Drivers Side Carpet Is Wet

[Munkyb0y]

I noticed a weird smell in the car, so i started sniffing around. Lifted the drivers side floor mat, and found the carpet under it is damp.

No other area of the carpet seems wet. just a patch about 30cm x 30cm, where your left heel would rest.

I cant see where the water got in. The car was sitting out overnight in heavy rain 2 days ago.

Its just water as far as i can tell, not coolant or anything else.

Any ideas? Anyone had this issue?

Its an s1 R33.

[DRD-00F]

its probably getting in from the outside... LOL!

i dunno, sounds weird... hopefully it wasnt dripping from above... check under the car next chance you get... that or it could be getting through the firewall, and dripping into the inside... try and follow any signs of water if you can, otherwise, check your firewalls for holes and missing gromets...

my 2c

[Munkyb0y]

the outside hey?

i'm thinking it might be getting in from underneath. i'll have the car on a hoist this week, so i'll have a good look.

i looked for water marks on the inside of the firewall, behind the pedals etc, but found none. in fact, theres dust on there.

[MYS013]

Probably your heater core... quite common.

[Munkyb0y]

Probably your heater core... quite common.

i'm pretty sure that would be passenger side.

[Godzilla32]

Yeah that rules out either a leaking heater core or overflowing evaporater drip tray. Only really leaves water coming in from outside, and seeing you said it was in the rain for 2 days it sounds like its the most logical answer. Its probably water leaking in from the area just in front of the dash where the interior air intake is. Water could be trapped in there and leaking inside the car. Either that or maybe windscreen seal?

[Baconer]

whenever i wash my car (r33 aswell) small splashes of water get in between the door window and the b-pillar if i spray in the wrong direction, maybe it was similar to this :X

My car still smells like that generic imported car smell...

[RANDY]

My Commodore developed this problem some time back.. it was the water-runoff kinda holes where your windscreen meets your firewall. I forget what my Skyline looks like around that area, but the Commy had holes with mesh into the front quarter panels for the water to drain out. Problem is, the water just drains straight out onto the firewall part, which is usually not painted... just primed (on the inside of the quarter panel and inside of the firewall... the engine-bay side is painted). So it rusted a little hole through, then the water just slid down the inside of the firewall, under the carpet, and pooled on the passenger side floor.

I couldn't find any water anywhere but on the floor, and the top of the carpet was dry. Did my head in until I stripped back the carpet for a week in heavy rain.

If you can't see where it's coming from, i'm still betting on gravity, and would suggest that it's coming from ABOVE, and checking under the car might not be the answer. =-]

I could be very wrong, but I doubt the floorpan has rusted away.

Edited April 24, 2007 by RANDY

[Munkyb0y]

i can tell this isnt going to be fun.

i'm hoping its something silly like a missing gromit on the floor. but it's never that easy.

how do u get the grill under the wipers off?

[Munkyb0y]

ok, i found the leak.

it turned out to be a large gromit that feeds a bunch of wiring into the cabin.

the water that collects inside the vents under the wipers, overuns onto the firewall (engine bay side) and was geting in thru this gromit that had popped out of its place. you cant quite see it in the pic, but it's where the arrow is pointing.

in my case i had my boost line running thru here, so i cut a hole into the grommit and ran the line thru, and used sikaflex to seal around the line.

will test it again tomoro when its all dry and set.

[DRD-00F]

WOOHOO! i was right i love being right...

you can pay cash next time you see me

[Munkyb0y]

lol yeah you were right, in a 'vague, covered all the bases' kind of way.

next time show me a diagram, with pics, and step by step instructions. sweeeeeet.

:laughing-smiley-014:

no cash for you

[4drftn]

i have the same problem at the moment, the picture doesnt work anymore, but do you need to remove the plastic mesh cover under the wipers?, or just check the gromets on the firewall in the engine bay where the wiring passes through the firewall into the cabin?

[Munkyb0y]

fark, i feel like a horrible person. took me months to reply, and its probably far too late now

no need to remove anything external. just clear the way so you can see the firerwall clearly up and to the right of the accellerator. it was right up there. my neck got sore trying to see it. in my case it was a large grommit that i think feeds the bonnet release cable into the car.

[gotRICE?]

fark, i feel like a horrible person. took me months to reply, and its probably far too late now

no need to remove anything external. just clear the way so you can see the firerwall clearly up and to the right of the accellerator. it was right up there. my neck got sore trying to see it. in my case it was a large grommit that i think feeds the bonnet release cable into the car.

You talking about the frommit that exits kinda in the guard? And its a real pain in the ass to get to from both sides?

I did the same thing and poked a hole in if for wiring. its a bastard of a thing to get back in. I cant even remember if i did or not :s will find out in the enxt downpour i guess hehe.

Glad you found it tho! My old ITR had a leak in the boot that took me weeks to find. Ended up it was a crack in the seam sealer... dont even ask how i found that..

[soviet_merlin]

I'm dealing with this issue currently. Makes me wonder whether it is somewhat common and people don't notice as long as it is not bad enough. Had spots of slightly damp carpet under the floor mats every now and then and always thought it came from the top. As in it dripped down from shoes or so. But it's definitely going from the vent under the windscreen down behind the carpets.

It must have gotten a lot worse recently. The foam under the carpet was just wet but not musty or anything. The foam under the plastic/rubber behind the pedals seems to have been wet for much longer as it smelled much more musty. On the plus side the car is now probably the driest it has been in a long time.

Booked it in to have someone who knows what they are doing have a look at it. Definitely no driving in the rain until then.

Some photos for what it's worth.

A cm or so of standing water under the carpets. Nice.

 

Water goes in here

 

And part of the water comes out there

 

Dry motherf**ker, dry!

 

 

I panicked at first and almost bought a proper heavy duty drying fan from bunnings. In the end it turns out the shitty fan heater and old hair dryer work just fine.

[GTSBoy]

If it's not just blocked plenum drains, then it's windscreen frame rust. There's nowhere else for water to come from.

Wet driver's side is usually clutch master leaking out the back. But if you're sure it's water, see above.

[soviet_merlin]

On 28/07/2022 at 8:36 PM, GTSBoy said:

If it's not just blocked plenum drains, then it's windscreen frame rust. There's nowhere else for water to come from.

Wet driver's side is usually clutch master leaking out the back. But if you're sure it's water, see above.

Thanks for the pointers! Will have a look in the next days.

Plenum drain must be the worst name for it to go looking online. Closest I have found is this topic on MGs.

I'm not ruling out other things leaking, but pouring water into the vent ends up with at least some of it dripping down into the footwell.

The car has a mostly garaged history and little of the typical Stagea rust. So I'm keeping my hopes up that it's not a rusty nightmare hiding in there.

Any hints on where to look for that drain? Do the vents need to come out?

[GTSBoy]

The drains are out the ends of the plenum into the back end of the front guards.

[tridentt150v]

If you take your front wheel off then unclip the inner plastic guard liner, there are a couple of rubber grommets on the firewall that have wires and the accelerator cable etc going through them.

In their infinite wisdom, the jap workshops often slice these grommets to fit other wires for EVC and a/m gauges etc.  This then creates a leak. 

Some Sikaflex will fix it.