Removing rear carpets

[NAD]

Having traced my water ingress problem to the common windscreen bonding problem, I now want to make sure the carpets are completely dry.
I got the front NS carpet out ok, but think I need to remove the centre box to get the rear one out. Is there an easy way? Can I just release the bolts at the rear, or do I need to remove the whole thing?
PS. I want to avoid cutting the carpet.
Many thanks…

[apersson850]

If you take out the front and rear seats, plus dismount door sills and the cover on the B-pillars, then you can fold up all the outer edges of the carpet. Since water tends to go downward, and this will lift the lowest parts of the carpet, you can probably stop there. At least unless you got massive amounts of water in the car.

[NAD]

Many thanks, that is what I did. The front carpet came out relatively easily, though the b-pillar trim was a pain to remove, as the front seat needs to be moved out of the way to get it out.

[apersson850]

When I had a similar problem, for a completely different reason, I took the seats out first. It's pretty easy to do.

[monkeh]

Been there done that- B pillar trims have to come off, side trims, center console. Maybe order a pair of rear seat retainers as they're likely to crack.
The B pillar trims are a pig to pull off.

[NAD]

Yep, the seat retainers did crack when I removed them. I’ll replace them once I’ve had the. Screen done and know definitively that I won’t have to pull it all apart again.
How do you take the centre console out to release the rear carpet? It wasn’t particularly obvious?
Many thanks,
Nick

[monkeh]

I'll be brutally honest, I couldn't tell you 100% It was a while ago when I did mine. I literally stripped the inside of my car because it stunk of dog ****. Along with the rear carpets being wet because of the windscreen.
Check volvosweden on youtube for radio removal. That's got to come out.
Armrest assembly, dismantle that, I believe there are quite a few screws in the armrest itself.

If the seats are still in the vehicle, remove them, They make it easier. There are a few screws hidden on the console left and right lower sides.

IIRC the rear accessory socket is just clipped in.
I will have a quick look at mine tomorrow and get back to you. All I did was pry and see what creaked, what didn't budge and checked for screws. The thing that was difficult was removing the bloody plugs from the accessory, USB and aux sockets.

You will also have to unbolt and remove possibly the amplifier from under the drivers seat, along with the crash detection module (I think) from the middle to remove the carpet.


Give me a day or so, I will refresh my memory when I get back in it. All I know is it was a pig of a job.
As volvosweden states on his video, be careful with the optical cables on the stereo.

[NAD]

Hmm,
If it’s going to involve removing the stereo and disturbing the fibre-optic bus the I think I’ll just stick with the current plan, which is to keep putting microfibres towels under the rear carpet until they come out dry.
The front ns by comparison was a piece of cake!
Thanks anyway for the info.

[monkeh]

The optical cables aren't that much of a fuss to disconnect, Just some people are so ham fisted and like to use mong strength to remove parts. Its easy to damage optical cables by over bending them. Honestly, Volvosweden's videos on center console removal is exactly step by step on how to remove it.
I apologise, I've not got the car out of the garage yet to check on what's what.
But with the stereo front disconnected, all you need to do is just set the cables down as they lay, but don't bend them.

You can tell which is the optical cable, I think its the 2 core larger cable of the 2 connectors to the center console.

I ended up putting my rear carpets up against the radiators in the house. SWMBO wasn't impressed, but I had nice dry clean carpets...
Good time to wash them all in the tub with washing powder/bio brisk, Use a wet and dry to get the carpets relatively dry then dry on a radiator.

Winter isn't the ideal time for a damp car, mould sets in very quickly. If you can get a wet and dry under the sponge and pull as much water out as you can, you might help it dry out a bit quicker.

Alternatively, Put a mains powered dehumidifyer in the boot and run it day in day out, Along with the aircon on when driving.

[NAD]

You obviously think the same way I do. The first thing I did was use the wet vac to remove all the standing water, then I had the carpet propped up with a fan blowing warm air underneath with a dehumidifier running in the boot. The sponge still feels damp though, especially compared to the front carpet which dried out nicely on the underfloor heating in the house.