Cajun ELESS-ONE

was cleaning the inside of my car last week and noticed there was a substantial amount of water on the passenger floor board in the corner. It had rained very hard the previous day. i dried the area up well. drove it on a 2 hour trip over the weekend. checked the spot. it was dry (thinking it might be the heater core) it has been raining for 2 days now, at times very heavy. checked the spot and wet again. is there a drain some where for the ttops? is there a certain area i should look at?? anyone have this issue and it not be the heater core?

Cajun ELESS-ONE

helpful bump

98CayenneT/A

Get in and have someone run water with a hose around all the seals and try and narrow it down

Phoenix'97

You are not alone! I noticed this happening two or three years ago, but this has always been after winter and at the start of spring. I lay down plastic to protect my carpeting during the winter and come spring I remove it. On the passenger side, the carpet was SOAKED, and to my horror upon removing the trim and lifting up the carpet, I saw the start of a rust spot on my floor panel. I had to dry it up and then I went hog-wild with rust inhibitor on that floor panel.

I have no idea where it was coming from! My t-tops will drip under seriously heavy rain, but they will drip towards the back of my car and hardly leave any moist spots, it's very minimal after I replaced the weatherstripping. This is focused towards the front of the car. Last year it was moist but not soaked after winter, so I dried it up and applied more rust inhibitor. There was a bad rain storm and surely enough the damn passenger side was soaked with water, but I couldn't track where the hell it is coming from!

This past winter, my passenger side was BAD, holding a good amount of water. Oddly enough, this was focused right up to the plastic dash panel shroud, I had to remove the yellow Styrofoam backing because it was soaked and moldy. Moisture alone can not be doing this, there has to be an area where snow/rain is getting into my car, and I fear it is either entering from a bad windshield seal or somewhere behind the dashboard! It can't be the floor plug, it can't be my weatherstripping, this has to be entering from the windshield/cowl area, maybe even sneaking through the fender top somehow.

I have yet to try sitting in the car with someone hosing her down on the passenger side, but upon inspection of my window, I do have a cracked and missing part of the original factory seal, so I am left wondering if this is my problem, and maybe it is yours. Keep a close eye on that passenger floor panel! This is a fix I believe most of us will need some day.

Majestic9C1

iTrader: (19)

mine does this after severe rain... I recently figured out it was the windshield seal was not put on right either from the factory or a replacement glass from a previous owner..

the seal is misaligned leaving a 1-inch gap that I can see through at the bottom corner between the cowl and seal on both sides...

I'm going to RTV the **** out of it and see if it does the trick.

Cajun ELESS-ONE

im gonna check my windshield seems. It's the original one so it's possible the seal has deteriorated.

Phoenix'97

Thank you! After process of elimination and noticing where I am getting mold growth and how I have water on the panels, not just the carpeting, it has to be the windshield seal. I will try using some silicone sealer where it appears to be coming from but I can't replace the windshield just yet, I need to budget my savings for a few more years while in college.

Yeah. I hate the notion of spending the money for a new windshield to replace an entire seal, but to keep the floor panel on the passenger side from rusting out and to avoid unnecessary damage to your panel backing, it is worth it. I have to put mine off until I am working again, but I can try sealing it where I think the leak is coming from as a temporary fix.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

I had a leak from the door jamb seal getting pinched and the ttop drain is in that door seal. Only leaked when I parked next to the sprinklers in college. My remedy was to remove the rubber body plug under the carpet in the passengers side foot well. Typically dried quickly in texas

Phoenix'97

Well, I don't want to leave that hole in the passenger floor panel unplugged, especially during winter time! My goal is to stop the source of the leak, especially before I get my car modified and refurbished to like new. I don't need to deal with unsolved leaking after a fresh sandblasting and repaint with new carpeting and all.

Now, I have been very suspicious of my window seal, especially where a chunk at the bottom corner has rotted off leaving bare windshield! This needs to get filled with silicone as a temporary fix while I monitor the floor panel after hard and long duration rain storms that will certainly overwhelm the drainage system built into my weatherstripping.

Brian Coles

Check the grommet on firewall behind the pcm. I jacked mine up running wires for nitrous. The wires running through firewall made great path for water. Led to inches of water in passenger foot well after hard Texas storms.

Phoenix'97

I am going to have to do that when the weather clears over here. I just checked my passenger floor panel before a short trip to the store and I found a small collection of water right on and around the rubber floor panel hole plug. Behind the dashboard it was dry as could be, and there was no indication of water first collecting on the carpet and then seeping through to the floor panel. This is the most insane thing I have run into! It was raining hard today so it was a good time to check it when it stopped raining, and no t-top leaks, no carpet leaks, but it was underneath and collected at the plug.

I am almost going to suggest it is also possibly moisture build-up. I have always noticed that my passenger side floor panel seems pretty hot to the touch after driving my car, and my factory exhaust piping does merge and run underneath the floor panel. I even decided to test this hypothesis by pulling my carpet back as far as I could to the seat bracket, and I discovered a new surface rust spot. So, I sprayed rust inhibitor like a bastard on that entire section of floor panel and I damned GM for having foam padding with this carpet which only soaks up the water and keeps it soaked up to allow rusting to take place.

My car is gonna need her sandblasting and resto-modding day sooner than I thought at this rate.

Cajun ELESS-ONE

you hit the nail on the head sir!!!!!! i got some **** and pulled the carpet back to where the back seat cushion is. all the sound deading mat crap was soaked!!! we have had 4 days of straight rain. pulled all that soaked mat out. followed that water to the grommet you mentioned. i ran some wires through it for my ignition box. next issue is to figure out how to seal it up. i was thinking silicon. the only issue is getting to it. i think if i remove the ecu, there will be enough space. im also gonna put some peel and stick sound deaden-er and some of that mat back.