I left my sunroof open overnight and it rained like hell. Now when I get into my car its like walking into a greenhouse and the window are all fogged up on the inside. How can I dry those seats out before winter comes and that fog turns into ice?
I would use a shop vacuum to get as much water out as possible. Then whenever possible park it in direct sunlight with the windows and sunroof cracked open.
When driving you can set your AC to maximum then adjust the temperature to a comfortable level. The AC on maximum will act as a dehumidifier. If you Subaru has automatic climate control this may not be possible.
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Something else you might try after vacuuming, is DampRid, Use this with the vehicle closed up. Be sure to empty the container(s) before driving, you don’t want them to spill and saturate your carpets again.
I would do two things , first I would call the insurance company and see if I have any coverage for this - second I would call several detail shops and see what they say and maybe get a ball park price to have this taken care of properly .
Where I live it would take about two hours to dry out the interior, while it is more humid in most other parts of the country it seems that watching water evaporate is a simple activity (open the windows).
I think you need to wet vac, then remove the seats, then lift the carpeting, wet vac some more, let things dry, and then reassemble. Hopefully things like lock and window controls, and the dials on the dash did not get water behind them and start corrosion on all the connectors.
Like Volvo V70 said, it’s probably worth calling your insurance. It’s a new vehicle after all.
If you really want to do it yourself, in addition to the steps above, I’d go through several rolls of paper towels to soak up everything I can (after the vacuum treatment). If at all possible I’d park where I could leave the door open and point a fan at it for several hours, moving it around as needed.
But this is a brand new car, I’d call around to see if detail shops could do it better.
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Call your insurance company and ask them what to do, or call around to auto detail shops that do interior deep cleaning. The padding under the carpet will hang on to water for a long time and you may never get rid of the musty smell.
Here in the rainy Pacific Northwest the forecast is rain and showers with temps in the mid 60’s for the foreseeable future. Unless the OP has a garage where he can get the temp up to 80* and has several fans, the car may not dry out until May!
Around here, you would have mold growing before the thing dried out. I once had a firewall seam leaking that soaked the carpet. I dried out the carpet with a wet/dry vac and ran a fan for a day. It didn’t seem to be doing any good so I pulled back the carpet and found GALLONS of water in the padding and footwell. I had to take it all out, wring out the padding and let it dry in the sun for a couple of days before putting it all back in. It was a big job but necessary to prevent mold growing inside.
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Remove the seats and the carpet and its padding and take them to somewhere they can be dried with heat, fans, dehumidifiers, etc. Sunlight, especially on the padding, can help prevent mold growth. I wouldn’t trust any fix that did not include these steps.
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