I've been reading the forum for a while. First post.

Car: 1999 Honda Accord LX, 4 door, auto, NO sun roof (I just purchase the ride about a month ago roughly). 180,000 miles, still running very well.

Problem: Water on the floor of the drivers side of the car

Points of note:
1.) It doesn't appear to be wet on the side of the carpet near the shifter
2.) It doesn't appear to be wet on the side of the carpet neat the door
3.) It doesn't appear to be wet behind the driver seat, only in front of it.
4.) It feels damp under the carpet and IN the black foam stuff that is attached to the firewall from the inside (maybe this is water soaking in).
5.) I actually saw a drip (once) from under the dash.
6.) It appears as if it is starting to rust the metal under the dash to some degree. So far it's surface rust, which I can addresss if I fix this soon.
7.) On the PASSANGER side, there is a little tiny bit of 'air' noise from the windshield....I am going to have a glass company look at sealing the windshield up...or pulling it and replacing.

Tried:

1.) Pulled inner fender to look for body seam problems
2.) Pulled drivers side bottom dash and had a friend poor water all over the front (didn't see a thing)
3.) Poured water over the drivers door with the interior trim removed, no visable water


I would LOVE some help with this....Water inside the car is VERY annoying. I am getting alot of the maintenance caught up on the car, and having this problem solved would allow me to sleep much better at night.

I have looked all over, and I have seen a few threads about this problem and tired the suggestions there-in, but there are normally no pictures and in this instances I might not be able to get by without some.

Thanks in advance!

 

Adjusted my sig. to display my car's info.

 

Hello,

Since you didn't mention the liquid smelling like coolant, we can immediately rule out a leaky/failing heater core.

I'm going to hypothesize that there is a clogged pipe or hose in your A/C system. The A/C condenser has a pipe (shown as ref #4 in the diagram below) attached to it and can become clogged under certain circumstances. This can cause water to back up into the heating system and find its way into the interior compartment.


*diagram courtesy of hondapartsnow.com; all rights reserved



A more severe problem is that there is a defective seal between the AC condenser box and the heating/cooling system which causes water to enter the cabin. However, the water typically seeps into the passenger side of the cabin.

Try the following test: Run the AC with the vent open to the outside on a hot and humid day. (note: not a rainy day) This will create the most AC condensation. Find the drain hose poking out from the fire wall in the engine compartment. Try to carefully snake it out with a piece of wire. If it is clogged, water will pour out. Presto- you found your problem

If nothing happens, keep running the AC. After a few minutes, check the driver side floor. If its getting wet than the the seal on the condenser is no bueno.

One more thing, is your Accord equipped with a sunroof? If it is then perhaps one of the sunroof drain pipes have become clogged and is thereby allowing water to drip into your cabin area..


Good luck diagnosing the problem!

 

To be honest, I ignored the A/C being that the drain is on the pass. side.....however I will make 100% sure that it's all cleaned out. I did the cabin filter and spent some time cleaning out the fan and all the stuff I could get too with the bottom of the dash open.

Question: what part above represents the condenser seal? Is this something that is located near the drivers side of the car? This is an interesting idea.

 

BTW, no sunroof. I wish it was that easy.

 

I guess I should also mention that it happens to get wet mostly when it rains. I haven't really been able to correlate that with running the A/C, however I might totally avoid runing the A/C and see what happens.

 

Uhh, no . . . Refrigerant runs through the pipe (#4 in the diagram), that would not cause the evaporator to not drain.

If there is a clog, it is usually at the drain/drain hose of the evaporator which causes water from condensation to fill the evaporator case.

Additionally, the heating system's heater unit and heater core are separate from the AC unit.

 

Gotcha.

So, my next steps are going to be:

1.) Reseal the windshield
2.) check the drain hose for a clog

In lou of these two items, is there anything else anyone can add that I might start thinking about while I am working through this list of things? Ideally I would like to be able to kind of knock it all out at once. These both seem like a couple of decent ideas, however I don't feel like either of these are going to really be the problem since the water is on the drivers side and most of the things mentioned so far evolve from issues on the pass. side.

 

I had the windshield replaced yesterday (I got a little discount so it only ended up being $200)....which wasn't terrible. It had a couple of chips in it and some wiper lines from someone using extremely hard winter wipers.

It would have been even better if it had solved my water problem...which it didn't.

Addmittedly I haven't attempt to clear out the A/C line drain yet....however it rained all night and there is definately water in the car this morning....so I don't think that is the issue.

Before I just up and take it to the dealer and have them hunt down the problem....any other suggestions? I'd rather not spend a BUNCH of money on my old car.

From what I can tell the water's got to be coming from under the dash, and since it wasn't from the windshield...I imagine it's got to be from the firewall area....or on the side corner near the fuse box.

Assuming some idiot drilled a hole I can't find to run a stereo at one point or hook up some lights or something to the fuse box....where might a hole like that be? Is there a common area? Is there a common spot on the firewall that causes this problem?

Thanks again to everyone who had helped with the troubleshooting. It's nice to have a second or thrid head thinking about a problem like this....

 

Don't know of a "common" area, one thing to think about, there is the section under the cowl _under the wiper trans.....you'd have to pull the wiper arms and the plastic pires to inspect.