Water Leaking onto Both Driver and Passenger Floors

[zoomass]

I own a 1996 Honda Civic LX (no moon roof). Recently, there was a leak onto my passenger floor which had quite a bit of water, not pooling but the floor was thoroughly saturated. Not knowing much about cars myself, a buddy of mine told me to smell the liquid to determine if it was coolant. It did not smell sweet so I ruled out issues with the heather core.

After drying out the floor, a rain storm happened and water appeared on both the driver's and passenger side floor mats, again with just saturated carpets. After drying out the carpets again, I decided to run water down the driver's side of the windshield to see if there was a leak there. I could hear a sound that is best described as water droplets hitting metal (coming from the firewall area) and I noticed on the driver's carpet, there was spots of wetness again. The confusing part was that the water seems to be coming in from underneath the carpet, as I could see no drippings from above.

After looking at the border of the windshield, I noticed that the cowl was not flush with the windshield for at least half of the length of the car and there are actually two cowl fasteners missing as well as one broken fastener. I have had my windshield replaced three times; twice from impact cracks and once due to a poor seal job by the tech. Could the cowl piece not being flush and the broken fasteners be causing/contributing to the leak?

Any and all information/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks all!

Additional note: I do not drive this car all that often and it had been sitting in the driveway for a while before I saw the saturated passenger carpet the first time. My car has also been covered with a tarp since the second incident

 

[lethal6]

I would have the glass resealed. Sounds like a terrible install job. If they did a poor job the first time, chances are they didn't do a good job on the redo.

Also, get a car cover. You aren't helping things with that tarp. Tarps hold moisture in and are very bad for paint. Car covers are cheap, you can get one at costco/sams club/walmart for under $100.

 

[zoomass]

Thanks lethal!

I definitely plan on getting the glass redone. The car has been covered only for a few days with the tarp (it was a last second job before a rain storm). I never had it covered before then, but thanks for the advice on a cover.

 

[smitty606]

I've had the same problem with my '93 hatch since I've had it ( almost a month now.) I'm going to mess with some things tomorrow since it's my only day off this week lol. I will let you know if I figure anything out. From looking around on multiple forums, it could be a few things. My guess is either the window trim itself, or the silicon on the windshield may have a few bad spots.

 

[zoomass]

Would the water come in under the carpet if it was a trouble spot on the windshield?

 

[lethal6]

Would the water come in under the carpet if it was a trouble spot on the windshield?

Simple laws of physics suggest that no. If it is coming from up above near the windshield, it's impossible to be coming up through the bottom of the car at the same time. It doesn't make sense if the car isn't driving and is getting wet just sitting, there is no way it would be coming up from the bottom. Unless your driveway is flooding and burying the car. If it is getting wet just sitting there, it's running down from somewhere up higher.