Each year, there are thousands of cars that are affected by flood and hurricane. Even if the engine and other parts have been repaired, the interior could be badly affected as well. Moisture will continue to accumulate under the console and seats. Eventually, the sensitive electronic components will be affected again. This is especially true in some cars, where the airbag unit is inside the floor. There are risks of contaminations that we also need to consider. Bacteria may proliferate quickly when the car’s interior isn’t dried properly. For this reason, it is important to make sure that all parts of the car interior are completely free from any dampness. In fact, with closer inspection we could find that water is still pooled in small quantity on plastic or metal surfaces under the carpet. Moisture could also be introduced by snow and ice. Our shoes and clothing may bring in some snow inside the car. When the heater is turned on, the snow will melt and water will start to accumulate. It means that we should consider it a priority to drain the car.
If we believe that the interior of the car is still damp, we should choose a day when the sky is blue and the sun shines brightly. Much of the moisture could eventually escape to outside of the car, if all windows and doors are opened. However, we may find that some amount of moisture continues to persist inside the car. This can be a quite difficult situation to handle. There could be some areas where moisture or water continues to get inside our car. On older cars, the soft rubber seals on the windows could start to harden and crack due to constant sunlight exposure. Some amount of rainwater will get inside the car if the seal breaks and cracks. These cracks will become channels that bring in the water into the interior. Even if our car wasn’t affected by flood, the problem could still be the same, such as damp sensation and soiled carpets. Many people drink and eat inside the car. They will likely spill soft drink, especially because cars are moving vehicles and sudden jolts could cause inevitable spillage.
Whatever the reason, it is important for us to avoid letting liquids to affect the carpet and the rest of our interior. This is something that we want to avoid. Water doesn’t mix well with electronic modules inside the car. When failures happen, the degree of safety can be significantly degraded, especially if the airbag fails to deploy. In fact, short circuits could cause airbags to deploy abruptly in normal driving situations, potentially causing injuries to children, elderly and pregnant women. Although airbag is designed to cushion impact with hard surfaces and saves our lives; it could actually cause unintended injuries when deployed improperly. It means that we should allow mechanics to properly check our car, so we could make sure that there’s nothing affected.