Has anyone ever left a flute in the car during the summer? What did it do to the flute?

I carried my Gemeinhardt M3 in my car, put it under the seat and left it parked at a camping site (at the Atlantic coast of France) for two weeks. Nothing happened (at least, that I could notice).

Was hot?

Temperature in the coast of France at that time was about 30 to 32 degrees celsius (90 Fahrenheit)

Not too hot compared with Madrid... Inside the car, when it was not in the shade, we had probably some 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit).

Leaving a flute in a car is not something I would recommend; I did it because I was camping with the family and I considered too risky (and also, hot enough) to keep the flute inside the tent during the day.

I am telling you my experience to show that in my case nothing wrong happened. But I had decided to bring only my second flute (I left the Yamaha safely at home), mostly for safety reasons but also because those places are sandy and this is a bad thing for any mechanism.

Notice that temperatures inside a car on a sunny day can go much over those 104 degr Fahr.

In a previous year (an extremely hot summer), we were travelling also along the atlantic coast of France, this time in car without air conditioning. I had a portable radio set on the floor, behind the driver seat. When we stopped and I moved the radio, the plastic case was deformed where it touched a metalic part of the car. Probably the temperature had been around 80 degr. Celsius (180 Fahr.), but not because of the ambient temperature (that was very high anyway), but because the car floor got hot due to the exhaust tube running under it.

I've left my bass clarinet in the car, although noting has happened. Although it doesn't get very hot here.

If you're looking for a place to store something inside your house and its really hot, try the basement.

Well stupid me I did leave my flute in the car by accident for 12 hours and the temp. got up to 98 degrees today but no damage was done. The flute plays fine and the pads look good. Yamaha rocks!