uoficowboy

Hi - it's been super rainy the past couple of months in California, and my Civic doesn't appear to appreciate that. The carpet next to the door on the passenger side gets very, very wet. What would cause that to happen?

NDNV

Check the windshield seal under the trim for water leaks. Also if you have a sunroof, check for leaks there. If you can see where the water is leaking into the cabin, you can have someone use a hose and start low then higher up on the car with a stream of water until you find the leak.
If the smell is sweet like coolant, you may have a heater core leak but you say only leaks when raining.

uoficowboy

Hi - thanks for the response! How hard is it to take the windshield trim off?

I've attached a picture of where the water is pooled up. I tried taking off the trim piece just under the door and soaking up water with paper towels. I got about half a liter worth of water before it started raining again (forcing me to button up the car again).

Smells (and looks) like dirty water. Did not taste it!

bbarbulo

have sunroof or no?

uoficowboy

I do not have a sunroof.

bbarbulo

When you open the door, is the door seal rubber torn? Like did someone try to break into the car and rip the weatherstripping?

uoficowboy

Door seal looks very good to me. I felt around the whole thing and found no tears in it.

If the window trim seal (the rubber pieces that are parallel to the ground and are on the lowest part of the exposed side window) is not sealing - would that cause issues? I've noticed that if it's raining and I slide my windows up and down the rain drops on the window do not get touched by the window trim seal as the rain drops go past it.

I spent some time removing more water from car today. I got most of it and left it air drying overnight, will go back at it in the morning. What's interesting is that even though the wettest area on the carpet was the area closest to the door, when I reached underneath the carpet padding the area that felt wettest to me was near the center console. Does that mean anything? To be fair - most of the water I have removed was from near the door, so it's possible the only reason that area was drier was because I had already removed a bunch of water from there.

Thank you for your help!!

bbarbulo

No, the door window sweeps don't do anything to hold back water.

Are the drains at the bottoms of the doors all clogged up? Lay under the door and open it. There should be pretty visible drains that should be open, they may be obscured from view by the weatherstripping (I forget if there is weatherstripping at the very bottom of the door skin, I know it's there on the door frame). It is possible the doors are filling with water and it's literally overflowing into the car.

If that is clear, use the hose method before the carpet dries (it's wet already, getting it a little more wet with the hose won't hurt anything, as opposed to letting it dry and then getting it wet again with the hose) - lowest point to highest point. Door all the way to the window line, then windshield - bottom up, then door window - bottom up.

bbarbulo

So not the door seal that goes all the way around, but the one strip under the door - parallel to the ground. Behind it, there will be drainage holes. If those are plugged, your door is basically becoming a pool and overflowing into the car.

uoficowboy

Hi - thanks for clarifying regarding the door window sweeps. There goes that theory!

I looked for drains and could not find any. I found a small hole in the weatherstripping. Is that part of the drainage? I included a picture of what the bottom of the door looks like along with a picture of me pointing at the hole I found.

Also - I've found various references to water flowing into the heater core and into the passenger side floor. For example, here is one mention of it. However, I think this may have been a problem with an earlier generation model? Not sure if it is a problem for my year. While trying to inspect for that I noticed that one of the gaskets sealing to the hood was not making a good seal. Note picture with my finger through it. I think this is probably not a big deal - but just pointing it out.

I re-inspected my carpet this morning. I swear the area by the center console is way more wet now than it was yesterday afternoon - and the car has been covered since then and it hasn't been raining anyways. I attached a picture - the area in the very back (and to the left of the black thing) from where I'm lifting the carpet is the wettest.

I don't have a hose - I live in an apartment building and barely have space for most tools! Would dumping water with a water bottle be sufficient?

uoficowboy

One more thing - I discovered a ton of water in my trunk (where the spare is). Probably two liters or so. It was pretty easy to remove though. I'm guessing it's unrelated and just yet another issue that I need to fix.

bbarbulo

The holes in the weatherstripping are just so air can escape when you shut the door. otherwise it would be like trying to close the door with a balloon between the door and the jamb.

P sure the red arrow here is where the door drain is. There should be like 2 or 3 more spaced evenly. It is behind the lower strip.



The hood seal is exactly how it should be. Every one is like that. It is pinched into place by the hood closing. But that's just for restricting air so that cool air isn't being drawn down the cowl, cuz that reduces the effectiveness of the airflow over the radiator. That's why those spaced up hoods are so silly.

Water will travel anywhere it can, so if your car is parked on even a degree of slope, water will find the way to the lowest point it can. So don't worry about your carpet being wettest around the center of the car. I had a G6 where the sunroof drain popped off and water travelled all over the place, down the A and B pillars and there was about an inch of ice on the pass side floorboard front and back.

Water can get into the blower assembly via the rain tray (cowl area below the windshield). This drains down the fenders just forward of the door. If those drains are plugged, that's a possibility.

Your trunk water is likely from the tail light seals drying up and cracking. New seals alone are prob available from the dealer, if not, you can find closed cell foam sheets in the crafts section of walmart and michaels or whatever crafts places you guys have down there. You trace your stock seals with an exacto knife to make new ones. If the material you buy is too thin, you can glue two pieces of foam together with some spray on contact cement - I like 3M 77. But by the time you buy the foam and the contact cement, it is actually cheaper to get the gaskets from the dealership if still available.

Caventi

I have the same problem with my 05 Civic even though I changed all my door seals. I want to figure out what is going wrong as well I'm going to check the windshield and drains.

prodjay10

My 2002 Civic has a similar issue but on the driver side. It looks like water that gets under the fender somehow trickles into the cabin and onto the carpet. I have yet to discover what is causing it since I haven't taken it apart.

TomCat39

I know on previous generations there was a TSB about a seam sealer problem that caused this same water on either the drivers or passenger floor.

Not sure if it would translate to the 7th generation cars.

TSB_A92-050.pdf

The TSB was released in 1997 so I would have thought they would have fixed this issue for the 2001-2005 model and newer.

solex

iTrader: (1)

I had a similar problem with my 03 EX 2DR. I would notice water on the a pillar, after I sealed the upper windshield gasket with urethane I have not had a problem