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Hey boys, last night my alarm randomly started going off and I had to hit unlock and lock.I just opened my car and noticed the passenger seats were wrinkly..I inspected the car and turns out water got in somehow!!!
At first I thought it was the front and the reed valve. The front is dry and carpets dry. Water somehow made it to the back of the car.
My roof is dry, my trunk is dry. I’m stumped, could it be this tiny window seal?
anyway I’m drying it right now with a vac, towels and I’m putting a dehumidifier in there.
The rear sam had moisture in the area but no water. I’m stumped does anyone have any ideas how to prevent this in the future.
could it have been this little seal sticking up?!
how did my seats get like that so quick?
Help? Thank You
Spray the car down with a hose while someone sits inside and checks for leaks.
Was the carpet dry under the passenger floor mat?
Yes, the carpet was dry.
Well it get's worse, I went out to the car today and the passenger windows were all down and everything dead. I'm guessing the electronics malfunctioned from the water and went haywire.
I checked my rear battery and it's totally flat. I'm charging it right now with my CTEC.
At this point I think I should go through my insurance and take it to MB instead of hoping it was a one time thing. Does Comprehensive cover this?
What do you guys think is my best course of action and how do I go about it?
Last edited by Das Geld 2; Sep 3, 2021 at 11:07 AM.
The other way is to remove the seats and carpet and see what you are dealing with.
You now have a flood damaged vehicle.
There is an active thread in the W221 section by user @MikeKerr7 who is restoring, successfully, a flood damaged W221 S-Class. Have a read through. Lots of work but you keep “your” car.
Depends what your insurance settlement offers you.
If you are talking about a CTEK battery maintainer, I don't think it has the power to charge a fully flat battery, it's for maintaining a nearly full battery to keep it from getting low during longer periods of parking. You would need an actual battery charger for that. My battery charger has three settings,
75 Amp for emergency starting for very short bursts /
12 Amps for fairly quick recharging a dead battery and
2 Amps for trickle charging a dead battery.
It's best if you have the time, set at 2 Amps trickle charge, takes a day or so. 12 Amps should take maybe six hours.
I don't know if newer battery chargers have an AGM setting for these trunk batteries, which the battery in the trunk of an R230 should be an AGM type battery..
If so, I would get one of those chargers.
As for assessing the cost of damages, you could take it to the mercedes dealer if you want the heart-stopping multi-thousand dollar quote, then contact your insurance company with that in hand. Expect the dealership to be on the really expensive side as they are addicted to money. Depending on the cost, and If your insurance covers all this then they may "total" your car and give you a check to buy a replacement car with. Good Luck!
Sad day indeed, the rear SAM behind the passenger had some moisture from humidity in the area but dried off as soon as I opened it yesterday. Carpets also seem fairly dry now.
This would be the end of my R230 saga because even if I get the money I wouldn't be able to find such a mint and hassle free SL again where all the work is done for years to come..Literally 3 years of trouble free ownership.
The car is now getting a little charge and the electronics are back on and I think I can start it..but there must be some sort of parasitic draw to kill it overnight. I don't plan too.
I like the MB option and may go that route, I'm not even sure if I should keep trying to dry it, but as you said it's not charging it up as fast as it should be, something is def damaged. I'm reading because this isn't ordinary rainfall but a storm its covered under comprehensive without the whole flood aspect part.
I'm super stressed out over this and the hurricane nearly flooding my basement. Beautiful day today as well, enjoy your 230's
It depends how far you want to take things before going through insurance but I have to wonder what the inside of your passenger door looks like. Did it somehow get soaked with water and the door control module was damaged. Removing the door panel isn’t that bad if you have the WIS instructions.
I honestly would like to keep it, I'm going to take it to a shop to asses the damage.
The door? It's total dry..the water is behind the seat, not on the seat or infront of the seat. Do you think it got thru the door and dripped down? I think if it got thru the door the mid area would be wet.
I honestly would like to keep it, I'm going to take it to a shop to asses the damage.
The door? It's total dry..the water is behind the seat, not on the seat or infront of the seat. Do you think it got thru the door and dripped down? I think if it got thru the door the mid area would be wet.
I just don’t see how window moved by itself unless either the door control module itself had a failure or the door control module received an erroneous CAN command to lower the window....which I guess could be possible but what would be the odds??
The carpet has a heavy foam backing and at a minimum, the seats need to be removed and the carpet propped up to dry. Seat modules are tight to the floor, so they can easily get wet and the footwell CAN hubs will corrode.
My red one was totalled by insurance for water damage. About $30 for an Ebay seat module and some regluing on the rear deck trim and it is a great car.
I just don’t see how window moved by itself unless either the door control module itself had a failure or the door control module received an erroneous CAN command to lower the window....which I guess could be possible but what would be the odds??
Windows where up when this happened, my friend said it could've been the atmospheric pressure from the storm and heavy rain can get in even with the seals are perfect.
