BHMav8r

Any suggestions on where to look for the leak? The vapor barrier mentioned above sounds like just that - a vapor barrier. Should I be looking for some kind of failed seal?
Guess it could be the windshield too . . . Time to get the hose out.

Quadcammer

vapor barrier is just a sheet of plastic. It gets attached to the inner door skin with a butyl rubber type seal. Basically you can just look for tears in the sheet or any areas where the seal is no longer properly attached. This would generally result in your inner door sill carpets being wet.

windshield seals don't seem to go bad that easy. I'd check if you have standing water in the areas around the battery/cowl and thats soaking into your cabin filter.

StormRune

I doubt it is the vapor barrier either. I think that would only become an issue with the car moving when spray is kicking up.

The way I eventually found the leak on my son's Kia, which was being had to find, was to have him stick his head in floorboard area with a bright light looking for any sign of water trickling in while I took a water hose on modest flow and move it slowly along various parts of the windshield, hood, and air intakes/wiper area. Don't blast it in, let it flow down like a hard rain would.

As he would see drips appear, I'd focus the water more tightly in that area until we had about 3" section along the windshield id'ed. Note that once you have some leakage, you stop and wait for that to stop dripping as it may take many seconds to stop before trying to home in more closely. The leak may have originated from somewhere you had the hose several seconds back since it may not find its way through immediately.

The catch with doing that is you can't test near the door area without risking pouring water in the door unless you are clever with tape and plastic sheeting or you close the door. In his case, it was relatively easy to remove the passenger seat and just lie down in the floor board, but that may not be so easily done in a 911.

One other hint about this. Where the water drips down into the car may be some distance away from where it enters. It can follow a wandering path before showing up where you can see it. Also, you may not see a drip or a flow line without removing some of the carpet. We rolled back the front of the carpet which helped a bit in his case.

Or... you can take it to the pros and hope that they know all of the standard leak points and can find/fix it without costing an arm and a leg.

BHMav8r

The piece of plastic below the windshield wipers that covers the bottom of the windshield is not forming a good seal with the windshield(not that it seals the windshield or any thing) but this may be letting more water flow into the area below it. I was planning on replacing it anyway. The water into cabin filter area wants me to investigate this further too.

Thanks for all the ideas. Gonna be a diy weekend. Time for oil & filter as well.

Bruce In Philly

The seal of that cowl is not relevant.... mine does not form a good seal either.

I doubt your doors are leaking into the cabin, I think the water drains out given the sill slants out and down.

Check those drains on either side of your battery compartment (where water from your cowl will go)... mine were clogged with organic gunk and I had a pool in there... didn't leak into the cabin but these are a maintenance item.

If you windshield was replaced, you could have a leak... I did... very intermittent and an easy fix with a low viscosity silicone squirted under the trim from the outside (I just did this and it works). For me, the drip was from the overhead light and dripped directly onto my shift boot. The water may be running down your A pillar.... did you check around your fuse box and the same place the other side?

Compare the door window seals by comparing each side with each other... maybe coming down the B pillar.

Peace,
Bruce in Philly

StormRune

Good thing to mention Bruce! On the story about my son's Kia I should have thought to mention this too.... the flowable silicon they make just for this kind of thing worked great for us too. It seems to make a much better seal than the more normal caulk-like gel. Since it flows pretty well at first you need to use it in moderation so it doesn't run too far away from where you want it.

BHMav8r

Found water at the bottom of the door where the door panel carpet meets the metal. Run my finger along this seam and water drops fall out. The carpet is wet a few inches up from here too.

Checked the other door and it is wet too, but not nearly as much. And none in the drivers side floor.

Hope the culprit reveals itself when I remove the door panel.

The window issue appears to be somewhat intermittent, although such is the case when multiple sensors are involved.

BHMav8r

The door seal between the bottom of the door and the floor has a little valley/crevice just to the inside of where the door mates with it. There is water here, on the inside where it shouldn't be, leading me to believe the water is coming from the door.

BHMav8r

Checked the drains by the battery. Poured about a quart of water there and it drained quickly. There was some crud which I cleaned before the water, but not enough to obstruct.

