So i was vacuuming out my 01 yesterday and I took out all of the floor mats. After I took out the floor mats for the drivers seat, some of the floor carpet was damp. It didn't smell like anything, so I just took a towel and tried to dry it up. I had a 2 hour drive ahead of me, so I also had the heater on the floor setting for most of it to try and dry it out. It is now mostly dry, but I just wanted to know if anyone knew what would cause the carpet to be damp. Here are some pics.




Thanks for the help!

 

maybe it's the fire wall leaking?

 

check where the front windshield meets the body.. you will have to remove the black plastic cover to see if there is any rust under it. I had a Protege back in the 90's that had the same problem

 

check your sunroof hoses, maybe it points into the cabin in the "A" pillar.

 

have you checked the floor for rust-through? Not likely, but sometimes the obvious answer is the first place to check.

 

I have the same problem.... can't keep that section dry to save my life. Ive lifted the carpet part of the way... and have noticed what may be rust starting to form... however definitely not through

 

I had those blown out with compressed air just back in August. Pretty sure that's not the problem. Thanks for the input though.

 

I purchased the car back in April from a guy in Texas. He took care of it religiously. I had it inspected at his local Nissan dealer and they confirmed that there was absolutely no under-body rust. So unless something has happened since then, I think I can rule that out.

 

condensation/leak from the heating vent in the area?

so the floor was wet...was the top of the mat also wet?

 

Maybe it's just me, but if that were the case, I would think more than just the spot in the middle of the floor would be wet. Who knows. I'll check when I get a chance. Thanks.

 

the floor was wet, but only the bottom of the stock mat was wet. On top of the stock mat I have all-weather rubber mats. Could the heater core be causing this?

 

the core is on the passenger side. i think its leaking out of the vents down there. dont know how its getting in.

 

Should the leak (if it is one) have produced a smell? As far as I could tell, it didn't smell like anything.

 

it was probably just water. would only have produced a smell if it was sitting for weeks.

 

I've seen that on a few cars I have detailed. I pull the mats and the carpet is wet. Definitely not the heater core either, no coolant smell. Last one in fact, was an '06 Cadillac STS. The mat was dry but the carpet underneath was wet. Seems to be some sort of condensation problem to me, or there is a small leak somewhere in the firewall that is letting moisture through when it rains. I've never been able to figure out exactly where the water is coming from.

I'll check around on a detailing board I go to, see if anyone there has an idea.

 

Hey thanks for the options. It did just rain/snow recently, but the car was not being driven during it. The condensation could be the issue, but where could that come from?

 

I have the same problem with mine. Its only on the drivers side. I believe the floormats were still wet after i washed them when i put them in. Ive taken the mats off for 2 days and the carpet is dry. Im hoping that this is the cause of the carpet being wet. I will keep a close eye on the carpet and let you know how it turns out.

 

Ok, so a little bit of an update here. I had the stock floor mat and rubber all-weather mat out of the car for about 3 days to help let it dry it out. At that point it seemed like the carpet was pretty much dry. After checking today with the carpets back in, the carpet still feels a little damp (although the dark color from where the carpet was wet before is gone). I compared it to the passenger side carpet and it feels completely dry. Should I take the stock and all-weather mats back out and let it dry out some more? Any other ideas??

Thanks for any help.

 

take the carpet out and use the car w/o it for a while to see if you see water again...

 

Yea, I'll give that a try. I figured that this is probably the only way to completely rid the problem.

 

If you have a leak somewhere it sounds like it is very small. With the mats in place what little moisture gets through gets trapped and accumulates. Whereas if you remove them, the wet areas a free to dry so you don't notice it as much.

I'm not sure how you would diagnose this without taking a garden hose to your car.

 

Well, I've been checking the carpet under the mats periodically, and it is usually dry. I went out and checked it again tonight, and it is pretty damp again. I'm going to take it to the dealer tomorrow morning to get it checked out. I don't have any ideas left. Anyone else have an idea besides what's been said already? Hopefully it's nothing major.

 

Well after two months, its warmed up a little and Ive found the cause of my leak...
Symptoms


Cause- at the joint of those three pieces apparently it wasnt sealed properly (after previous owner wrecked it / ohio weather and rust... )



What i have to clean up...

 

good find....can you seal it from the top?

that floor rust doesn't look too bad. I wouldn't even bother sanding it down, honestly. Just let it dry and hit it with some anti-rust paint like POR 15 that will seal it.

 

Nice find. Make sure to seal that gap with silicone or something more suitable for the application.

 

I plan to use permatex black silicone to seal from the outside, itd be a ton of work to try to get access on the inside/top, if even possible.
Also, my carpet is pretty trashed, so Im not sure what i want to do. The best thing would prlly be take out all the carpet, clean/replace then clean up the rust, but thats a task Ill prlly put off until it gets warmer at least.