as you may or may not have heard, we got a lot of rain.

started noticing a stinky muggy smell in my car. finally realized my passenger carpet was soaked.

this is weird, i have not been driving through any standing water. my main road flooded but i was not in my cr-v when i was driving on it. just been going to work, 5 miles. been raining all week, but just normal wet roads from any heavy rain, just for 5 days in a row instead of the usual 1. last couple winters i have been going out of my way to drive through massive snow and slush and water puddles and it never happened.

thought i had found where it was coming from. theres some rubber plug, but when i pulled it underneath was a hollow space that was totally dry. probabaly need to pull the seat and carpet, but before i do thought maybe someone had experienced this or had an idea? no rust issues or anything.

door seal? but door sill look dry, firewall and ecu and wiring is dry. if it were coming from underneath it seems it would take a big hole for the amount of water.

 

What happens is, the seal on the underside of the plastic cowl gets old and water running down the windshield gets passed it, then it drips right into the fresh air inlet, through the air box in the dash ruins your blower motor and soaks the carpet. One fix it to pull the cowl and replace the seal or run a bead of rtv. I'm not a fan of either of those options so I made an aluminum plate that covers the fresh air inlet. Water drips on the plate, then runs off to the drain. A positive side affect is that I get a little better air velocity from the fresh air setting as well.

 

Yeah like what was said above. Check around the windshield cowl and moulding around the windshield. They can rust out over time and leak water in from them.

 

thanks guys that would explain a lot since it did rain like 16 inches haha. it was in the garage for half of it but still around for some of the heavy stuff.

 

this is exactly what i did to mine... 5 years ago...and never had any problem since

 

anyone got pictures, been lazy and not exactly sure where to go in to this. assuming its not from up top, so from under the dash?

about all i have done is verified no rust, and it hasnt been an issue since with some water, i have been keep the air recirculating when it rains. i did have it open which alone could explain it. i mean it was a crazy downpour, you can imagine.

but i have been eyeing some remaining mudholes but i need to make sure to address this before proceeding, and winter haha. and i think there is still some moisture trapped because my defroster sucks.

 

I have the same issue. I really need to get to it before winter

 

Pull the plastic cowl off behind the hood and look how the windshield will pour right into the fresh air inlet

 

is it pretty easy? last time I tried doing that to my integra I started breaking the plastic tabs

 

You will probably break some of the clips. Nothing that can't easily be replaced though.

 

did this, kind of sucked, broke half the clips. really is more of a pita than i thought, but hopefull will help. water problem inside gone but i did notice today when it rained my defroster is actually a fog machine and fogs up everything so there was obviously water in the system. finally had to do something about it before winter kicks in too hard.

 

The water goes right into the blower fan. It's a great method of ruining you fan and resistor if that's your goal. Lol

 

I got the same problem with my V

 

i tested my new diverter plate through some mud puddles and it seems to have held up well. need to wait for some more rain or snow for a real test though.

i used some thin steel sheet we had sitting around at work for mine.

 

Mine started noticeably dripping a week ago during a heavy rain. All i have is a thin sheet of copper. Would that work fine for this mod? Also do you leave it open on the front or the back of the hole under the cowl?

What do you fasten it with? Rivets?

 

Anything would work as long as it covers the inlet for the blower fan. Being in the aircraft business I riveted nut plates to my panel, the drilled 2 holes behind the battery and put 2 stainless screws in to hold it on. I'll put pics in this thread if I ever take the cowl off again.

 

yeah if you look at it from the front/top its like an L. I bent a lip around 2 sides of my metal and used a couple self tappers on the front side that. the 2 sides opposite your L will still be open to take in air if that makes any sense at all. it will make sense if you look at it. but order some clips, they are pretty cheap on ebay haha. don't go to the dealer best case they are $3. the lower T clips pop out just fine so you shouldn't need those.

 

I did this fix this past weekend when i replaced the conecting arms on my wiper blades. I put a piece of copper (all I had) over that L shaped thing with two self tapping screws. Then i hand bent it to promote water going forward.

I also put a thick *** bead of hondabond on the mating surface above that area where the cowl meets the firewall.

We are supposed to get 3" of rain today so now's the time to test it.

 

Can you guys take some pics

 

just remove the plastic cowl and reseal with sealant to the vent area. before your remove your clips just be sure you bought already the replacement ones beacause those clips are disposable.

 

Oook thanks for the info

 

I used pics from this page to fix mine earlier this year. Hope it helps

http://www.crvownersclub.com/forums/...leak-long.html

 

anybody got a link to the clips? I know when i do this ima break everysingle one..lol

 

Could be better deals out there, but I got mine from ebay. There are various auctions with different buy it now prices, but here's an example one. Also check other auctions under CR-V cowl clips

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-SELLER-10-HONDA-COWL-PANEL-RETAINER-CLIPS-91508-SR3-000-/111087822163?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Make%3AHonda%7CModel%3ACR-V&hash=item19dd59a553&vxp=mtr

 

you are da man sir! Thanks bro