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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > E90 / E92 / E93 3-series Technical Forums > Wash, Wax, Detailing and Cosmetic protection/repairs > Carwash Let Water In My Car



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      04-06-2013, 05:50 PM   #1
TheHundreds
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Carwash Let Water In My Car

To add to the lovely parking tickets I received yesterday, today I decided to revisit a carwash that I often went to, (Even back in the day as a little kid with my dad) but have not been to in a couple months now. Its called Sepulveda Carwash. Sure enough, as usual there were many BMW's there, ranging from 328i's to a brand new M5 and M6. As well as an assortment of other very nice luxury brands. And I'm watching the guy dry my car, he seemed like he was doing a lot more inside than usual. And then he gave me the keys kinda early, as if he hadn't really finished his work. I give the guy a nice $3 tip. the nerve. And as I sit down, the first thing I notice is the interiors a mess. There's a towel on the floor in the back, passenger sun visor is half way down, and then all of a sudden it hits me. There's this water everywhere. Not like someone poured water in the car, but like someone had taken a windex sprayer and sprayed water at my trim, my seats, the back seats, the floor in the back and the sides of my seat were soaking, the roof above my head was extremely wet, there was water around the door sills all the way up the side of the door, and even around my center console, come to think of it, there was water under my mirror switch and window switches as well. Now I immediately pulled a U-turn and walked up to the manager furious, like WTF is this. He was like oh shit. So he sent the same guy and I watched this idiot, who couldn't have told me the problem like a descent human being, take nearly 30 minutes with a high pressure air gun and dry my interior as much as he could. Every time he wanted to stop I would point something else out. Now I am definitely never visiting that carwash ever again. In retrospect I would have demanded a refund but I was a bit flustered. Now my the floor under and behind my driver seat still wasn't fully dry, so when I got home I left my clean windows down to let some air in the car. Now its been more than a couple hours and the floor is still a little damp. My question, as redundant as you may find it, is my car is ok? Will I be fine? I honestly can't think straight, this is my worst nightmare, so if anyone could chime in and either rise some concerns, or ease my pain, that would be great. Anyway sorry for the long right up, hopefully the only positive coming out of this, if there is no damage, would be a washed interior, albeit my car is hardly over a month old....
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      04-06-2013, 06:18 PM   #2
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You could go to Home Depot and pick up some of the packs that you put in closets etc that absorb water. May take a while. Otherwise I'd just leave the windows down in the garage if you've got one. I think it will be fine
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      04-06-2013, 06:27 PM   #3
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Wow, yea i'd be pissed too. Not sure if you have any recourse if there's any damage because of the water that shows up later on.
I'd say unless it was totally soaked that you should just let it air dry and it should be ok.

Hopefully they didn't pressure wash the interior like the video below.

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Last edited by Karbon; 04-06-2013 at 06:33 PM..
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      04-06-2013, 06:34 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Karbon
Wow, yea i'd be pissed too. Not sure if you have any recourse if there's any damage because of the water that shows up later on.
I'd say unless it was totally soaked that you should just let it air dry and it should be ok.

Hopefully they didn't pressure wash the interior like the video below.

Why would they do that? That's retarded
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      04-06-2013, 06:38 PM   #5
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Sorry to hear about your car wash incident.

I would take out the floor mats and drive the car with the AC on high (with the windows up) until it is dry (or you can't stand it any longer). It will get cold but the AC will help dry out the inside of the car. Since you live in California (dry weather) can you leave the windows open when you are not driving your car?

You can go back and talk to the Manager again (without too much anger if you can), maybe he doesn't realize how badly it got wet. Ask for a refund explaining that the service performed was actually detrimental to your vehicle (you are worried about long term damage (corrosion of electrical connections and smelly interior due excessive moisture in the car) and that the guy working on it only wanted you to leave and was not interested in removing the water. This won't help get rid of the moisture but it may make you feel better.
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      04-06-2013, 06:38 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Karbon View Post
Wow, yea i'd be pissed too. Not sure if you have any recourse if there's any damage because of the water that shows up later on.
I'd say unless it was totally soaked that you should just let it air dry and it should be ok.

Hopefully they didn't pressure wash the interior like the video below.

