help! where is the water coming from?

[toman]

Hey guys, every time I wash my car, I get a HUGE puddle on the floor behind my drivers seat. Sometimes a little on the passengers side too. I can not figure out where the water is coming from! It just seems to appear. Nothing leaks, to speak of, and none of the seats or carpet or anything else is wet. Please help, this is driving me nuts!


[This message has been edited by toman (edited 07-25-2001).]

[campbellcj]

Rear window is my bet. The smallest little gap in the seal can do this.

[John Rogers]

If the rear window is not loose, the hole where the e-brake cable comes through I would guess or if there are two lines for the fuel tank carbon canister water could come in there.

[Dave Bell]

What they said... My bet is the window seal...

If you have not checked already, get out your flashlight, clear some room and from the engine compartment check for holes in the fire wall on the far lower right and far lower left corners. Water can collect in there, and eat through... which also lets water into the passenger compartment.

Rather poor image below shows an example on the passenger side as viewed from the passenger compartment.



- Dave

[Va914]

Hey dave did you take a photo of my car? I have the same dam hole in mine? I guess that is a common spot. I couldn't tell there was any rust untill I removed the tar pad.

[Va914]

Sould I install drain holes in the lower corrners of the engine bay? I would not like this to happen again.

Thanks

[efeinsmith]

There actually are drains in the forward section of the engine bay, by the suspension console. They are two rubber plugs with flat openings that extend below the metal (on the driver side, the wiring harness runs in that area), but they often get clogged, hence the puddles you see. You can reach up from the botton and pop them out, clean them, and reinstall.

With age, the seal on the rear glass comes loose and the leaks begin. It's not a real difficult job to reseal the glass properly (remove glass, replace seal, and reinstall glass) and it can be done without removing the inner top cover on the targa bar :-) But an extra set of hands is very helpful, especially when reinstalling the glass.

[Dave Bell]

Va -

I repair the holes in the fire wall and the holes in the floor boards from the water that had leaked in... cut out and ground out old metal and welded in patches... plus some bondo and epoxy putty to smooth out and ensure there were no pin holes for water to leak through.. then POR-15 coating to prevent further rust.

The holes that had rusted in lower corners of the engine bay I left... just cleaned it up and painted with POR-15... now with the bigger holes, there is no drainage problem at all.

In fact, during some recent engine work, I stripped the entire engine bay, POR-15'ed and painted it over with texture/spatter paint. came out pretty nice

- Dave

[toman]

wow, thanks for the responses guys. I'll look into those areas when I get off work tonight.