Help, my Car is taking on Water!
 

I have been having this issue since I bought the car, during a very hard rain I end up finding the carpet in the rear driver side floorboard soaked. A day goes by and the car smells horrible like dirty wet socks and the smell can not be rid of.

Well that issue hasn't been here since this past summer, and my car has smelled nice and fresh since then. Two nights ago We got some serious heavy rain and wind and the next day my car smelled horrible. Sure enough the carpet was wet.

Instead of just soaking it up I decided to lift the carpet, and I am glad I did, even after I had the carpet dry, there was still about an inch deep standing water pooled in the corner of the floorboard. The foam padding was soaked and even after having a fan dry it all night it did nothing.

So somehow wet carpet led to this:

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These next two photos you can see the little channel that runs from the front of the driver side to the rear, and that is where as far as I can tell, water is running down and how it gets to the back floor board

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...4/CIMG3073.jpg

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I ended up finding the padding under the carpet in the front driver side is also wet and water under it, and the passenger side rear floorboard as you can see in the second photo was wet at some point in this cars life as it looks horrid

My question. Where should I start to look for a leak? I plan to have the wife run water with a hose from the outside while I sit inside and wait and see where it comes from, but before that I was hoping to have an idea of where to look.

Good part of this all is my car is in need of a new headliner, so I guess we shall get that done while I have everything out! Anybody done a headliner and want to chime in on that?

With everything dry, your best tool, is surprisingly, a water hose. That will tell you where the water is coming in at. Drench the car from head to toe, and follow the stream of water!

You will want to check all of the door frames however, especially the bottoms. You should see the water pretty easily however, even if you were not in the car.

$10 says it's the sunroof drains or the top of the doors is not sealing properly

Well I ran the hose and holy ****

In a matter of 30 seconds my floor was flooded like 2 inches deep and the whole area where the battery is was flooded.

It was running in from the headliner behind the rear doors and from behind the rear seat. Also opened the trunk and my entire spare tire was under water.

How do I get the back seat backrest out?

And what could be causing this!!! I might as well have put the hose in the car itself, thats how fast water was comming in

Thought I would add the water worked it's way up to the frame in the middle between the doors (the pillar) and where that long trim piece attaches from the headliner all the way to the floor, with that out, a steady stream of water flowed right from the ceiling.

Sounds like the RR sunroof drain is disconnected.

The sunroof drains I don't think could possibly have taken that much water through in that amount of time. It was pouring out as if I had the hose in the car...No lie. I would do a video of it but don't want to have to use the shop vac to suck all the water out again. And my backrest for the back seat, the foam is soaked and I need to get it out, just haven't figured out how.

The headliner is even wet. I will post pictures

The corners of the headliner ended up soaked and water dripping from the edges, and the water itself was pouring out from behind the backrest.

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Water was pouring out here...but that was a few minutes after I turned the hose off and water had quit running from everywhere else

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I have a similar issue on a smaller scale. My front passenger door leaks, the older Bonnies have a chrome trim piece that goes around the edge of the roof and mine is dry rotted and pulling away from the roof which lets water drip in between the roof and the top of the door. it slowly drips right on the edge of my seat and splashes on my door panel fabric discoloring it. I hope it doesnt escalate to the level urs is at.