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Water underneath on one side of my car underneath the carpet, what should I do?

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21K views 29 replies 12 participants last post by  DRTDVL  
A
#1 · (Edited)
Hi guys,

Possibly serious situation here. As some of you may remember, I had a pretty major flood last year. My dad and I managed to fix the leak coming from behind the A pillars by attaching a bigger tube to it, giving it a little more slack so it wouldn't come loose and making sure if it leaks out the bigger tube will catch it. I haven't had a problem since then, but I had to deal with the flood that already happened. Since that happened in the middle of the summer, I decided to keep my windows down and let the heat take care of it. I knew I wasn't going to dry all the water from underneath the carpets up, someone told me that it will be in there for years, but I had hoped to dry enough that it wouldn't be a problem. Someone said I would need to take the carpets out, but I have little experience with cars. Taking all the seats off and ripping up the carpets seemed out of my capability, but would be pretty expensive to have someone do. In hindsight I probably should have done it or paid someone to do it, and I might have to do it now.

Fast forward to last week when I drove my car up on a ramp to replace my coolant and also took my car to the mechanic to get my struts replaced. A few days after, I decide to vacuum it and take my weather mats up. The top of the mats of are bone dry, but the bottom of the mats are soaking wet. I feel the carpets. Damp, but when I press down of them my hands get soaked in water. It's also worth mentioning that this was only the mats and carpet on the left side of the car, the front passenger and back right passenger's carpet and mats were completely dry. And the back left passenger's carpet feels even more wet than the driver's carpet. I immediately thought of a leak, so I hosed my entire car down looking to see if it would leak inside. No leak happened. It could have been wet for a while, and I probably wouldn't have noticed it since it was beneath my mats. I have no idea where this water is coming from, so my only guess is it's the residual stuff from when my car flooded. It definitely wasn't wet a couple months ago when I last cleaned the carpets, so I don't know why it's wet all of a sudden. Maybe when I put my car on the ramp or the mechanic raised the car up it redistributed the water, but then why is it only affecting the one side? So strange. Could it be a leak from the bottom? Thought that wouldn't make any sense, because of gravity, plus my car's undercarriage is not in a puddle of water. I padded it with towels and left the windows open for a few days, that absorbed some of the water but it still is wet to the touch.

I was worried about electrical damage after the initial flood since the water was dripping down from behind the glove box and there are a lot of wires in that area, plus since the carpet and foam underneath it absorbed a lot of water and I'm sure there's wiring underneath that. No signs of major electrical issues yet, but I have had a couple incidents I'm not sure are related to this or not. One night something like "Rear foglight failure" kept flickering on and off my dashboard, and it went away after a while and hasn't come back. Also a few times when I went to open my trunk it wouldn't open, and once I had it open it kept trying to unlock by itself (kept hearing that clicking sound spam like crazy). Pushing down on the back left passenger's carpet is what started it, or it was just coincidental timing.

I'm worried that there's a lot of water underneath the carpets still, and that it's going to cause more damage, if it hasn't caused some already. If I have major damage I'm going to have to sell my car most likely. If it happens, it's a danger to drive and would be too costly to fix, if it even can be repaired since in the worst case it would mess up the entire electrical system. So I should probably nip this in the bud now right?

I'm going to get a heavy duty heater and place it on a block of wood facing towards the carpet to see if that helps dry up the water underneath, it's the least invasive thing I can do that I know of. Is there anything else I can do or somewhere else I could check to make sure it's the leftover water from last year's flood and not another new leak?

Thank you guys, I really appreciate all the help you offer.
 
#4 ·
He mentioned fixing that.

Not sure if this is the same problem that I faced last weekend with the 850, but you never know...

Check the drains in the engine bay! The plastic panel along the base of the windshield (outside) should have little drains on it. I haven't check for the exact location on P1s, but I plan to check mine soon.
You could also just pour water on your windshield with the hood open and see where the water goes.
Years of leaves and needles and clogged up the drains entirely. After some heavy rain, the water had puddled up and started pouring into the open vents along the top of the engine bay.

