When I drive in the rain, I can hear water slushing around in the passenger side of my car the next day. I have checked all of my door seals, they're fine. The water is beginning to rust my car, what can I do?!

 

first, you gotta find the water. we can't tell you squat until you figure out exactly where the water is... then start looking uphill from there.

the passenger side is pretty vague..

stuck in one of the doors? floorboard? rocker panels? roof structure?

 

the worst time I drove my car on the highway for about 5 hours in the rain. When i got home I parked it in the driveway which was on an angle (the front was higher than the rear) and the next morning (about 12 hours later) a puddle of dirty (but not smelly or greasy) water had collected right in the rear passenger's footwell. Another time I drove the car in the rain for about 30 minutes in heavy rain. I got home and parket the car in my garage, the next morning (about 14 hours later) a fairly large puddle of water had appeared below my passenger side rocker pannel, a few inches in front of my rear wheel (just below where some rust is beginning to form in the door well. Need any other info? Sorry it was too vague last time, I'm new to all this forum stuff. Thanks for any help!

 

Do you have a sunroof?

 

Yeah... that happened to me to... I fixed the problem by not driving in the rain... haha... wait... I can't driving yet... ack.

 

many times (as brian is going to mention), it's the sunroof drains.. there's a drainage system for it that runs down a rubber hose through the rear pillars and exits on each side of the car just behind the rear wheels. if you crawl under the car, you should see some rubber hoses sticking out on either side.

check and see if those are clogged...

If not, check the whole rear quarter panel area- inside and out for leaks... pull the trim off the interior of the trunk and then try to find leaks by shining a light into it. and looking from the other side. cars that live up north have rust problems in that area, and that may be what you're running into also.

 

How does one unclog sunroof drains? I noticed water in my passenger side front foot well, and somewhat to the driverside front footwells after a big rain. I've also noticed it in the rear footwells, but I'm always parking in various ways, hood low or high, that I can't remember what it was associated with. I have a sunroof-does this sound like clogged drains? Anybody know of any other common causes for water in the interior of Maximas and how to fix them? Thanks alot, I want to fix this before the interior gets "funky"...

 

close yer windows!

 

sounds like you need to pull up the carpet and look around under there.. you shoudln't be getting water IN the car.. any rust on the underside of the body?

pull up the carpet and have a helper spray the car with a water hose from the outside.. should help you find the leaks..

 

anyone with water getting to the front driver side floor? I cant seem to find where the water is coming from. One time i had water leaking from the sun roof but it only happened once.

 

Wow you guys, thanks so much for all of the items to check for. Unfortunately I'm at college right now and can't really work on my car w/out any tools. I'll have to wait until I go home in a few weeks. BTW I don't have a sunroof and I wish the problem was as easy to fix as rolling up my windows! Thanks again you guys, I'll let you know what I find when I start diggin around.

 

ok, i have the same problem and its DESTROYING my max. i have pulled hte carpet up countless times to wet vac the water out. but every time it rains i have waves of water in my car. when i stop and when i pull out u can hear water rushing from front to back or vice versa. this sucks, i have gone to car washes and sprayed under the car and it doesnt get wet. if it helps any i do notice that the rear right floorboard used to get wet before the front, now both do. i do have a sunroof. any help greatly appreciated. hopefully before my whole interior is ruined.

 

Just thought about it, seal the sunroof shut and then test it for leaks at the next rain.

 

I had a small hole in one of the wheel boxes in the rear .
Also took out the rear seat .under it is also a place where you might
have a rusthole.

 

I really doubt it's your sunroof drains. There is a trough at the base of the windshield, under the wipers that funnels all the water from your hood/windshield to either side of the car, behind the fenders. That water is suppose to harmlessly drain out of a 1/4" x 3" slot. Trouble is, that slot gets clogged with debris on older cars and the water either can't drain, or drains VERY slowly. The combination of dirt, leaves, silt, salt, sand, and water causes the floor of the trough to rust. Here's the fun part tho......, it rusts to the right side of the passenger and/or driver footwell behind the dash, almost at the firewall. When you drive in the rain, the water slowly (depending on the amount of cancer you already have?) trickles down the firewall and under your carpet, then the underpadding 'holds' the water.
You can fix this by removing the fender, cutting an access hole, repairing the damaged area, then replacing the metal you cut-out to access the rusted area.
That's what happened to my max, and I fixed it this way, and now I have no more water, ever, on the inside of the car - and the musty smell is gone too.
If someone would like to tell me how to quickly and easily attach pics, I can show you what I had to do (remember tho....., I'm just an amateur!) ;-)

 

shvelle, good work finding the water. Please post some pics.

 

"If someone would like to tell me how to quickly and easily attach pics, I can show you what I had to do"

 

Check-out pg.3 of my site for pics.

 

shvelle, thanks alot, that sounds like its it everything you described. hopefully i can take it apart and fix this tomorrow. thanks again.

 

np
Have fun, it's not exactly an easy task...
btw, I tried to reach it from under the dash first......, and trust me, that won't work. The only way to do it is to either remove the dash, or remove the fender (at least as far as I could tell?). Let me know how it turns out, and maybe take some pics too.

 

oh wow.. that thing was a mess! talk about a project car!
good work getting it cleaned up though!

 

Yes it was, and unfortunately still is in many respects. It's been great tho - I don't care that much about the car, so I've used it to 'play' with, to learn how to weld (still learning) and to learn body work.

 

I'm gonna be up your way in late april, anything to do around there?

 

You mean in general, or car specific? There's lots to do - just can't go to the beach in April - not here at least...

 

cars preferably. I'm a car nut

 

No, not in April. We just finished some shows up here, and there is another one next weekend, but April is pretty dead. There is a classic & exotic car auction in Toronto sometime in April tho?

 

that can be fun, I need another classic car.