Water under driver side carpet - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Franco · 11-19-2006, 08:07 PM

Hi, I stored my car for the winter and decided to clean the carpet on a grey weekend
so i removed the seats for a good vacuum job and out of curiosity i lifted the carpet and discovered the foam under the carpet was soaked with water.
After 2 days of detective work i discovered the water was coming in from a gap between the rocker panel and the inside floor panel. Now u guys are wondering how the water got there.
First let me say that my car has never been driven in the rain and the only water it knows of is from my hose. I discovered that water from the windshield flows down the side of the car panel where the door hinges are in the back of the black plastic vertical cover and makes its way to the inside of the rocker panel through
gaps that are at the bottom of the wheel housing where the rocker panel frame is welded to the vertical body panel.U must remove the plastic lining that is in the front wheel housing to see the gaps i'm talking about.
The fix is to clean out the dirt and seal the gaps with silicone at the bottom of the wheel housing and also inside the car where the floor panel meets the side rocker panel. Some places can't be reached with the silicone gun so i sprayed a thick coating of grease in those corners. The passenger side was dry so my guess is that the carbon canister thats there must deviate the flow of water and i also noticed a lot of dirt at the bottom of the housing that must be due to the fact that the plastic lining did not fit as tight as the drivers side and dirt sealed some of the gaps. I'm wondering if any of u guys ever came across such a problem if yes let me know if not i'd check it out just to be safe. Please don't respond with the condensation theory thats minor compared to the amount of water i found. Took 10 days for the 2 inch foam to dry.

11-19-2006, 08:40 PM

Thats just shocking to me. I know people will investigate their cars now for that. Good job.

Franco · 11-22-2006, 03:07 PM

Hey guys, I'm surprised only one person ( boggtown

) replied to this thread. Isn't anyone else concerned that this may be a common problem with the boxster that hasn't been exposed until now. Anyway, here are some pics I took when I was working on sealing the gaps.

11-24-2006, 09:09 PM

I will be taking my seats out soon, so I will tell you if my carpet has any water.

djomlas · 11-24-2006, 09:14 PM

i found some water under my passinger side seat. turns out that a screw was missing somehow and waster kept getting in there. used a sponge and about an hour later i got all the water out, that carpet's sponge can hold freaking a LOT. after all that, i put a new screw in, it was holding a plastic piece on the bottom of the car

orange260z · 11-25-2006, 10:03 AM

I'll have to remember to check that area when i take my car out of storage in the spring.

I had a leak in the rear part of the driver's side compartment - it was letting water into the car when it rained or was washed. I found the source - it was a crack in the plastic/foam tray that collects the water under the top system, and directs it into the drain holes. After I sealed the crack with some Automotive Goop, the problem was gone.

regards,

Ayan
2001 Boxster
Ottawa, Canada

Franco · 12-05-2006, 06:38 PM

Anybody else find water under seats.

YellowJacket · 12-06-2006, 07:33 AM

Wow, I somehow missed this thread, but I had a similar story.

A while back, I rented a house with no garage for a couple months, so my car sat outside through a very rainy spring. One day I stopped quickly and heard sloshing noises coming from the passenger floorboards. Since I didn't have a great place to check it out myself, a $90 trip to the dealer resulted in cleaning out some drains near the convertible top. That did no good, and sure enough, next time it rained, I got dampness back there.

Since the car now lives in a garage, I never investigated further, but I'm so excited to have a couple ideas from you guys that I think I'll go check it out this weekend!

Thanks!

Franco · 02-16-2007, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franco

Hi, I stored my car for the winter and decided to clean the carpet on a grey weekend
so i removed the seats for a good vacuum job and out of curiosity i lifted the carpet and discovered the foam under the carpet was soaked with water.
After 2 days of detective work i discovered the water was coming in from a gap between the rocker panel and the inside floor panel. Now u guys are wondering how the water got there.
First let me say that my car has never been driven in the rain and the only water it knows of is from my hose. I discovered that water from the windshield flows down the side of the car panel where the door hinges are in the back of the black plastic vertical cover and makes its way to the inside of the rocker panel through
gaps that are at the bottom of the wheel housing where the rocker panel frame is welded to the vertical body panel.U must remove the plastic lining that is in the front wheel housing to see the gaps i'm talking about.
The fix is to clean out the dirt and seal the gaps with silicone at the bottom of the wheel housing and also inside the car where the floor panel meets the side rocker panel. Some places can't be reached with the silicone gun so i sprayed a thick coating of grease in those corners. The passenger side was dry so my guess is that the carbon canister thats there must deviate the flow of water and i also noticed a lot of dirt at the bottom of the housing that must be due to the fact that the plastic lining did not fit as tight as the drivers side and dirt sealed some of the gaps. I'm wondering if any of u guys ever came across such a problem if yes let me know if not i'd check it out just to be safe. Please don't respond with the condensation theory thats minor compared to the amount of water i found. Took 10 days for the 2 inch foam to dry.

Here you go Mac986

martmart · 05-12-2007, 10:08 AM

I think I've got the same problem but I cannot see how to remove the black vertical plastic trim behind the door hinges? Do you mean just remove the wheel liner?

Also, mine is wet both sides - what a pain!

Franco · 05-12-2007, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martmart

I think I've got the same problem but I cannot see how to remove the black vertical plastic trim behind the door hinges? Do you mean just remove the wheel liner?

Also, mine is wet both sides - what a pain!

Yes

Franco · 05-12-2007, 11:54 AM

HI, Some boxster owners also had water under the carpet because of 2 drain holes being blocked, located on each side underneath the retractable panel of the convertible top , so verify those holes by pouring water into them and it should come out underneath the car.

Do a search and i think someone had posted pictures of where all the drain holes are situated in the Boxster.

Also on the passenger side is located the air conditioning drain hose, make sure it is draining beneath the car and not under the carpet.

Good Luck

martmart · 05-16-2007, 10:28 AM

Thanks for your help and pics. I've sealed up the seam as in the pics, checked the drain holes under the top, by the battery, the aircon drain and also the door drains - all fine.

Hopefully, that will solve it but I am still concerned as I've noticed that water pools on top of the door seals (along the channel of the seal). However, I have no idea where it could come from - could it just be condensation as its very wet in the UK at the moment?

Thanks again.

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 05-16-2007, 11:04 AM

I have never had this problem with my Boxster, but I had a similar experience with my daily driver a BMW 5 series. I had a lot of water in the rear passenger foot well behind the front passenger seat. It turned out that there is a vapor barrier inside the door and when it rained heavily the water ran down between the window and the door as it's supposed to, but instead of following the drains in the bottom of the door back out it leaked into the back seat area. Put in a new vapor barrier membrane and problem solved.

I don't know for sure but I bet Porsche uses a similar vapor/water barrier inside the Boxster door. That may be the real source of your leak. Take off the inside door trim and check it out.

martmart · 06-24-2007, 06:35 AM

You are spot on. After all my messing about I took the door panels off and found that the foam vapour barrier was detached from the door. So I sealed it back up with sealant and no more water in the car - thanks a lot.