Advice on cleaning carpet after water leak (2000 Lincoln Town Car)

[jzeller]

Hi all, if you've followed my threads before then you may recall I mentioned a mysterious water leak in my 2000 town car. Long story short, it is not the common issue of water leaking in through the passenger side wiper reservoir and collecting behind the passenger seat. (I already had that issue and fixed it.) This leak is causing water to collect behind the driver's seat. The car does have a sunroof, but the water seems to be coming in from the front area of the cabin. (I know this because there is slight dampness under the gas pedal.)

Most of my research has led me to believe it is a pinhole leak in the wiper reservoir on the driver side. However, I don't really have a way of finding it efficiently. I'm most likely going to have a mechanic or Lincoln find the leak. (I know, most would say don't go to a dealer, but I have many Lincoln rewards points I can use towards the bill.)

Anyway, it usually only collects water after rain, and mostly dampens the carpet behind the driver seat. I keep a boat moisture absorber in the car which has been successful at preventing mildew up until recently. I also covered the car for much of winter. Unfortunately, we had heavy rainfall this week and with some things that came up, I wasn't able to check on the car daily. With that, a literal puddle of water was in the car for a couple of days. Yesterday, I removed the drain plug and vacuumed the water out. As many of us town car drivers know, that carpet is a literal sponge. So I can't get it all out with the shop vac. Also, it is too cold in NY right now to let it air out in the sun successfully.

So, I used baking soda and carpet cleaner on it, and have two moisture absorbers in the car since yesterday. However, the car still smells of mildew, though it's not as strong as yesterday. I ordered a deep cleaning kit from Chemical Guys, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to eliminate the mildew smell (that doesn't involve removing the entire carpet.) I read online to use vinegar, but I figured since most town cars get water leaks, some of you may have experience with these issues and have your own solutions. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

-Jared
2000 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series Versailles Edition with 45,000 miles.

 

[oktowncar]

Hi all, if you've followed my threads before then you may recall I mentioned a mysterious water leak in my 2000 town car. Long story short, it is not the common issue of water leaking in through the passenger side wiper reservoir and collecting behind the passenger seat. (I already had that issue and fixed it.) This leak is causing water to collect behind the driver's seat. The car does have a sunroof, but the water seems to be coming in from the front area of the cabin. (I know this because there is slight dampness under the gas pedal.)

Most of my research has led me to believe it is a pinhole leak in the wiper reservoir on the driver side. However, I don't really have a way of finding it efficiently. I'm most likely going to have a mechanic or Lincoln find the leak. (I know, most would say don't go to a dealer, but I have many Lincoln rewards points I can use towards the bill.)

Anyway, it usually only collects water after rain, and mostly dampens the carpet behind the driver seat. I keep a boat moisture absorber in the car which has been successful at preventing mildew up until recently. I also covered the car for much of winter. Unfortunately, we had heavy rainfall this week and with some things that came up, I wasn't able to check on the car daily. With that, a literal puddle of water was in the car for a couple of days. Yesterday, I removed the drain plug and vacuumed the water out. As many of us town car drivers know, that carpet is a literal sponge. So I can't get it all out with the shop vac. Also, it is too cold in NY right now to let it air out in the sun successfully.

So, I used baking soda and carpet cleaner on it, and have two moisture absorbers in the car since yesterday. However, the car still smells of mildew, though it's not as strong as yesterday. I ordered a deep cleaning kit from Chemical Guys, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to eliminate the mildew smell (that doesn't involve removing the entire carpet.) I read online to use vinegar, but I figured since most town cars get water leaks, some of you may have experience with these issues and have your own solutions. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

-Jared
2000 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series Versailles Edition with 45,000 miles.

No matter what you do you're going to have residual water on the floor and will keep the carpet pad moist.
It is best to completely remove said carpet, clean the floor pan and let it air dry.

The Chemical Guys stuff is good but I wouldn't use vinegar as it is an acid and may damage the fiber and/or dye in the carpet fiber.

 

[ogre01]

In my previous car, that developed a leak at the sunroof, I just stuck my basement dehumidifier in the car with a small circulating fan for a weekend. I was concerned with maybe drying out the seats too much, so I put some leather conditioner on them after running the dehumidifier. Not that running a house-use electrical device in a car for a weekend is necessarily a good idea, but it worked very well for me, drying the carpet and what part of pad I could feel without peeling it back.

EDIT: on the stink side, if you have or know someone with an ozone generator, that eliminates some bad odors, I have two and regularly use them in my van (pet and general stink), my Dad's "new" car to get rid of heavy smoker smell, and have used it in an office backroom that had an awful mildew smell. If it were me, I'd just run it all (ozone, fan, dehumidifier) at the same time ***car lives outside***

 

[jzeller]

In my previous car, that developed a leak at the sunroof, I just stuck my basement dehumidifier in the car with a small circulating fan for a weekend. I was concerned with maybe drying out the seats too much, so I put some leather conditioner on them after running the dehumidifier. Not that running a house-use electrical device in a car for a weekend is necessarily a good idea, but it worked very well for me, drying the carpet and what part of pad I could feel without peeling it back.

