Passenger side floor water leak

[John/Horace]

Major flood during rain storm on passenger side carpeting. While sitting in driveway overnight , probably 1.5 inches of water.

Had to remove trims pieces and lift up carpeting to dry things out. Hard to do with the spongy foam insulation down there.

Don’t want mold so had to run an old hair dryer for a while to really dry everything.

 

Spent a lot of time trying to figure out where the water was getting in. Don’t want to go through the crazy drying out process again. Fortunate to have a garage to work on as several more rain storms have come through. 
 

There is a stamping on the metal channel that runs under the door, it has tack welds around it. If I ran a hose on passenger side windshield, water oozes out around the tac welds. The channel is filled with spray foam and there are recessed plastic pockets to hold trim clips. After removing cowling covers and finding no blockages, the fender liner had to come out as well.

 

I think it’s fixed, giving polyurethane caulk more time to dry before testing. It appears the square exit drain from the windshield plastic cowling which dumps water against the back of fender liner was the cause. Lots of gaps around the sheet metal brackets that are tacked together to make up the fire wall. Water was some how making its way through to the bottom door channel and then oozing out onto the floor mat. I put a bead of the under water rated urethane right on the leak inside cabin door channel, as well as sealing up multiple gaps in the sheet metal pieces that make up the firewall. I hope not to have to rip everything apart again, it was very time consuming. No goldfish were harmed during this repair procedure.

 

[5rebel9]

Thanks for the documentation of pic's, But sorry you had the problem show up!

Hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that all 3 of mine have NOT had water leak troubles....just a lot of mechanical issues to deal with.

[John/Horace]

Extended water test with hose, not a drop came in. Hiway at 70 mph in rain will be the real test. Over 150k miles and original engine and tranny, means above ave vehicle in my books.

Water came in around the two trim clip recess pockets in the pic. Black urethane around them now. Steady flow water behind fender liner shows no cowling blockage.

 

 

[Hankster]

I have had this on my 2013. I picked the foam out of the front rocker panel area so the water could drain. I sealed up the clip holes the wiring retainer hole and some other holes.  Been several years now all is good.

Hank

[John/Horace]

My leak came back after heavy rain, , but only a few table spoons. Still enough  to still cause mold. How do you pick the mold it’s injected into rocker panel ?
I found the passenger front fender sheet metal drain opening was partly plugged. Cleared it with a piece of wire and a half cup of water came dripping out. Then I drilled two extra drain holes through bottom of rocker panel.

 

Also the plastic sill plate cover is held by a clip right at the door seal. Mine has pulled away and wouldn’t click flush for a proper seal.  I wedged in flush and caulked over clip opening and the upper edge which still had a small gap.

This could allow water into the rocker panel. 
Did a 10 min spray test with a hose and there was no water coming in. Lots of openings in firewall sheet metal were caulked, lower ones were left open as they can function as a drain. Fingers crossed it’s fixed.Will post pics of sill plate clip. 

 

[John/Horace]

So two rain storms and all dry. Still have some trim off so I can check underneath carpet. The plugged factory drain holes in the rocker just behind wheel well liner I think we’re the biggest cause.  Lots of leaves and garden stuff blowing around where car is parked, could have started things. Car not garage stored.

 

Hankster how did you pick out the foam from the rocker panel. There weren’t any large openings that I saw to do this from. I was guessing the foam was there to help water proof the sheet metal joints. But yeah it was helping trap water and not really functional anymore. I actually drilled two 1/8” holes in bottom of rocker at wheel well to make sure water isn’t going to get trapped again and rot things out. Could always spray in thin rust check later to slow down corrosion.

When factory drain hole was cleared about two cups of water flowed out. 

[John/Horace]

Still minor leak. I found the urethane caulk doesn't stick well to the foam in the door sill chanel. Peels right off. So I removed the caulk on holes I covered again. Poked out as much expanded foam as possible like Hankster mentioned in his post. Used clear silicone the second time. Also removed 5-6 trim clips and plugged those too. Fingers crossed.

Starting to get annoying.

 

[John/Horace]

No leak during two storms now. The passenger front door where leak is had a bent hinge from an incident my wife had with a gust of wind. I managed to bend back hinge and adjusted striker  plate so door closes properly again. The water on the floor could be related to this prior incident from Feb of this year. Although there was no leak at the time.
 

Two 3/16  drain holes were drilled in the channel underneath the door sill. Could not seal out water from entering door frame channel via wheel well. Sealed a lot of cable openings, added weather stripping to rubber seal around the door etc. Adding drain holes was only thing that finally worked.  I also cleared crap out the existing drain holes, which work better now. But I started doing that first and by itself was not a solution.