Firm

Ok, new problem with my 96 Firebird. After a good rain I've been noticing a wet spot on the driveway under my car, at first I thought it was just left over water dripping off the car. It kept doing it, so I decided to investigate and pulled the drain plug at the rear of the passenger side rocker panel. To my surprise, loads of water came pouring out.

Obviously if left alone this will rot my rocker panel out pretty quick, and ruin the car. So I need to figure this out!

Anyone have any ideas as to where the water might be getting in? I checked all the interior (just for good measure) and it's dry, no wet spots anywhere on the carpets.

The issue occurs when the car is sitting in the driveway, not being driven, so I am pretty sure it's gotta be flowing into the rocker panel from somewhere above, but where?

Here's a photo showing the amount of water that came out of the rocker panel when I removed the drain plug:




And here's a shot of the drain plug that I am talking about at the back end of the rocker:

Stan1911

Wow - I think I would leave the drain plug out, and maybe add a few more holes for it to drain from.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

I would suggest starting with removing the sail panel interior plastic on that side, it should make it easier to see where the water is coming in.

Firm

Ok, so instead of working on my project car I spent the afternoon dealing with this

Anyway, I think I've solved the issue. Leaving the drain plugs out and strategically spraying the hose I was able to determine that it was getting into the rocker somewhere near the passenger side front wiper cowl area. I pulled the splash liner out of the front wheel well and got access to the area where the rocker mates to the firewall.Water from the cowl area runs down the firewall here and out the bottom. Some more strategic hose spraying determined that water was getting into the rocker somewhere here right near the bottom where the rocker panel is sealed to the firewall. I couldn't pinpoint exactly where, so heavily applied fresh seam sealer to the entire area.

It's drying now, I'll probably give it a couple days before hose testing again. Gawd I hope this solves it, I don't have time to mess around with this...

Here's a shot of the area behind the splash panel....Leak was isolated to the area along that bottom seam.