Water leak rear passenger footwell

thoughtorgan@lemmy.world to Cars - For Car Enthusiasts@lemmy.world – 38 points –

Noticed 4 inches of water in my rear passenger footwell this morning. After getting it all out, the floor felt like a water bed. Had to peel back the flooring to find rust soup. Another 2 inches of rusty ass water.

2007 crown Victoria p71

Any ideas?

14

Do you happen to have a sunroof? There are drains running off sunroofs down the A and C pillars that can get clogged or burst due to age.

Check the underside of both front and rear doors on that side of the car for a small drain hole and stick some clothes hangar wire up thru them. Contrary to popular belief, the window seal where it slides down into the door is actually incapable of sealing- all the water simply runs down the outside of the glass collects in the bottom of the door, and is drained out the bottom on the outside of the rubber weatherstripping. When these drains get clogged the water backs up and flows inside the car.

There is no sunroof, this is a former cop car. Crown Victoria.

Will look for drain holes. Thanks

I'd recommend checking the roof/etc for any custom mounting holes that may have been incorrectly sealed or have been compromised. It's possible that when it was decomissioned there were holes that got plugged (lightbar, antennas, etc) and have not held up. I'd also check the weatherstripping on top the door frame to make sure it's sealing okay.

Check the spare tire well in the trunk. If it's full of water, you probably have a leak in the trunk lid or maybe around one of the taillights. If not, you likely have a leak on one of the rear doors.

Trunk is fine, have a subwoofer set up in there. That was my first concern. Absolutely no moisture in there. The doors all look fine to me, all the gaskets look good. I think it's coming through the HVAC floor vent.

My previous car started leaking behind the glove compartment every time in a car wash. Turns out the drain holes under the plastic cover under the wipers had drain holes in it that were completely clogged. Took off the wiper arms which allowed me to remove that plastic cover and then get access undernearth

I’d check your water level at the radiator. Your heater Core might be leaking. They are usually mounted in the dash passenger side. Not sure if the cars structure would lead to it running to the rear foot well or not.

ac condensate drain? turn on ac max, wait a few (10) minutes and check for a puddle or water drip under car

AC condensation will not fill a car floorpan with 6 inches of water. Even a completely plugged one. Unless it was running for like, a year maybe.

you speak with such confidence, but i have experienced this before. different make and model.

6 inches of water? I can see maybe 1 inch, but not 6. The water from the previous drive would be all dried up by the time the next drive starts, unless the car is used like a 24 hour taxi.

it does not dry out, only accumulates. too much humidity for any water to evaporate in an effectively sealed container.

after fixing my original issue I needed to wet vac under the carpets, then i left it with a blower with all the doors open, and even after that damp rid after i was sure the car was "dry" but my windows would still fog and it still smelled mildewed

Do you live in a dry climate? Since the condensation is just pulling moisture from the humid air around it, in some regions the volume of condensation can be mind boggling. I agree that it sounds like too much water, but only because I doubt that an old cop car has an AC working well enough. Even then, it's an option worth checking and rulling out.