Driver's footwell filled with water

[Twin_Cam]

Hello everyone. My wife's 02 P5 has had a musty odor in it every so often for the past couple months. Didn't think anything of it because it wasn't really strong, and we couldn't find any wet spots inside. Well, it rained pretty hard all day Tuesday and the driver's footwell is soggy, and the car smells pretty funky. This weekend I'm going to dry it out and then take it to a car wash and blast it with the power washer to see if I can tell where it's coming in, but I was wondering if this was a problem area for these cars? Window seals? Sunroof drains? Windshield wiper area drains? Etc etc. Thanks very much.

It doesn't smell like coolant, by the way, so I know it's not the heater core.

 

[Atkins Dan]

I had a car like this once.. look on the floor under the carpets as there should be a few rubber plugs.. in my case 2 of them were missing..
If yours has a sun roof make sure the drains are clear and draining outside the car..

Dan

 

[zhy]

theres a hole designed specifically to be able to let water out of the driver's footwell if theres a flooding or something like this.
just remove the whole carpet, and you'll see this circular metal plug, you can remove it to let most of the water out, or seal it with urethane if its the cause of the water infiltration in your car!

 

[MazdaSpeeder]

I had an issue like this and it wasn't the sunroof...the windshield seal along the A pillar on the driver's side was leaking. I pulled back the trim and dribbled water along there and it was very clear what was happening. I took it to a windshield place and they resealed it for a nominal fee. That was years ago and I have had no problems since.

It definitely could be the sunroof drains, but if it's not, I would check the windshield seal.

 

[tweety2300]

I had the same thing, trunk leaked so bad it would fill the holes up and I parked on a hill so it came to the front, pull your rear carpet up and check for pooled up water

 

[rit14623]

Hmm, well since it is filling with water when parked, you can rule out water coming up from beneath. I had a car with a hole in the floorpan. There was this small hole, like a spear had spiked through the floor at an angle. Water would come up from beneath and into the passenger footwell.

 

[Installshield 2]

Hmm, well since it is filling with water when parked, you can rule out water coming up from beneath. I had a car with a hole in the floorpan. There was this small hole, like a spear had spiked through the floor at an angle. Water would come up from beneath and into the passenger footwell.

exactly...you can pretty much rule out a rusted floor or problematic plug, which is probably good news...I'd check the driver's door seals for the door frame, the window seal, the windsheild seal on the driver's side of the car...and especially the sunroof channel if it has one...I don't know how it works on P5's, but a friend's Audi A4 had this exact problem a month ago...the moon roof seal had a hose that ran to the back pillar on the driver's side...he had to run a coat hanger through it...which pushed out what looked like a bird's nest haha...but it was flooding his back seats every time it was parked in rain...but leaked nearly nothing during driving...

 

[beba]

i have this issue now, wind shield was re-caulked for another leak, narrowed down to a seam break behind the front driver quarter panel, now i just need to find a body shop to take it off and find the lil hole to plug in, hard to find honest body people in toronto though

 

[Twin_Cam]

Ok, so an update. It is definitely not anything with the floor pan- the car gets water in it even when it hasn't moved all day. I can't tell where the water is leaking from- the only thing that's wet is the floor, none of the carpeting more than an inch from the bottom of the floor is wet, leading me to believe it's not running down from anywhere. It's almost like it's leaking from the roof, but I don't see any stains or wet spots on the headliner or any trim.

Where are the sunroof drains? Where do they terminate? I hope I get this figured out before the weather warms up. It's been cold enough since this has been happening that it hasn't gotten really funky and smelly. But it certainly will come Spring.

 

[StealthWyvern]

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123827490-firewall-cabin-water-leaks

 

[P-Funk!]

Start by having a friend (you DO have friends don'cha'?) take a water hose and start from the bottom up spraying the doors and then the windshield and then fianlly the roof while you watch from inside with a flashlight.

 

[StealthWyvern]

Start by having a friend (you DO have friends don'cha'?) take a water hose and start from the bottom up spraying the doors and then the windshield and then fianlly the roof while you watch from inside with a flashlight.

I already know how to replicate it.. every time and know where to point the wanter just not sure how to get behind all the crap in the dash. Of course I can remove it but hadn't had much time lately to chase all that down due to wedding plans ect

 

[Twin_Cam]

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123827490-firewall-cabin-water-leaks

Sweet, I'll check that out. My mom had a minivan way back in the day that had a similar problem, the area around the wiper motor filled up completely after the drains clogged with leaves.

 

[P-Funk!]

ahh. ok.