EDIT: on the stink side, if you have or know someone with an ozone generator, that eliminates some bad odors, I have two and regularly use them in my van (pet and general stink), my Dad's "new" car to get rid of heavy smoker smell, and have used it in an office backroom that had an awful mildew smell. If it were me, I'd just run it all (ozone, fan, dehumidifier) at the same time ***car lives outside***

Thank you for the advice! This is much more doable for me. Taking the carpet out definitely would be the best approach, but as a full time teacher and lack of adequate garage workspace, I don't have the time. I will look into ozone generators too. The car does have a sunroof so it may be that as the source. I'm going to cover the roof before it rains next to test it out. It seems like most of the mildew is accumulating between the driver seat and center console, mainly underneath the seat. If it still leaks then I'll know it's likely coming in from the front of the car.

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[Jryan]

I'll toss in my experience in case it's of use. After discovering and subsequently repairing the passenger side cowl water leak, I dried out the carpets short of full removal by pulling the panels at the exterior of the carpet (kick panels, at the doors, B pillars) such that the carpet could be raised as much as possible. Placed some blocks of wood / CPVC piping in there to prop the carpet off the floor pan. The carpet backing is non permeable, and therefore getting airflow and drying action between carpet backing and floorpan seemed a good idea. However, I wasn't keen on pulling the seats as the previous removal of the drivers seat was a pain. By leaving doors open and a fan in place during a sunny day, things dried out nicely. I didn't have an odor problem such as yours, but the turtle wax carpet cleaner with oxyclean did a fine job and smelled nice.

 

[G-956168]

Hello,

My 2004 Town car experienced the same Passenger side leak. I pulled the plug drain out what did drain I used a wet Vac. I resealed the common leak from the passenger side Air vent intake(caulking it). I used a hover (slate) hand held carpet cleaner and dried out the carpet (upstate NY) using a small floor heater. I also sprayed Lysol from under the hood outside Twice running all heater vents. The smell is Gone! So far so good. Here is a video I found that describe a know issue- That I did have...

I hope this helps.

 

[jzeller]

I'll toss in my experience in case it's of use. After discovering and subsequently repairing the passenger side cowl water leak, I dried out the carpets short of full removal by pulling the panels at the exterior of the carpet (kick panels, at the doors, B pillars) such that the carpet could be raised as much as possible. Placed some blocks of wood / CPVC piping in there to prop the carpet off the floor pan. The carpet backing is non permeable, and therefore getting airflow and drying action between carpet backing and floorpan seemed a good idea. However, I wasn't keen on pulling the seats as the previous removal of the drivers seat was a pain. By leaving doors open and a fan in place during a sunny day, things dried out nicely. I didn't have an odor problem such as yours, but the turtle wax carpet cleaner with oxyclean did a fine job and smelled nice.

Thank you! I will look into trying this as well

 

[Silverskates]

Hi all, if you've followed my threads before then you may recall I mentioned a mysterious water leak in my 2000 town car. Long story short, it is not the common issue of water leaking in through the passenger side wiper reservoir and collecting behind the passenger seat. (I already had that issue and fixed it.) This leak is causing water to collect behind the driver's seat. The car does have a sunroof, but the water seems to be coming in from the front area of the cabin. (I know this because there is slight dampness under the gas pedal.)

Most of my research has led me to believe it is a pinhole leak in the wiper reservoir on the driver side. However, I don't really have a way of finding it efficiently. I'm most likely going to have a mechanic or Lincoln find the leak. (I know, most would say don't go to a dealer, but I have many Lincoln rewards points I can use towards the bill.)

Anyway, it usually only collects water after rain, and mostly dampens the carpet behind the driver seat. I keep a boat moisture absorber in the car which has been successful at preventing mildew up until recently. I also covered the car for much of winter. Unfortunately, we had heavy rainfall this week and with some things that came up, I wasn't able to check on the car daily. With that, a literal puddle of water was in the car for a couple of days. Yesterday, I removed the drain plug and vacuumed the water out. As many of us town car drivers know, that carpet is a literal sponge. So I can't get it all out with the shop vac. Also, it is too cold in NY right now to let it air out in the sun successfully.

So, I used baking soda and carpet cleaner on it, and have two moisture absorbers in the car since yesterday. However, the car still smells of mildew, though it's not as strong as yesterday. I ordered a deep cleaning kit from Chemical Guys, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to eliminate the mildew smell (that doesn't involve removing the entire carpet.) I read online to use vinegar, but I figured since most town cars get water leaks, some of you may have experience with these issues and have your own solutions. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

-Jared
2000 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series Versailles Edition with 45,000 miles.

I had similar situation w/an older Chrysler I have. After getting rid of the water w/shop vac, I used old towels to soak up the remaining water then a hair dryer to dry it out. Worked great!

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