Water under my carpet? What the heck?

So I went to the beach about a month ago, and when I got home I realized that my carpet was wet. Right under the front floor mats. It was soaked. I thought well ok, I left my windows down every night while I was at the beach, the ocean dew must have settled on everything and they never really aired out. So I pull the carpet. There is a puddle under both drive and passenger sections, with a considerable amount of water. I dried it all up, cleaned whatever mud/debris that was left, and kept the carpet out. Next day it rains. All my windows were up, and doors shut tight. I hop in my car only to find two more ponds sloshing around in the front floorboards. What is going on?! I've heard that something with the AC can cause this effect. But it seems to only happen in the rain. That, and I haven't used my AC since I bought the car. Is there something in the cowl that could leak? or maybe through the door moisture guards? I'm really clueless. I tried searching, but everything seemed to be about people taking out their carpet for good?:dunno:

Subscribing to learn

i'm having a similar issue, albeit much more minor then yours. I THINK it is coming from my windshield, then down the firewall.

Let it dry out then take it through a drive thru car wash w/ a flashlight and see if you can see anything coming in... thats how i saw mine. haven't tried to fix it since funds have had to be directed elsewhere.

It's coming in around the bottom of the windshield as that's the most common culprit for these kind of leaks. I had the same problem in my 92 trail rig before I started cutting it up. What I did to fix it that seemed to work was pop off the trim that goes around the windshield then cleaned out all the channels real good. After all the old gunk and debris was cleaned out of the channels I ran a bead of silicone around the entire windshield filling the entire gap and popped the trim back in place while it was still wet. Let it dry and that took care of the leaks from the windshield. On mine I had the little window vents on the front doors that were also leaking and a new not so worn out set from the JY took care of that leak as well. The easy way to tell if the vent windows are leaking (if you have them) is to run a garden hose on them directly for a few minutes then feel the bottom of the door panel, if the cardboard panel is wet then they're leaking as well.

Searching the forum is a good idea because you will find that your question has been asked and answered already. Common areas for water leakage are around the windshield glass, through the seals on the doors, fire wall grommets, around the am/fm antenna wire, through the seal at the heater blower motor and sometimes through the unibody seams in the wheel well/firewall area. RTV silicon is your friend and should be applied after cleaning off any dirt or grease.

Tim_MN said:

Searching the forum is a good idea because you will find that your question has been asked and answered already. Common areas for water leakage are around the windshield glass, through the seals on the doors, fire wall grommets, around the am/fm antenna wire, through the seal at the heater blower motor and sometimes through the unibody seams in the wheel well/firewall area. RTV silicon is your friend and should be applied after cleaning off any dirt or grease.

Click to expand...

THANK YOU!

We've had two of our four leak, and both were from the seam where the cowl vent chamber meets the upper firewall, above the blower motor. Using your garden hose. shoot water in the cowl vent, around the driver side wiper. If it's leaking where I think it is, you'll see drops around the seam, where it drips down and enters around the blower motor. I sealed ours with silicone caulk (after it dried good), and so far, so good. You'll see the area with spot welds, but not sealed with any sort of sealant, letting whatever water that found its way into the cowl area and didn't go down the drain leak out.

Hmmm I'll take a look tomorrow. Thanks for the replies guys.

Take a look around here. This is where I've been able to cure wet carpets.

i had similar water issues but isolated to front passenger side. culprit was the blower fan foam gasket (bottom of the seal dryrotted) in the firewall. whenever it rained, i would have a puddle on the floor. i siliconed the crap out of the lower portion of the gasket sloping it down into the engine compartment - no problems since.

I agree. When the water weeps out of this seam, it tracks down the firewall, and the first thing it encounters is the old, dried out foam gasket around the blower motor, which now acts like a sponge, wicking the wetness in. It's a shame that it's so hard to get to. I'm not real bendy anymore!

On mine, it leaked between the heater box and the cowl. There is a plastic sleeve that slides up, through a rectangular hole, in the cowl, for the air to come into the heater box. There is a foam seal between the cowl and the sleeve and a thick foam seal between the heater airbox and the sleeve. I had to pull the dash and the heater box to get the sleeve out. Cleaned it and siliconed it up and put it all back together, leak free.

I had mine leak at the bolt area around the luggage rack. Someone put something too heavy up there and caused the mounting area to dimple in. Thus causing serious water to flow down the pillars and onto the floor board.

I did recently install a roof light bar, and had to drill a hole in the roof for wiring, but it is COVERED in silicone. That's also on the passenger side. The majority of the water is on the drivers floorpan.

If you can do it, the best way to find the water leak is to have a friend run water from a hose all around the drivers side windshield area, cowl area, fender hood area, etc. and kind of blast it to simulate a good rain.
While you are inside of the car with a flash lite laying basically on your head,
with your head down by the pedals, legs up by the seat, with the door closed. It would also be beneficial to pull the carpet down before doing this.
You will want to concentrate on the firewall area, the fuse box has been known to leak, or body seam, grommet, etc. Like someone else said it's possible the water is coming from the door pad area and making it's way to the floor, a lot of water passes through the doors on the XJ. A good way to find out if it's the windshield leaking is to use air pressure ( blow off nozzle ),
and soapy water.
Hope you find it.

you can also pop off any plastic covers on around the windshield and check for water tracks. theyre usually dirty and and will show obvious signs of any water leaking. definitely check your windshield though. i could lift half of mine off the seal.