HAHA nah it wasn't totally soaked but i was like if someone spilled a large cup of water on the floor in the rear, so it definitely was pretty wet. That guy in the video is just beyond stupid lol.
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      04-06-2013, 06:39 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JMD415 View Post
You could go to Home Depot and pick up some of the packs that you put in closets etc that absorb water. May take a while. Otherwise I'd just leave the windows down in the garage if you've got one. I think it will be fine
Thanks for the advice, yeah my garage is filled with boxes at the moment but hopefully leaving the sunroof tiled or the windows slightly down will do the trick.
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      04-06-2013, 06:41 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1mikel1 View Post
Sorry to hear about your car wash incident.

I would take out the floor mats and drive the car with the AC on high (with the windows up) until it is dry (or you can't stand it any longer). It will get cold but the AC will help dry out the inside of the car. Since you live in California (dry weather) can you leave the windows open when you are not driving your car?

You can go back and talk to the Manager again (without too much anger if you can), maybe he doesn't realize how badly it got wet. Ask for a refund explaining that the service performed was actually detrimental to your vehicle (you are worried about long term damage (corrosion of electrical connections and smelly interior due excessive moisture in the car) and that the guy working on it only wanted you to leave and was not interested in removing the water. This won't help get rid of the moisture but it may make you feel better.
Thanks for the info, so there could be corrosion or long term issues?
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      04-06-2013, 06:51 PM   #9
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I wouldn't worry much about corrosion, it would be difficult to spray water directly onto the electrical connectors.
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      04-06-2013, 06:55 PM   #10
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I just checked my car, it smells terrible inside, I can't deal with this right now. I just purchased a 55k BMW, and I'm not trying to have a bad smelling car with anything that's messed up. Frankly, I am extremely angry... What are some solutions
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      04-06-2013, 06:58 PM   #11
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Bro, you have the best luck ever...

Jokes aside, you should be fine. Dry the mats outside, leave windows open, maybe spray some febreeze, and you can also shampoo/condition your seats
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      04-06-2013, 07:26 PM   #12
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The Car Wash that did this should detail the inside of your car. Have the Manager come smell the inside of the car and ask him what he would do.

If you can't trust this car wash go to another one or your Dealer and get their opinion.

The car must be dried out to get the smell out. Leave your doors and sunroof wide open, the sunroof tilted open is not letting that much air exchange to dry your car. Buy a cheap 2' high floor fan from Walmart and have it blow air through the car, this will help dry it out. Moving dry air through your car will pick up the moisture. If it is raining outside then this won't work that well of course.

I had my heater core leak on one of my cars in the past and it filled up the passenger side foot area with an inch of water. I used a fan to blow air through my car with the doors wide open. My car smelled weird for a while and I even had green mold in that area of my carpet (I did not drive my car that much and did not know it leaked until a few days later), but after I dried it out, cleaned it and used some Febreeze the smell was gone. I had hot sunny days in Texas to assist with the drying.
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      04-06-2013, 08:01 PM   #13
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Sorry to hear. As long as it doesn't look like ^ this you should be find. Keep the windows cracked and give it a couple of days.

Last edited by alwayseuro; 04-06-2013 at 08:18 PM..
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      04-06-2013, 08:49 PM   #14
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Yeah, that looks familiar!
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      04-06-2013, 09:17 PM   #15
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I think it'll be fine.

Funny story:

So you know how if you hold the unlock button on our cars, it opens all the windows? One fun Christmas day last December, while with the gf, apparently I sat on the button and its signal reached the car. Opened up all the windows and sunroof. It snowed that night...

I woke up and saw my car the next morning thinking "holy fuck did someone break into my car?" but then it dawned on me that no one breaks 4 windows and a sunroof to steal something lol. My seats and center console got a light dusting of snow (nothing too crazy) but enough to where it was damp for a little while. I let it sit in the warm garage for a few days with the windows open (to get air circulating - last thing you want is stagnant damp air). Left a box of baking soda on the floor of the rear seat to prevent any smells.

I let it all dry thoroughly. Needless to say I was pissed, but I made it through it. I think you can too
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      04-06-2013, 09:28 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHundreds
I just checked my car, it smells terrible inside, I can't deal with this right now. I just purchased a 55k BMW, and I'm not trying to have a bad smelling car with anything that's messed up. Frankly, I am extremely angry... What are some solutions
Leave those windows down or it will be worse
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      04-06-2013, 09:30 PM   #17
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ouch...that sucks.
What kind of car you have? e90/92/93?
I would be more concerned on how water entered the car.

