[ds968]

So we had a few days of rain. Went to the car this morning to get something I left in the rear seat and discovered the footwell behind the passenger seat is soaked. And when I say soaked, I mean totally soaked, the mat, the carpet underneath, etc. it almost has standing water there !! The vertical portions of the carpet on both sides is dry, so just the bottom of that footwell. The other rear footwell is completely dry. The front carpet, mats are all dry. The hatch area is dry. I looked up at the sunroof thinking that's where it leaked from, and checked the entire perimeter - looks and feels completely dry all around. What the heck ? Could all that water come from underneath the car while driving and via some isolated spot right underneath the rear footwell, completely soak the carpets ?

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[Cloud9...68]

The exact same thing happened to my college roommate's 1967 911 - there must have been two inches of standing water back there! It's been a long time, but I believe the problem was traced, believe it or not, to a leaking windshield seal. It's definitely NOT water being sprayed up from the road - it has to be coming from above. Leaks are really weird - they often originate in places far from the eventual puddle, but they can be a challenge to track down.



The best way to do it would probably be to first dry out the area where it's wet, and then use a hose to spray water on the various seals (windshield, hatch, quarter windows, etc), and seeing which one causes the water to accumulate where it's wet now. Good luck.

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[ds968]

Great idea, thanks. I don't even have to wait for it to dry first, I'll just place some towels or even paper towels over the areas under the rear window seals and the sunroof perimeter ( just in case it does leak from there and dries up really quickly due to the nature of that hard plastic ) and then do the test. Incidentally, to my knowledge it never leaked during car washes but maybe it was just a lot less so not enough to detect any major water spots. The rain has poured consistently all night and for two consecutive days, so perhaps slow water penetration trough the window or roof seals might be the culprit. And perhaps the sides of the carpet also dry relatively quickly because of their vertical position and the water just comes to rest at the footwell soaking it.

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[unknown4u]

The problem is one of the drains from the sunroof what is blogged. If the water in the roof can't be drained it will float just behind the seat in the spot you described.

Mine had also a leak in the draintube as well. Replaced that as well. The draintube form the suroof is connected to the tube in the right well of the bootcase.



If you solve this, you don't have an aquarium anymore. Remember that Original the booster from the radio and a part from the ABS system is mounted under the seat, so you have to solve this problem quickly before getting other gremlins.

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[ds968]

Got it, will check all those things .

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[ds968]

So yesterday during what seemed to be a brief pause in the rain I popped up the roof ( did not remove it, just opened it as far as the switch takes it ) to look at the drain tubes, but it started raining again almost immediately so I closed it before I had a chance to see anything in there. After closing it I pressed a bit on the top and " massaged " the rubber moulding just to make sure it gets a good seal. Then I lined up some paper towels all along the inside roof perimeter, the rear window edges, and a bunch of other places including the footwell just to see what spots will be wet in the morning. It rained all night, often heavily. This morning the interior of the car and my paper towels were bone dry ! So two theories : either the rain water gets pushed with force while the car is in motion and with tubes plugged it then seeps through other places to find its way into the footwell, or the embarrassing theory - last time I closed the roof I did not assure it was completely shut ( maybe the gears do not pull it down tightly enough and it needs further adjustment, or a little push help from the top ) and there was a gap there which sent all that rain into the rear footwell .

Incidentally the area in the front under the stereo and all along the sides or any place for that matter up until that passenger side rear footwell is bone dry.

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[Bulti]

Maybe one of the gears of the sunroof is getting stripped? They are made of plastic and get brittle over time. May be worth checking them out.

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[flash]

clean and lube the tracks and rubber. if you can get to the gears, lube those too.

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[ds968]

Noted, will do. Today's maintenance activity was limited to stuffing a bunch of dryer sheets in the car to see if they'll overpower that wet carpet smell. Yuk, not much different than wet dog / wet cat scent .



Btw, what lube for the tracks / gears ? Spray ( Tri-flo , etc ) or something more along the lines of a

garage door tracks grease ?

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[Rap]

DS, this past season I drove in two rain events5 days with the windows open. I used a heat gun to dry the back and then put a fan on it. Tedious but it worked. Griots and I'm sure others have new car smell sprays. I used Griots. No funky smell with all of this . Good luck.

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[ds968]

Yeah, I'll switch cars and pull this one in the garage for the drying treatment ( no heat gun so I'll have to find something else ..not sure a hair dryer works well enough ..) and then re-scent the damn thing :-)

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[ryker]

One more reason we all need four car garages! I'm trying to work that one out...

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[Rap]

Geez go to Home Depot and buy the gun. You may never use it again but then again you may not need to worry about mold! Hair dryer? Save it for that wonderful mane of yours! Ryker, four is not large enough. I know hard to believe!

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[flash]

re: gear grease - i think i nice white lithium grease should do it



silicone spray on the rubber stuff though

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[ds968]

Update - the roof on the tip does not open as high as the one in the six speed. It stops a full half inch lower. However, with the roofs off and the gear levers ( or whatever those things are called ) pushed out at their maximum extension points they both lift up to equal distances. That makes no sense to me, but no doubt there is a reasonable explanation...??



Also, the passenger side lever is not as centered as the drivers side, it's much closer the inner edge of the housing opening. But it catches the roof just fine to lock in when it retracts, so one more puzzling thing ...

Anyway, although the retracting and closure of the roof "appears" to work the same in both cars, maybe that difference in the gears also has an effect on how well the roofs seal when they close, and I suspect even a millimeter gap would cause water to leak in. Closed it and did the water hose test on it for a while but not a drop seeps through anywhere. Time ( and the next rainstorm ) will tell...

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[ds968]

[quote name='ds968' timestamp='1392492656' post='155109']Update - the roof on the tip does not open as high as the one in the six speed. It stops a full half inch lower. However, with the roofs off and the gear levers ( or whatever those things are called ) pushed out at their maximum extension points they both lift up to equal distances. That makes no sense to me, but no doubt there is a reasonable explanation...?? [/quote]



So any thoughts on this ? Could it be possible that the gears are weaker in one car vs the other so at a midpoint and only while under load ( pushing the roof as opposed to freely moving without the roof weight ) they just stop at that stqge ? I did not see any broken teeth at the lower end of the levers so doubtful it misses " catching " there preventing it from continuing to lift , but even if I try to "help" the roof up while pressing the switch, it still does not go higher.

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[ryker]

Dan, you're nit picking now...Lol. I say don't even use the damn sunroof! Man, I struggled for hours on my blue car, then finally paid a trusted mechanic $500 to fix it. Then Dave bought the car, and still had to make some minor adjustments. What a nightmare. I currently don't even touch the sunroof button on my green car, although I did verify, one time, that it works perfectly.



Rap, I agree about 4-car not being enough. I live in two homes, both with two cars in each two-car garage, and I still rent a warehouse for my "extra" cars. I was trying to be reasonable with my 4-car garage suggestion but I should have realized that I am on a car forum. We're all nuts!!

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[ds968]

True, I am nitpicking this one considering I don't need to lift the rear of the roof any further up than it goes now which is sufficient for that purpose. And it's not as if an extra 1/2" would make much of a difference ( ok, this probably begs the old " that's what she said " remark, lol ..) . So I'll leave it alone, and when I want to covert the car into a targa , I'll just remove the whole roof. :-) :-)

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[Bulti]

DS, are you certain not one of the platic gears lost a tooth?

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[Rap]

I take the roof off once or twice a year and love it while it's off. I then hate the bloody thing when I have to put it back on. What's this a love/hate relationship?

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