Passenger side carpet soaking wet after heavy rains

Hi,



I recently bought a used 1999 Camry and yesterday after a day of heavy rains I found the passenger side carpet soaking wet with a small puddle of water on the rubber section of the floor mat on the same side. The wet area was limited to the section closer to the door and near the footrest. The car had been sitting all day since I drove it to work and was out in the rain for several hours. It has a sun roof and I checked around the roof for leaks, but there weren’t any. Also the underside of the dash didn’t feel wet. Only part that felt wet was the underside edge of the car when I ran my hand along the bottom near just below the door hinge, but I am not sure if that was the rain water still draining away from under the hood.

Blocked drains on a sunroof are constant problems. They are four of them one at each corner . String trimmer line or a little compressed air are the usual tools used. Careful or you may cause damage.

The passenger floor is also where a blocked drain from the Air Conditioner or the air vent (the grilled area in front of the windscreen) ends up.

Thanks!

Where would I find the drain outlet for the sun roof drain on a 1999 Camry? Is it behind the wheel well?

Also where are the drains from the air conditioner and the air vent located on this car?

Where would I find the drain outlet for the sun roof drain

There are four of them, one for each corner. Look for rubber tubes under the car.

It might help to pour a little water into each corner of the sun roof and see where the water comes out under the car.

Working from the clue that you said that the underside of the body was wet after the rest of the car was dry - perhaps the rocker panel area below the door sill is filling up with water.

If the door sill will snap up, pull the carpet away from the door sill and see if there are plastic plugs in holes in the body beneath the door opening on the inside. If so. pop one out and see if the rocker panel area is wet inside. It may be filling up with water through a rust hole, or it may normally carry water from the air intake or sunroof drain, and its drain holes are plugged. If it fills up, water can leak through the plastic plugs into the carpet.

Ok…so I checked out the passenger side sun roof outlets on top of the car and found the opening completely blocked by a cake of mud, so much so that I couldn’t even see the opening initially. Once I cleaned that and poured some water near the opening water started to drain out from under the car fairly efficiently. I am hoping that was the only blockage and this is what caused it to overflow and find its way under the passenger seat floorboards.

The carpet seems to be still somewhat wet but its a lot more dry than before. I don’t know if there is water in the rocker or under the floorboards. How important is it to look in there to see if there is water and to remove it? Is there a way it would drain out from somewhere else without me having to remove it. I want to make sure the water will get out somehow so the body does not rust out.

I’m getting ready to test all the same things mentioned below on my Lexus (also a toyota…) which has been pooling water for a while now on the pax side. I didn’t want to take it to Lexus because those boys work on commission and I cant afford to line thier pockets, for a guessing game fix.

Is your leak still at bay, or has it resumed?

If your car has a cabin filter then a common problem is water leaking around the filter cover and into the passenger area.