So far as the current condition is concerned, keep the windows rolled down little bit and park your car in sun for a few days. Being in CA, Sun is not a problem.
The smell will go away.
If possible keep the doors open when the car is parked under Sun.
This is really bad on the car wash's part that this happened and they did not dry it out completely or give you some sort of future complimentary washes.
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      04-07-2013, 01:18 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DUI Elite View Post
I think it'll be fine.

Funny story:

So you know how if you hold the unlock button on our cars, it opens all the windows? One fun Christmas day last December, while with the gf, apparently I sat on the button and its signal reached the car. Opened up all the windows and sunroof. It snowed that night...

I woke up and saw my car the next morning thinking "holy fuck did someone break into my car?" but then it dawned on me that no one breaks 4 windows and a sunroof to steal something lol. My seats and center console got a light dusting of snow (nothing too crazy) but enough to where it was damp for a little while. I let it sit in the warm garage for a few days with the windows open (to get air circulating - last thing you want is stagnant damp air). Left a box of baking soda on the floor of the rear seat to prevent any smells.

I let it all dry thoroughly. Needless to say I was pissed, but I made it through it. I think you can too
Wow that does really suck, thanks for the story and kind words.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1mikel1 View Post
The Car Wash that did this should detail the inside of your car. Have the Manager come smell the inside of the car and ask him what he would do.

If you can't trust this car wash go to another one or your Dealer and get their opinion.

The car must be dried out to get the smell out. Leave your doors and sunroof wide open, the sunroof tilted open is not letting that much air exchange to dry your car. Buy a cheap 2' high floor fan from Walmart and have it blow air through the car, this will help dry it out. Moving dry air through your car will pick up the moisture. If it is raining outside then this won't work that well of course.

I had my heater core leak on one of my cars in the past and it filled up the passenger side foot area with an inch of water. I used a fan to blow air through my car with the doors wide open. My car smelled weird for a while and I even had green mold in that area of my carpet (I did not drive my car that much and did not know it leaked until a few days later), but after I dried it out, cleaned it and used some Febreeze the smell was gone. I had hot sunny days in Texas to assist with the drying.
I appreciate it ! Good news is that nearly all the water has dried, partly because of some of the advice you gave me, there isn't much smell left, but to ensure a smell does not develop, I will spray the car to keep a nice smell, thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by gds52 View Post
ouch...that sucks.
What kind of car you have? e90/92/93?
I would be more concerned on how water entered the car.

So far as the current condition is concerned, keep the windows rolled down little bit and park your car in sun for a few days. Being in CA, Sun is not a problem.
The smell will go away.
If possible keep the doors open when the car is parked under Sun.
This is really bad on the car wash's part that this happened and they did not dry it out completely or give you some sort of future complimentary washes.
I have a 2013 e92 335, and I didn't find out whose fault this accident was, but I m assuming the guy that drove my car up to the tracks did not fully close my door allowing water to spray in from the slightly lowered window and from the side of the door. Yeah I have been letting it sit in the sun with its windows down and what not, and to my surprise the car is already almost fully dry, and a smell has not developed, but I'll be careful to make sure one does not in the future. I am returning to the carwash with my dad tomorrow, who is wiser and better at chewing people's ass's than myself. Thanks bro
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      04-07-2013, 01:34 AM   #19
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I was on Sunset blvd the carwash right before the laugh factory, they were washing a Austin Martin Convertible with the top down.
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      04-07-2013, 01:55 AM   #20
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Sorry to hear that. You should be fine, there might me a damp smell in your cabin for a while though (happened once to me, my floor matts were a little damp but not the entire interior) Anyways this is why I always was my own car. Car wash places are always bound to mess up on something since they have masses of cars coming in they won't always take their time doing your car obviously as you would to your own car. Good luck!
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      04-07-2013, 02:47 AM   #21
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That sucks, this is why I always wash my own cars.
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      04-07-2013, 07:44 AM   #22
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Take your your floor mats, sprinkle them with baking soda, and let them sit for a day. Then vacuum well.

Do the same with your car's carpeting - baking soda, work it in with your hands, let it sit a day, and vacuum well.

You can also try a canister of activated charcoal - place it in your car and forget it's there.
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