Water on my front driver side floorboard.

[AhmedS70]

Hello

Today I decided to remove my rubber winter mats that where over the factory cloth mats to vacuum my interior. To my surprise my whole driver side floor mat and the carpet underneath where soaked in water. The back left passenger side are was I little wet also. I checked to see if the right front passenger side was wet also but it was completely dry. And it was not coolant, it was water. There has been a lot of rain in here in the Chicago area for the last couple of weeks so water is leaking from somewhere. And also my car does not have a sunroof. Its a 1999 S70 Base model. Does anyone have any ideas of where this water could be coming from.

[scot850]

Sorry to hear of the issue with water ingress. Ruling out the sunroof (not fitted) the normal places I would suggest are:

1) Front windshield seal leaking (I've had this happen)
2) Door drain holes on bottom are blocked allowing water to drain into the car
3) Sometimes water can get by the door seal especially in the area near the exterior mirror.

There is one other more simple possibility. The rubber over mats tend to store a fair amount of water and can 'slosh' out over the sides. Water also drains down through the 2 peg holes. Over a winter this can amount to a fair amount of water. Tends to happen on LHS front as this is where most foot activity goes on in and out of the car with snow.

I'd dry it out and monitor. Keep an old towel handy and dry the mat off each time you get home and see if the issue is lessened.

Finally. Check the mat has no splits in the rubber.

Neil.

[rspi]

I would also check to see if the drains are clogged under the hood where the cowl at the base of the windshield are clogged.

[scot850]

Good catch Robert, I missed that one!

You have to remove the plastic shroud under the front wiper arms to get to the drains although you may be able to lift the shroud enough at the ends to get a hand in to check the drains are clear.

Neil.

[94 850 wagon]

It could be the heater core. I'm pretty sure that's the only thing coming through the firewall that has water in it. I noticed the same thing then noticed the coolant level was low. Fist I vacuumed the carpet, then I put in straight water and placed newspaper on floor. Sure enough, I had a puddle....

I didn't have the money to replace the heater core and don't really need the heater, so I bypassed it at the firewall. If you look at the two hoses, it's easy to see, one goes in, one comes out and is connected to a hard line with a hose clamp. Cut and reroute the inlet hose to that hard line, clamp it, and that should be all that's needed.

Hope this helps.

[John850GLT]

Was this fully resolved? Have had a similar problem.

[misha]

There are water drain spots under the plastic cover just under the wiper arms.Clean them and you are done.

[lfilson]

Thanks Misha. I was able to fix mine just now using your advice. I have a 99' V70. It does not have a sun roof. Water was pooling in the drivers floor board. I've had the problem with the heater core in the past and I've already replaced it so I knew it wasn't the culprit. I removed the windshield wipers, and then the plastic plate under them. This plate I believe has five hex head screws holding it in place. Once the wipers and screws are removed, you have to remove two 1.5" drain pipes from the front lip of the plastic piece. They're held on by expansion clamps. Once I removed the plastic piece, I tightened the 10mm bolts around the seal of the base of the fuse box, where it goes through the body to the interior just in case water was leaking in under the fuse box. Next, I used the hose to put some water down the drain pipes which connect to the front of the plastic piece. I found that one of them was tightly clogged. The factory (apparently) way of securing the bottom lip of the drain pipe was to use a plastic tie, which goes through the bottom edge of the pipe. Eventually the plastic tie loosened and it was blocking the center of the drain. Plant matter had drained through the pipe, backed up behind the plastic tie, and eventually filled the entire pipe with mulch. The pipe I had trouble with is the one on the drivers side, which again, connects to the front lip of the plastic plate, and runs down beside the brake booster, and drains near the back of the front, drivers side wheel. I removed the plastic tie, and used a new one to stab up into the material and eventually cleared it. I'm expecting this is going to fix my water pooling problem.

[scot850]

Have to agree with this strange way of keeping the 2 drain pipes side by side. Guaranteed to help block the pipe. This is one of the fist jobs I have done with a new (to me) P80 as no-one ever cleans them out.

Neil.

[wizechatmgr]

I had the plastic tie through my sunroof drains - same deal, all the gunk collects in the bottom. Really weird way of doing it... At least it is a cheap/easy fix.

In my case I was negligent and trusted the dealership to clean the drains. They blew air through but never verified the other end (in the engine bay) was clear. I kept having car wash "rain" on the passenger's side. I'm as much at fault as the dealer for not verifying their "repair..."