I parked my car in an airport parking lot (Ampco near Houston Hobby Airport) 3 weeks ago. Apparently while I was gone the lot flooded. I came back at night 4 days after the flood and they didn't tell me about it. My car is in 05 TL with 21K miles.

I have large clear plastic mats, so believe it or not, I did not notice that the carpets were wet front & back on both sides. There have been no apparent mechanical problems, including both power seats. I flew out again the two days later and did not notice the carpets were wet until 9 days after the flood. I took out the removable mats and vacuumed the water out. I left the windows down and let the carpets dry.

I don't know how high the water got, but the stereo speakers at the front bottom of the front doors work and there are no water lines on the leather or doors. No water entered the trunk.

My question: do I need to replace carpet & padding, what other steps should I take. I want to get some of this info. before I ream out the parking company and start making demands that they do sometihing.



Thanks,

Steve (DesertMist)

 

Just call your insurance company and file a claim. They will deal with the lot...and if there was just ONE other car that filed ANY type of insurance claim on their car that was also parked in that lot....it will show in the national database and they can deal with it!

 

No water lines in the interior. What about water lines on the exterior of the car? Either the water leaked into the car via the window(s), sunroof or the water rose to the bottom of the door. In that case, you should have a water line on the outside of the car.

Were all windows fully up when you returned to the lot from your trip? There have been cases where people have accidentally hit their key fob unlock in their pocket and rolled down their windows and sunroof.

Hopefully you do not have any water damage to the bottom of the seats.

Talk to your Acura dealership and get their recommedation for what needs to be done to the car. There may be wire and/or connectors on the floor pan that be wet. You may just want to take the car to the dealership and let them determine the extent of the damage.

I would go ahead and get the car fixed then file a claim with the insurance company. I would call the insurance company and give them a heads-up while you are getting the car fixed.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your car. I'm in the Houston area and the flood we had was VERY VERY bad and Hobby had it hard. Call your dealership I would recommend using Bob Geleski at Sterlin McCall or Roman Blandino or Eric Younger at John Eagkle Acura. GREAT service men and ask them what you should do. I would not doubt water leaked in front the bottom of the door. Not sure if you saw pictures of the flood but a lot of cars were totally under. Thank goodness I stayed in that day it was so bad! Hope you get things work out. Let us know how it turns out.
Love~
Brooke

 

remove the entire carpet, shampoo it, wash the interior with a 50/50 mix of bleach and water. either get new carpet from acura or re-use the old one if it doesn't smell

 

sorry about your troubles, and not to be a Jack, but what was the parking lot company supposed to do about an act of God? Why ream them out? File with your insurance company and good luck!

 

Just a word of warning about filing a claim...it will go into a national database that your car was flooded. That could come back to haunt you. If you can afford to go it on your own, I would pull all the carpeting and padding from the car and let everything dry out. Replace the pad and carpeting if necessary.

Here in Arizona, everything would be dried out in a day. In Houston...I'm not sure you can ever get it dry could you??

 

Easy, take caar to dealer, have them call your insurance, let them do the dirty work. i've delt w/ dozens upon dozens of flood cars in the greater new orleans area. your insurance aceepts your deductable, car is fixed within a week