Hello! I recently discovered the interior carpeting at the front driver and passenger wheel-well and floor boards soaked with water (running along both doors and where the driver would rest their left foot and the passenger would rest their right foot). This was discovered upon returning home from a trip after heavy rainstorms where the car sat locked in our driveway, all windows up.
I had my windshield replaced back in October 2009 and at first assumed the water leaked in from a faulty seal. But after performing a thorough water test with the windshield installers, we were unable to find any signs of a leak.
Puzzled, we investigated further. We performed a water test of our own and
sprayed the door seams, wheel wells and undercarriage. The floors appeared to be bit wetter after spraying, but we could not identify the source. All door seals and seams looked normal.
Back in May 2008 I was in accident where a car hit the passenger side wheel well and door. I also recently had the breaks replaced as well as a 60k service on the car. The body work on the passenger side could explain the water leaking in on that side, but still puzzled why it would be on the driver’s side as well. Before taking it to a shop that surely would charge an arm and a leg to diagnose the source, what other options do we have to pin-point the problem?
Thank you in advance -
Does your Pilot have a “moonroof”? Sometimes these can allow water to enter the cabin in strange places. The drain tubes from the windshield vent area can be clogged too. The body repair from the accident is a prime suspect for further investigation.
Plugged up door drains or hidden collision damage…
My guess is a clogged drain, the one that drains the area under the vents in front of the windscreen. If that is it, you may be able to clear it using string trimmer line or compressed air. Don’t be over enthusiastic with either as it could cause more problems.
If you have been using the defroster or AC it may be the condensation drain that is clogged.
Last but not least, you could be looking at a blocked drain for the sun roof. It has four the one on the passenger side front corner would be it. Again same tools and caution.
Thank you so much for all the replies! What a great network!
I don’t have a moon/sunroof and I have checked all the drain tubes along side the wheel-well (we tested that really well when performing the windshield test with the installer).
Where are the door drains? Are they the same as the ones along side the front wheels or in a different location? (sorry car part novice here :))
The Door drains are in the bottom of each door. You’ll have to lay on the floor looking up at the bottom edge of each door to see the drains. They are designed to drain rain water that gets past the window seals. They’d have to be seriously pluggerd to make water go into the interior, but I guess it could happpen. I knew a lady whose Firebird had such plugged drains that the door’s skins were distorted when the trapped water froze. That’s not supposed to happen either.