BHMav8r

Removed the door panel tonight. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.
Pic of the door seal ridge along the bottom sill of the car. Water was in the ridge so Im pretty sure its coming from the door and the carpet on the door there is wet.
Picture of the drains and gasket holes at the very bottom of the door that let any water that gets in the door to drain out and down the sill.
The metal interior door cover behind the door panel has a crimp at the bottom - not sure if I did this tonight or not - anyhow its not sealing there, so water can drip down to the interior door panel carpet and onto the door seal ridge.
When I pushed in the area of the crimp water came dripping out and rolling down the door.
Perhaps I need a window seal too.
Silicone/permatex and maybe a new seal at the leak.
Now for the window sensors.

jdgamble

Hey I have a similar issue, but not as bad. I just realized tonight that the bottom edge of the carpet on the door is wet. so of course in my head the door was full of water. I popped out a couple of the little black grommets on the bottom of the door, and definitely some moisture in the door, but even worse it was kinda muddy in there. How did yours look inside? Mine must be filthy in there. This seems like a problem. Any ideas?

Also, my car is CPO. This feels like a CPO repair. Any thoughts there?

Thanks.

Bruce In Philly

Good job! I never saw that. So why is so much water getting into the door? Why is door water then getting into the car? (I know, obvious.......)

Does the window need an adjustment? Again, compare the seals to the other side. Your window has some easy and some hard to do adjustments. The easy one is to pop off the grommet on the underside of the door which gives access to a nut that moves the glass in / out .... closer farther from the seals (not up/down). The harder ones are when you replace glass and that is really tricky as the window and door have those odd curves. Maybe another one is to reset your window height by disconnecting your battery, then resetting the windows (see your manual).

But water in the door is normal (to a degree), but why then into the car? Is the rocker panel straight? Hmm...... the more I think about it...... water in the door, particularly after a rain, may be completely normal.... are you sure that is the source of the water in car? The A and B pillar covers can be removed rather easily as I have done it.

Just some suggestions from some board knucklehead on the internet.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

BHMav8r

There is some crap in there - not sure how much. Lots of crap at the lower seal on the door (in the pic) and at the holes in that seal which drain the door. The two seal system (one on the lower door and one one the door sill on the chassis) looks quite functional and well thought out.

I have no idea how water is getting in the door. Many on here have brought up the issue of water on your window when you roll it down and then up. Close examination of the horizontal window seal at the window door line looks pretty good. I have been parking on a ccw and uphill incline at work. Maybe that is contributing. The only real entry for water I can see is at the rear window - door - body juncture. Water entry there would drain in between the seal on the body sill and the lower door seal - shouldnt get in the door though and certainly should drain out the door and not get on the window. There are two slots on the lower door seal that are probably to drain this water.

Question: do you have to remove the steel inner inner panel to access the exterior door handle/sensor assembly? If so, do you have to remove any of the parts in the inside of it - air bag, speakers, window motor, etc. ? DIY anywhere?

Also didnt readily see any of the window sensors. Looks like I'm going to replace the window raise\lower switch, the door handle/latch assembly, and that third sensor that I don't know where it is.

Better pics to follow.

BTW - driving w/o the door panel is quite loud.

Cheers

Bruce In Philly

In my link here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...croswitch.html

I got to the exterior door handle and could remove it without removing the panel although it sure was fiddly. I didn't want to remove the panel completely as the cabling had to be removed and there were some other bits that looked like trouble to me. IIRC..... I don't remember all the reasons why I opted to not remove it completely.

I get water in my door whenever I wash my car as evidenced by that famous streaking I get on my window glass..... how much gets in there I don't really know.

I don't know where all the sensors are... I understand there are three IIRC... one in the outside handle itself (the one I changed, it drops the window as you pull on the external handle), the other is supposed to be in the latch assembly, and the other in/on/near the interior door handle. THere are some posts on these other two as I remember. There is at least one other sensor but I have no idea where it is... the one that stops the window from continuing if you have a hand or other object in there as you close the window..... (automatic systems have these safety shut offs).

Good luck,
Bruce in Philly

BHMav8r

Thanks. The door handle looks like it has the less expensive sensor (pics), might not have to remove the handle to replace. Where is the more expensive door lock mechanism/sensors assembly (pic)? At the side, below the handle? Cable prolly attaches to the "hook" on the left.
Sounds like removing the steel inner panel is not that bad. Was scared I would get into a window mechanism\assembly\alignment black hole.
Maybe I should do a write up on this. Really not a hard diy so far, building on previous diy's