First time we turned on the air, the floodgates literally opened and water came pouring through onto the floorboard. For the P80, it was only on the passenger side. I'm not sure which side the AC duct is on for P1s...

Could be worth checking into, especially if you park under a tree.

Another thing people mention is the AC drains getting clogged or even something with the heater core. Do a google search for "SwedeSpeed wet floor board" and you'll find a lot of various threads. Half of them are sunroof drains, the other half are something else.

As for drying the floor: If it's only wet on the front driver's side, you don't have to remove the seat to get it mostly dry. The plastic panels along the door frame just pop out, then you can slide the seat all the way back and pull back the carpet and foam to expose the metal floor. Use a shop vac to suck up as much water as you can, then leave the carpet pried up for a day or two. Try to get a fan blowing on it. It doesn't need to be heat, just moving air will help dry it out faster.
 
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#3 ·
What my mechanic told me to do was to drill a small hole at the lowest part of the car and let it drain. You can patch it up with JBweld or something later. I didn't end up doing that because my drill bit couldn't go through. What I ended up doing was using a long tube and siphon out the water, then used shop vac and carpet cleaner to suck up the rest of the water.
 
A
#6 · (Edited)
Looking for less invasive methods right now, but I'll keep this in mind as a last resort. Thanks!

MyNameIdeasWereTaken said:
He mentioned fixing that.

Not sure if this is the same problem that I faced last weekend with the 850, but you never know...

Check the drains in the engine bay! The plastic panel along the base of the windshield (outside) should have little drains on it. I haven't check for the exact location on P1s, but I plan to check mine soon.
You could also just pour water on your windshield with the hood open and see where the water goes.
Years of leaves and needles and clogged up the drains entirely. After some heavy rain, the water had puddled up and started pouring into the open vents along the top of the engine bay.

First time we turned on the air, the floodgates literally opened and water came pouring through onto the floorboard. For the P80, it was only on the passenger side. I'm not sure which side the AC duct is on for P1s...

Could be worth checking into, especially if you park under a tree.

Another thing people mention is the AC drains getting clogged or even something with the heater core. Do a google search for "SwedeSpeed wet floor board" and you'll find a lot of various threads. Half of them are sunroof drains, the other half are something else.

As for drying the floor: If it's only wet on the front driver's side, you don't have to remove the seat to get it mostly dry. The plastic panels along the door frame just pop out, then you can slide the seat all the way back and pull back the carpet and foam to expose the metal floor. Use a shop vac to suck up as much water as you can, then leave the carpet pried up for a day or two. Try to get a fan blowing on it. It doesn't need to be heat, just moving air will help dry it out faster.
Click to expand...
Those drains are where any water that slides down the windshield drains into right? I have been cleaning them constantly for months as the leaves kept falling onto and clogging them. But when I hosed down the car the other day, I made sure there wasn't a part of my car that didn't get wet, so when I sprayed my windshield for a minute it should have leaked if that was the problem? No leak anywhere, and like I said if it leaked when it last rained, I should have saw residual water ontop of my weatherproof mats, but they were all bone dry. Underneath though, is a different story.

It's the entire left side of my car. The driver's carpet, underneath the drivers seat and the passenger behind the driver's carpet. From what I can tell the right side seems inexplicably dry. No water in the trunk where the spare is either.

Thanks, I'll try this along with the moisture absorbers!

sorcerer said:
this also helps for small, enclosed areas (like cars with air vents closed): http://www.homedepot.com/p/DampRid-.../p/DampRid-64-oz-Fragrance-Free-High-Capacity-Moisture-Absorber-FG50T/100391308
the material absorbs water like crazy...i bought one and left it in my car after a sunroof drain accident; it got filled with water in a couple of days.
Click to expand...
I completely forgot that these existed! I'm going to shop vac the carpets to pull up any more water that I can, then I guess I'll buy two of these and put one on the driver's carpet and the other on the back left passenger's carpet. I'm just worried that they are going to leak, because apparently this has happened to quite a few people. Seems that they cheaped out on the plastic, and thus risking them defeating their entire purpose. Maybe I should place the tubs in buckets, but would that make it harder to absorb water? Or should I go with the bags instead?

