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Water INSIDE my car! OH NO!!!


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I left my car parked on the corner when I went away for the 4th of July weekend. It was parked on an avenue that is at the bottom of a hill and I was on the corner where the drain is. We had a LOT of torrential rain here in the NYC area over the past week. When I went to my car today to move it, had I not taken down the windshield sun shade and put it in the back on the floor, I would have NEVER noticed all the WATER THERE! The seat is completely dry, the window is completely closed, and the floor is COMPLETELY SATURATED with water.

I immediately brought it to a nearby gas station and vacuumed it out as best as I could and put a hair dryer to it for 30 minutes to dry it out as best as I could. But I couldn't get to the area right by the floor heater ducts under the seat. And the foam material under the carpet is still "squishy" wet when pressed. The carpet is now dry, though. When I parked on the hill with the nose of the car heading down, it started to drip water from the kicker under the doors.

Where could the water have gotten in from? The back right passsenger foot area is the ONLY wet spot...not the side going up to the seat cushions, not the seat, NOTHING. And it doesn't go towards the front seat either...it stops where the metal elevates a bit under the passenger seat. How could this have happened? And how much do I have to worry about the residual moisture under the carpet and on the metal?

Any advice would be appreciated!!!!

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Wow- do you have a sunroof? Have you messed with any of the grommets in the car?

 

I have no sunroof and it is COMPLETELY confined to the horizontal floor part of the passenger side rear floor. Also, like I said, it didn't move to the front passenger seat foot well at all because apparently there is a partition of sorts in the metal frame on the floor that stopped it. I have NO idea how this water got in here, ESPECIALLY since it's so isolated. It OBVIOUSLY had to come from the bottom. But I've never done any work down there and if there were a hole, I'd have noticed it driving in the rain other times.

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I'm thinking the drain tube for the air conditioner.

 

Thanks for the thought. But that would lead to the inside of the car? And it would be that far back? And what kind of drain tube is necessary? Isn't the water being made by the A/C system being drained from the front, under the hood, by the compressor? That's where it seems to drip from in most cars.

 

*I just re-thought that. Are you thinking the A/C drain tube drained into the car? If so, wouldn't that go into the FRONT seat foot well? I've seen that and heater cores leak THERE only, not in the rear. PLUS my car was sitting for almost two weeks undriven, so no A/C, AND it was a significant amount of water.

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Was the rear seat (back or cushion) wet at all?

 

I would guess Passenger side rear window seal or rear window.

There are a few floor plugs as well.... but there would have to have been flooding for that to occur.

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Any idea if it got deep enough (especially if you were in a low spot which is where drains usually are located) to get over the rocker panel and seep through the gasket at the bottom of the door?
It is still ugly.
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Sounds definately like a backed up Air Conditioner drain tube. You will get water in cabin if that happens and where you were indicating. chances are this has been happening for a while so I would clean out the drain tube and make sure all the water is out of the cabin. Water has a way of promoting mold and mildew which can make the car smell not too good in the cabin. Hope this helps.

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Guest *Jedimaster*
I had this occur to me yesterday. I brought it to the dealer and the problem was the a/c drain line was clogged.

Well I'll be darned.

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But he said that the passenger FRONT was dry.... this is the passenger REAR.

 

If the AC drain tube got plugged... it will flood the passenger FRONT.

 

It still wouldnt hurt to have them check it out. Who knows. We all know how bizarre things can get w/ the Legacys....

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Guest *Jedimaster*
But he said that the passenger FRONT was dry.... this is the passenger REAR.

 

If the AC drain tube got plugged... it will flood the passenger FRONT.

You're so confusing.

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My last car, a 96 Camry had a AC drain hose work it's way out of the grommet to the outside. It flooded the right rear passenger's foot well. It was up to 1/4" deep in water. Front passenger foot well was completely dry. The water was flowing though a small channel in the sheet metal.
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I'm gonna bring it in and have them check it. Weird part is the car sat for almost two weeks undriven AND was bone dry the last time I drove the car with the A/C on all day (even the next day after sitting all night...was putting things in and out of the car in the back seat and on the floor).

 

I'm gonna soak up as much as I can in the middle under the seat where I couldn't reach with the vacuum/hair dryer to get it to dry up. If I drive the car again with the A/C and it gets wet, I'll know it's that EXACTLY rather than have the dealer keep my car for a while and just let it "air dry" as they told me they want to do ANYWAY.

 

Despite the sense of urgency because it's water, I guess I'm going to have to go by trial and error with this.

 

Thanks for all your responses guys.

 

BTW - Can anyone tell me where the A/C drain is routed in our car? Anyone have any diagrams of the a/c system? I tried google and didn't come up with much.

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When I read the thread about plugged/pinched A/C drains, I pulled back the carpet on the pasenger side to look at mine, and it runs along the left side of the ECU (had to remove the metal shield or cover to see it). Unless that big metal box under the carpet on the sloped part of the footwell is not the ECU. I had lots of interior trim parts off to get the carpet pulled back far enough to I could see the full length of the hose. I took pictures, but none of the hose itself. Looking at the undercarriage (just went and looked) and from what I remember of the inside, I have to believe it exits the footwell at about the lower left corner of the ECU. Then again, I could be wrong.
It is still ugly.
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I think we are both right. You are talking about the inside of the firewall... I am talking about outside..

 

Do you have the photos you could post up?

 

Thanks. The only photos I took are of the back side of the trim pieces I removed, so the next time I need to take them off I know how to pull, pry or push without breaking things.

It is still ugly.
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+2 for aliens :lol:

 

I drove the car this weekend extensively a) to run the a/c through the floor ducts in an attempt to dry it out quicker and b) to run the a/c to see if the drain from it is what was causing the water.

 

Verdict? No a/c leakage! It's just as dry (or wet) as it was when I started and all the water from the a/c was under the car on the road where it belonged.

 

Only shi**y thing is that there is thick padding underneath the carpet in the car that is still "gooshy" wet. That's going to take FOREVER to dry, even though the carpet has been long dry. And with the humidity levels starting to rise heavily again here in NYC that's going to make it take a lot longer. I just hope it does nothing to the metal underneat from having moisture there for so long. At least it's painted/treated metal that matches the car!

 

UGH!

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