbags, and the front firewall jute. All electronics checked. Took about 9 days to get parts and the work completed but it was over the holidays. So far, so good and I'm confident in the lifetime warranty.
> 
> One question I'm curious about...does this report become available to future buyers of the car on services like Carfax? it wasn't an accident so it was in any public record. I'm more curious than anything as we'll probably drive this car for at least 5 years or more upon which time the issue should be nonexistent.


Only way to know for sure is to take a peek at the Carfax. Glad you got it back and all is well.


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## JoeInMilwaukee (Dec 10, 2014)

Thanks for posting an update, Ashokan1. Sounds as though you chose the right repair facility!

Regarding how this shows up on CARFAX reports, I've often wondered the same thing about my Oldsmobile. Although I don't have an answer, I _can_ say that when I traded-in my Oldsmobile to the Chevrolet dealer for my 2014 Cruze, no mention was made of my little "incident," so I'm assuming it didn't show up as "flood" or "accident" in GM's repair database (and the Chevrolet dealer should have had access to my repair records, since all my repairs have been done at the same GM dealer). But then again, the GM dealer that repaired my Oldsmobile did the repairs via the Service Department, not the Body Shop. (When I first brought the car to the GM dealer for an estimate I went to the Body Shop, but I was redirected to the Service Department.)

At the very least, make sure you hold on to your repair records to prove to any future potential buyer that the repairs were for spilled water and not due to an accident or a flood.


- Joe


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Good point Joe.
Thanks to all for the good advice.


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