Thank you very much!
 
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#5 ·
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#8 ·
Last year I had the sunroof pipes clogged and had to take out whole carpet out to dry it. Unclogged the pipes and its been good now.
Now I've found out that there is water coming somewhere from the AC unit to the right side floormat. Drain pipes cleaned already, no help. Cant find the exact location for the source.
(Btw I have left hand drive car if that matters in this.)
 
V
#9 ·
Do what Leroy suggests. Open up the sunroof and poor some water down that drain. It would be good to have a second person spotting. You should see the water comes out from the bottom of the car. If not, then it is going into your car.
 
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#12 ·
I'll take a look when the sun is up and let you know! Going to suck up any more water I can with a shop vac and I'll leave that 64oz tub of Damprid in there for over a week and see what happens. If not then my next step is to take up any carpet I can that doesn't require me to remove the seat and isn't super hard to take off/put back on.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
V
#13 ·
It's relatively easy access to the under area of the carpet. Do what MyNameIdeasWereTaken mentioned: pop out the side pillar of the car, move up the driver's seat as far up as you can (don't have to remove the seat at all), then you will be able to lift up the side of the carpet and have some access to the bottom to push the shopvac tube down.
 
#14 ·
Well, I'm at a loss for what it could be. But I need to invest in those Damprid things!
 
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#15 ·
If you don't have any DampRid, you can use calcium chloride pellets - otherwise known as ice melt. You know - the stuff you put on sidewalks, etc. to clear ice & snow.
Pour some into a plastic container, put the lid on, poke some holes in the lid (or you could leave off the lid) - shazam! Homemade DampRid! DampRid is basically calcium chloride.
 
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#17 · (Edited)
Sorry for the double post, but this is something I have to readdress.

Last night I made sure the car (and trunk) was locked before I went to bed. This morning I go to lift the trunk up (while the car is still locked) and it opens right up. It was already unlocked.

I don't have to worry about the trunk swinging open while driving, even if the trunk is unlocked it stays in place and appears as if it's closed. But the fact of the matter is if it unlocks while I'm out (which it keeps doing) anyone could press the button on my trunk and open it up. Now I'm not saying that's going to happen often, and like I said it looks closed so I don't think anyone would even try, but the problem is it could happen. And the other problem is that it doesn't seem to open when I want it to. I tried messing around with it for a bit tonight. I opened it, closed it, locked the car. Pressed the trunk button a couple of times, it unlocked on it's own about 10 seconds later. Again, closed it locked it, tried again. This time it wouldn't open at all. I kept trying for 10 minutes and gave up. It will probably open again eventually, either by itself or when I want it to, but it's not always going to work right. I also pulled the string you would use in case you were locked inside to make sure that wasn't jamming it, and that isn't the problem. Do you think draining the water will solve the problem with the trunk if this is indeed electrical damage caused by the water, or is that probably permanent? :(

I'm going to suck up any water I can from the carpet with a wet vac tomorrow, and if I have time take up the carpet and pump out the water that probably is underneath. Just so we're clear, which side pillar are you referring to, and which part of the carpet will come up (like the back left passenger's carpet)? I'm looking for a guide but don't see any.
 
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#18 ·
"I'm going to suck up any water I can from the carpet with a wet vac...."
I haved same problem year ago and... solve it pipes was to short after those years they shrink.
But anyway I remove whole carpet out and dry them for 6 hours or more on Electric Heater, this sponge that is under is really bad and You must do it really good.
You must remove whole front chair 4 bolts some plastic covers and thats all.
 
M
#19 ·
Go ahead and pull the seats and carpets. The carpets have 1 1/2" open cell foam backing. It holds about two gallons of water.

