flood!!!

[Archangel]

What the title says - car has been out all day long today, I open the door in the evening to head home and there's a nice 1" deep water puddle in the left side of the driver's floor pan. I'm like so I pull carpet, pull drain plugs, push most water ou, just to find the damn carpet is so soaked it ain't even gonna try drying out any time soon. Ended up cutting out the carpet above driver's floorpan, damn thing was all fucked-up by water damage, and don't need it anyways - that's what spray-on bedliner is invented for! What bugs me is where the fuck did that water come from? Passenger floorpan is dry as martini, so why only driver's side?

Stupid MI rusty car, the HVAC is not responding right no more, now this, I'm about ready to cut it up into a convertible! Damn

[gadget73]

windshield leak or clogged drains in the driver's door would be my guess.

[Archangel]

Aight, just cleaned driver's door drains, but they were clean, no water poured down from there. So what if it's indeed a windshield leak - how does that get fixed? On a side note, is there a crossmember under the Townie roof right between the two B-pillars?

[86GmLsCoupe]

I've had water come in on mine from the door weatherstripping, and the door hinges where they've pulled some on the the metal seem open (I'll get pics of it to better explain one day). You can always check the fresh air intake but I think the design on them does pretty well. For the hinge leak, I noticed water drops behind the passenger footwell kick panel if you want to try checking there. I would perhaps pull a body plug temporarily to let remaining water out if you can, and pull the carpet fastener/sill plate up and just stick something between the floorpan and carpet to give it a chance to dry out some. Anyway, sorry to hear about that.

[Archangel]

Actually the fresh air intake was leaking a while back, but last summer it all got siliconed over real nice, and seal seems to be still holding up, so I don't think that's the problem. The seams near the hinges I'll check tomorrow, bu I don't think it's them either, would have noticed such a huge gap for sure. And I did pull both plugs out on the driver's floorpan, and I cut the carpet away completely cause it was damaged real bad - floorpan will get sanded, rust-proofed, then covered with spray-on bedliner...

[gadget73]

If its a leak around the windshield, basically you buy a new one. They almost always break coming out, if only because there is more profit to be made by a glass shop selling you new glass vs pulling and re-sealing it.

And yes, there is sort of a channel up there in the middle of the roof, though i don't think its quite dead center between the B pillars. Been a long time since I had my headliner down but there should be 2 or 3 support channels up there. I want to say the dome light screws into it but don't blame me if you end up running a screw through the roof

[Archangel]

Thain, that's what I was afraid of, as there ain't no way I spend another $200 on something like that - assuming I fix the windshield leak there's still the HVAC bullshit, and even if I manage to repair that one there's still all the rust and shit... it ain't worthy, I'm gonna keep driving that car till I can afford a rust-free souther car, then I'm gonna swap all the goodies to the new one. Really I'll give her a week of water leaks testing (it's supposed to rain all week long), then if she still tries to flood I'm taking her to my friend's place and I'm cutting the fuckin top off - at that point she becomes strictly a nice-weather vehicle (kinda like JohnyIroc's aero Crown Vic), so windshield leaks and unresponsive HVAC won't be a concern no more, and I can even delete the A/C and the heater core as well. That's actually why I was asking about that channel from b-pillar to b-pillar, I'm thinking of cutting down the door frames and all the roof except for the b-pillars and the part of the roof between them, so I still have the seatbelt mounts and the opera lights and maybe even a dome light!

[gabegt90]

could be from the b pilar mine leaks on the passenger side the way I deal with it is to put small towles on the floor pan then the towles collect the rain water I's been doing that for about a year know thankfully mine is not leaking on the drivers side plus I seals the drain plugs so no water can come through the floor pan

[Archangel]

Gabe, it ain't the B-pillar - there ain't no traces of water on the sheetmetal above the floorpan's bottom, there is however a rusty trace running along the vertical seam on the tranny hump in the are behind the radio - me thinks whereve it leaks from is somewhere in the center of the car behind the dash, and from there it runs down the side of the tranny hump and pools on the driver's floorpan... We have a thunderstorm coming in tomorrow, shall see what happens.

[OldBlue1981]

Damn! Sounds almost like my luck. I just spent a while installing all new carpeting so, if this happened to me, I would have been pissed!!! Best wishes!!!

[86GmLsCoupe]

I definitely understand what you're going through, I still get some water in on bad days. Have you heard of/tried that powder and air compressor test for the leak? I found a leak in a rear window doing that once. I just put powder on the outside seam and blew air around from the inside and where it moved, it was leaking. It should work on any seam sealed spots to like in the cowl, pillars, ect.

[Archangel]

Haven't even heard about the powder trick, but don't think it'd work with the windshield, the whole damn dash is in the way. Besides I looked at it today, and I noticed the windshield's bottom edge seal is still several inches above the level for the water drain channel where the wipers live, so even inf the windshield seal has a leak there ain't no wat water gets to it as that means that water first have to run all the way down to the edge of the glass, go under said edge, and then climb up on its inside wall till it reaches the seal - not really likely me thinks. But I think I found some clues on the murder of my carpeting - after I pulled the sound-damping material above the tranny hump I found that the rusty trace of leaky water I mentioned in my previous post begins right under the HVAC ducting for the floor, so I bet the water came through there... now just to find where it entered the ducting...

[86GmLsCoupe]

Well I wish you luck, leaks like that are my worst fears because of rust. And all the ones I ever had leaked in some way. My 92 grand am had a leak front the fresh air vent that rotted a nice 4-5 inch hole in the firewall, and my 01 grand am had the same damn leak, but it's fixed before any rust. You'd think they'd be able to fix a design flaw in a 9 year span and new bodystyle. I'm still thinking there might be something in the cowl, like a seam where the seam seal has cracked. At one point I just smeared seam seal all over the cowl in the old grand am.

[P72Ford]

Ahhh leaks. I've been chasing one on the passengers side front forever. I believe it is near the fresh air intake. I've slowed it, but I still know there is a small leak. It sucks, but I've given up. Thats why I put POR on the floor.

[Tiggie]

Could leak on both sides like my wagon. The drivers side leaks somewhere up above the gas pedal under the insulation and stuff. Dunno where exactly it is coming in. (Suggestions welcome). The passenger side comes in through the fresh air vent screen thing on top of the firewall. Judging by the 10X8in hole in the drivers floor, it has leaked since new.