A Very Soggy Problem....

January 29, 2012

We have a RAV Mk 2 NRG. It has not been used since early December, so it has been parked-up in the drive with the Battery disconnected.

I opened it yesterday to find that it smelt musty, there were patches of 'dusty mould' on the seats and the carpets felt damp. On the driver's side the carpet was sodden and on lifting the edge I found it was like a lake underneath - I had to remove the rubber bung in the well to let the water out! Basically the carpets are at least damp, if not worse, throughout the car.

Clearly I shall have to remove all the seats, some trim etc and take out the whole carpet before I can even attempt to dry anything out. Not easy, especially as no garage in which to do the work and nowhere to dry out all the carpet afterwards :-(

Questions please: 1. Anything to know that is not obvious about how to get everything out? 2. Any problems of which to be aware? 3. Any other (helpful!) suggestions?

From checking around, there has not been any sort of leak. The overall distribution of the problem suggests just a massive amount of condensation for some reason. I'm reluctant to couple up the Battery until I've got a fan heater into the car, in case of electrical problems, tho' there is no obvious sign that the water has got into anything above floor level.

NOT a good start to the year, especially just when we need to use the car if the bad weather is coming :-(

January 29, 2012

I'd make a guess that the windscreen seal may be leaking. You won't see anything apart from a puddle on the floor.

I've taken the carpets out of number 1 RAV twice - the first time was cos they were soaking and stinking. Fitted a new carpet back in but have taken that out as the rollcage was being welded in.

Check that the floor isn't starting to rust as well.

I had no problems taking the seats and carpet out. The only thing you need to be careful of is whether the car has airbags fitted in the sides or seats - on yours I'm not sure.

January 30, 2012

For some reason the reply that I posted yesterday does not seem to have appeared.....

I had a car once with a leaking windscreen seal. The water ran down the bulkhead behind the carpet into the passenger footwell, but did not get anywhere else. In the RAV the damp is far more widespread.

I removed the carpet from the rear part yesterday and there was damp all under there, as well as condensation-like droplets under the various bits of trim. There had been an old car rug folded up and left on the carpet behind the rear door - that was sodden as well. Unless every window in the car had leaked at the same time, I'm sure that it was some form of heavy condensation over several weeks. Would that be caused perhaps by a blocked air-vent somewhere?

I was hoping to get the front seats out today, but at the moment it is snowing outside, so it would be silly to have the RAV doors open :-) Pity really, just the weather when you need a 4x4 :-(