Re: Interior / carpet questions / long (archive)

matt, i had a windshield gasget leak on my previous 535i and had to dry the carpet out also.i,like you,did not want to pull the console out to pull the carpet so i propped the carpet up and squeezed as much water out of the padding as possible,then i just let fans blow in with the carpet up,this took a few days but beat taking the console out.as for your carpet being cleaned,call a carpet cleaning service and get them extracted just like your home carpets.while you have your seats etc out do some water testing,get in the car and have a friend soak the suspect areas, i'd start with the windshield,you would see water running right down the post where your speakers are.hope this helps.

Bryan in DE
86 M535i
BMWCCA # 180984

Ok, so today i pulled the seats, center console sections, and the majority of the front carpet. I took dcam photos of all of it (all the screw locations, also) and will put that up when i get around to it. It took roughly 3 hours.

My drivers side floorpan padding is soaked. The passenger side seems pretty good. The carpet has turned near black in a few spots - almost like mildew. Is this rot ? Is it mildew ? Whats the story ?

So i'd like to pull the entire front carpet out of the car, and have it professionally cleaned and restored to as close to new as possible.

But i ran into a snag. It looks like i have to pull the heater/dash to pull the carpet. That would be a _major_ pain the ass. Anyone pulled the entire carpet before ? What did you have to yank to get it out ?

Also, with this much of the car open, there are so many things that could be fixed/upgraded. I'm hesitant to put anything back in :) I know i've got a new throttle cable assembly waiting to go back in. With the interior peices out, its now clear that i need some good leather R&R.. is there any place i can just hand them the leather chunks and have them fix them up nicely ?

Also, whast the floor padding ? It looks like it may have BMW part numbers on it. Presumably, i'll need to replace it with some dry new stuff. Anyone got cost/availability on this ?

Finally - this is the big one. I have the ability to get this water out, because i've pulled everything. I still don't know how it got there. Some have said trunk leaks flowing forard. Others have said sunroof drain. Still others have possibly suggested windsheild gasket leak (yuck!)

The trunk I can probably fix by haphazardly replacing everything made of rubber. The windscreen gasket leak i'll hold off on.

The big question - where the hell are the sunroof drains ? I am dumb. I need a photo of where the entraces are, and where the drains are, and where they could get plugged up in such a way as to leak into the car. Screens from the ETK would be great, as would d-cam photos off of a real E28.

or, an ultra concise description. When i find them, i'll take dcam photos of mine for all to see.

Follow Ups:

been der SW 09:17 1/14/2002 (0)

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