Water leak in car

[fan-of-fans]

During hurricane Idalia we got a lot of rain. That morning after as I left for work I found water in my cup holders and around the gear shift. The headliner was damp around the sunroof.

Dried it all out and cleaned the sunroof drains by running weed racket like down them. Seemed to drain better and I hadn’t noticed anymore problems, but there’s been a musty smell since that I can’t find the source of.

Last night we got 5 inches of rain. This morning there was a little bit of water around the gear shift, and water dripping from my front map lights. Uh oh.

I’m getting so tired of this. I wish I could find the leak. At this point I’m not sure if it’s the sunroof or the windshield. I had the windshield replaced earlier this year by Safelite as it got a crack on the way to Sarasota.

I have no idea where to start or how to find the leak and the source of the smell. I thought maybe the odor was residual from the first leak, but now I wonder if water has been leaking unnoticed the whole time.

Oddly, I first remember noticing the musty smell right after Safelite replaced the windshield, but it had not been raining at the time. Then it went away, and came back after the first leak I noticed.

Any ideas or experiences? I’m almost leaning to have the dealer try to find what’s wrong, and pull the headliner. But I know they will probably charge an arm and a leg to just look at it, and probably won’t be able to duplicate the issue, so I’ll be back to square one.

I remember when I had my previous car, I had a fender bender and after it was repaired, whenever it rained a lot, the passenger side floor would get damp. The shop said they couldn’t get it to happen by spraying with a water hose, so I couldn’t get any traction on a fix. It never smelled though.

 

[justjunque]

Hey Cole,

I can't begin to guess where the water is coming from. But, it's weird that I just read your post, and I just discovered water in our car yesterday. I took the driver's floor mat out to clean it, and the floor was very wet underneath it. I still haven't checked under the other mats. To the best of my knowledge, our windshield is original to the car. Of course, our car is a 2001. So, who knows what might be dried out, or rusted, or anything.
I did have an experience with a van I used to drive at work. The windshield had to be replaced. They had a reputable place do the job. But, whenever it rained after that, water would drip in from the top of the windshield, and right onto my lap. They brought it back, and they couldn't find the problem. They did the hose thing for hours or something.
Of course, next time I drove it in the rain, I needed a poncho.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Barry, had you been using the air conditioning in the car? If so you could have a plugged condensate drain. That’s a very common issue for the carpet to get wet with that when it can’t drain out. Trying looking under the car when you park with the air running and see if there’s water draining out.

 

[parunner58]

Cole, check your documentation from Safelite. You may have some kind of warranty that they may be able to check the seals on the new windshield and fix it. It is worth a try.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Windshield - been there several times with 3 different old vehicles, both in situations it was replaced and not.

Pull the trim off from around the windshield using the correct tools (cheap online).
Use a stiff plastic brush to remove the dirt and crud under it. Look for obvious issues. Use a pitcher of water to dribble it in the channel and see if it leaks inside. If it does, clean out the channel with soap and water and brushes and let dry in the sun for a while.
Reseal with proper 3M windshield sealant and let dry (keep it out of the trim clips).
Retest with water after it dries before reinstalling trim.

Other leak points:

Sunroof drains - make sure hoses are attached and clear. On my car there were little flaps at the end of the hoses that held the dirt. Make sure your trimmer line comes out the ends all the way, run water through with the line holding any flaps open.

Cowl air intake. This one nearly drove me to insanity after having filled the entire floorboard with water UNDER the carpet!
I have a long read on this one if anyone is interested...
On my 1997 Cadillac STS the cowl had a 1/4" raised metal 'curb' around the plastic HVAC intake duct that protruded from it. The foam gasket around it had deteriorated. Over 20 years 1/4" of crud built up so water would get to the rotten gasket and leak inside between the thick carpet padding and the metal pan. The carpet itself had a plastic back so there was never standing water that I could see. I ended up gutting the whole interior to dry it out (took weeks).

Firewall connector/hose seals. The gaskets rot after 10-20 years so these may need resealing. Run water down the windshield and see how it flows away.

Clear away dirt, leaves, and other accumulated debris and look for hidden drain holes, too!

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Yes, do consult Safellite first if you think you may still have warranty on the job before doing anything I had mentioned above. Good point!

 

[justjunque]

I'm sure I had been using the a/c. Between the actual a/c, and the defroster/defogger, I'm almost always running the compressor.
It's rained pretty good all day today, and it's supposed to go right through the night and into tomorrow.
But, after that, we have a little warm-up coming. I'll definitely check for water under the car with the a/c running.
Thanks!

 

[huskyvacs]

Water in the cup holders is a sunroof leak.

First thing I would check is if it is closing fully and tightly if it is a power sunroof. Next thing would be inspect all the seals.

How old is the car? If it's over 10 and you park it outside all your seals will be about time to be replaced.

 

[richmnz]

Where there is a sunroof

there is a sunroof drain so check they are clear.


Good luck

Richard

 

[human]

I brought my mom's car (2013 Buick LaCrosse with all of 12,000 miles on the odometer) home with me from visiting her at Thanksgiving. One of the things I plan to take care of before returning it to her at Christmas is to find and fix a water leak that keeps the passenger floorboards wet, the rear more so than the front. I've just got to get through the last days of the fall semester first.

 

[human]

So, we had rain this past weekend, quite heavy on Sunday. I finally had time to lift the mats and check the floorboards of Mom's car yesterday, and found the passenger front floorboard to be bone dry and the passenger rear to be only slightly damp, no more so than it had been after I had it vacuumed out as part of the service when I had a state inspection done. Right now, I've got the mat turned over on the back seat to let the carpet continue to dry, but I see no reason to spend money to have a glass shop look for a leak that may not actually exist. My pet theory at the moment is that the one of the doors on the passenger side was not completely closed at some point, allowing rain to get in.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I didn’t end up doing anything about this other than clearing the drains, since I haven’t had any more problems with water leaks. Although while we’ve quite a lot of rain, it hasn’t been any big deluges either.

The musty smell seems to have gone away, I don’t smell it anymore, even when first getting into the car.

A few weeks ago I had a bit of a scare. I was coming home from work on a Friday night after dark, and decided to open the sunroof to just “vent” to let some air in, because it was a nice cool evening. With it being dark I forgot to close it, and we got a very light rain Saturday morning. When I went out to the car, to head out to some sales, I saw the glass tilted up and remembered I had forgotten to close it!

Fortunately with the light rain and the sunroof being just tilted rather than slid open, the interior was still fully dry, and no rain had gotten into the headliner. If I had opened it fully, it would’ve been a different story.

 

[human]

I gave the car back to Mom at Christmas, and she was glad not to have had to spend any money on fixing a nonexistent leak.