The windows moved themselves next day when the battery died. I left it unhooked overnight tonight and the charge held! Talk about back from the dead.
So I just did a 6 hour road trip, so far so good. Still will be going to the shop on Tuesday to pull the seat and carpet to see if there's any mositure left.
Seats have returned to their original firmness as well
Your friend is right. Wind can open seals, as wind speed and area can be converted into force per square unit.
As you stated in your PM (Das Geld 2) : " The car was facing towards the front of my house. But yes the wind was blowing in a cross pattern I believe and hitting against the passenger door( I remember this because I looked out the window and just saw the wind pummeling the side of the car) "
In my opinion this water damage is not coming from the window seals. The way they are designed, they increase seal as the wind push at them. My guess is that we have to look at the door seal.
The way the water damage on the seat cover is showing indicates to me that there was quite an air leak at the lower back corner at the door seal. ( marked on the below picture with a brown fat line ).
Together with the air blowing into the car, was coming water, that was blow onto the seat cover and driven both forward and around the corner and across the cover on the backside.
The distribution of damage is consistent with the way the water would be distributed if blown onto the seat cover, in an curve like the door curve.
Furthermore the red line looks suspicious like a gradient, where the wind speed is the highest at the blue arrow, and lower at the yellow arrow.
The yellow arrows show where the water and wind came in, and the red arrows show the didtribution ( direction the water was pushed ).
Some water may have found it's way behind the panels and wettet the carpet in corner, and some water has dripped of the seat back cover onto the carpet.
My recommendation is to remove the seat, lift the carpet and make sure that there no water trapped under the carpet.
Second I would check the if the door is closing firm to the seal, and if not loosen and adjust the lock bracket 1-2 mm. inwards. The way to check, the door should pop out as soon as you lift the door handle, and you should feel some resistance lifting the door handle.
Your friend is right. Wind can open seals, as wind speed and area can be converted into force per square unit.
As you stated in your PM (Das Geld 2) : " The car was facing towards the front of my house. But yes the wind was blowing in a cross pattern I believe and hitting against the passenger door( I remember this because I looked out the window and just saw the wind pummeling the side of the car) "
In my opinion this water damage is not coming from the window seals. The way they are designed, they increase seal as the wind push at them. My guess is that we have to look at the door seal.
The way the water damage on the seat cover is showing indicates to me that there was quite an air leak at the lower back corner at the door seal. ( marked on the below picture with a brown fat line ).
Together with the air blowing into the car, was coming water, that was blow onto the seat cover and driven both forward and around the corner and across the cover on the backside.
The distribution of damage is consistent with the way the water would be distributed if blown onto the seat cover, in an curve like the door curve.
Furthermore the red line looks suspicious like a gradient, where the wind speed is the highest at the blue arrow, and lower at the yellow arrow.
The yellow arrows show where the water and wind came in, and the red arrows show the didtribution ( direction the water was pushed ).
Some water may have found it's way behind the panels and wettet the carpet in corner, and some water has dripped of the seat back cover onto the carpet.
My recommendation is to remove the seat, lift the carpet and make sure that there no water trapped under the carpet.
Second I would check the if the door is closing firm to the seal, and if not loosen and adjust the lock bracket 1-2 mm. inwards. The way to check, the door should pop out as soon as you lift the door handle, and you should feel some resistance lifting the door handle.
Kim, wow that would be insane if this is how water got into the car. Thank you very much for chiming in with this theory. As to my knowledge the car doors locked very flush and effortlessly.
Further more wouldn’t the weather strip where my hand is in the door sill be fully saturated and wet? That part was dry. I can’t imagine that huge amount of water coming in from that hole even with microscopic droplets, it would have to be significant as you said. Here’s a recent picture of my door
But anything is possible at this point..
I took the car to the shop and they pulled the seat and carpets, they found no traces of active water, I guess it dried or I dried everything up but the connector in one of the canbus had traces of corrosion(so water did make it down there), they are replacing it and the car will be ready next week.
I want to further pursue this and do a water test, perhaps sit in the car and let the pressure washer hit it from every angle. Their theory was the drains got overloaded from the heavy rain. But it wouldn’t explain it all. Hopefully I can recreate this without hurricane force winds and rain. Lesson from this is next heavy storm I’m putting on the cover
Last edited by Das Geld 2; Sep 17, 2021 at 05:23 PM.
In my opinion the only way the water damage is created is if the water is driven in the direction the black arrows are showing, That can only be done by either a heavy spray, like a pressure washer or a heavy wind pressure.
The gradient clearly shows that the pressure is decreasing with distance.
In my opinion no other phenomena could create such a pattern.
In my opinion the only way the water damage is created is if the water is driven in the direction the black arrows are showing, That can only be done by either a heavy spray, like a pressure washer or a heavy wind pressure.
The gradient clearly shows that the pressure is decreasing with distance.
In my opinion no other phenomena could create such a pattern.
I’m becoming a believer, I will test with the pressure washer when I get the car back and see if anything is making it’s way in there!!
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