Get a friend, disconnect the battery, remove 4 bolts, and gently remove the seats. The carpet will come out in 3 pieces. It can be slipped from under the trim.

It will take several days for them to dry, even indoors. In the meantime, you can replace the seats and drive on bare floors. This will help you find the leak too.

Considering how electrically sensitive these cars are, leaving a primary wire harness to pickle under a wet carpet is a mistake.
 
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#20 · (Edited)
I know this, but that sounds extremely difficult for someone who has barely done work on cars before (plus I like video or picture guides but can't seem to find any) or extremely expensive if I got it done.

My carpets felt dry completely weeks after the flood last year, so I thought the remaining water that was left if any would dry in time as well. If I had known that my carpets on my left side would feel soaking wet now, either from the previous flood or from a new leak I haven't discovered, I would have done more about it.

So I need to remove the front 2 seats and the entire carpet (front and back) can come up? Even though the right side is dry, I probably should check it just in case. And do I need to remove the whole center console as well?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
M
#21 · (Edited)
It's 4 bolts per side. The console stays put. The carpets are merely tucked under the various trim. They can take a LOT of torture without damage.

There's a vid. on removing the seats, though it's actually simpler than shown. As stated, the battery should be disconnected before you unplug them. The seats are awkward to handle, but it's no more complex than removing a wheel.

The vid is in the "How to Videos" thread.
 
H
#22 ·
I HAVE A FIX!!!!

Alright, so this happened to me a few years ago. I check the drains like everyone is suggesting and found that they were not clogged and were not the source of my problem. The problem ended up being caused by my air conditioner. On the passenger's side under the glove box there is a tube that runs from some part of the AC to the body underneath the carpet. This tube allows moisture that collects from the AC to escape from the inside of the car and fall out under the car. I found out by peeling part of the carpet back and running the AC. I saw water leaking from where the tube connects to the body of the car. Instead of falling out the hole in the bottom of the car it just leaked into my carpet and soaked it. I don't remember exactly how I fixed it, but I believe if figured out a way to better affix the tube to the hole in the car. It's been like four years and has not leaked since.
 
L
#25 ·
Dude, I think it's your sunroof drains. Mine were clogged on the driver's side. Some water drained through them, but most of it came out of a tube junction and then ran down behind the carpets. Pull the trim piece on the A pillar (runs along the windshield) and take a look. The reddish tube will plug into a black rubber elbow. Pull that elbow and clean it out. I ended up using a length of new clear tubing to replace the hardened and short Volvo stuff. You can also use silicone to seal the junctions if you think it'll help, I did it.

Good luck. Sucks man. There's an ongoing class action lawsuit about this.
 
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#26 ·
Already happened to me last year my friend. I'm pretty sure I fixed it, I saw no water leak out when I poured water on all drainage points. So it's most likely either leftover water that's been sitting underneath since, or leaking in a new area (like my AC).

Yea, I was reading about the lawsuit and it sure seems like they knew about it but did nothing to address it. Unfortunately my 2 year exclusionary warranty did not cover the leaks, even though it was caused by the defective drainage tubes. I never got any use out of it before it expired.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
A
#27 · (Edited)
A few days ago I sucked all the water I could up from the carpets on the left side and this is what I got.

Today only my carpet behind the driver seat feels wet, but it was dry after I sucked the water up a few days ago. I don't think it's the DampRid bringing the water up through the carpets, it looks completely dry inside that tub. It hasn't done anything as far as I can tell. I also watched it very closely while it rained one day, and no water leaked in (unless the leak is underneath). I haven't used the AC at all either. I'll look for a hole in the undercarriage when I change my tires, I don't know what else it could be except for that or it being from last year's flood.

Trunk won't open for days now, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to repair that electrical damage. Looks like I'll be taking up the carpet very soon.
 
D
#28 ·
I had my rear drain disconnect from the just behind the rear door which flooded the rear foot well. The drivers side had the electrical loom there also...

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