I noticed that the sound deadening material underneath my passenger cargo bin was soaked with water. Has anyone had this problem? Where could it be coming from. My first guess would be the sunroof drain line, but the FSM doesn't show where they start from and drain to. My second guess is water is leaking from the road through a bolt hole that penetrates the floor like the seatbelt bolt.

Any ideas would be helpful before I have to tear the interior apart.

 

Check the 2 rubber boots at the top of the roof/hatch. The boot that shields the wires going to the rear defrost/rear wiper... that would be a main cause for water to leak like that.

Has the car ever been repainted? If someone removed it previously it might not seal 100% anymore.

At the minimum I would remove or pop out the quarter panel trim (plastic that has the seat belt holder and speaker/holder) Have some with a hose spray water near the boots. If those are leaking you can clearly see it coming down the interior panels.

If it is leaking, bad news you can't buy replacement boots.
Good news a little silicone around the boots will be all you need. Make sure you clean it up before applying.

 

I had that problem, it turned out to be the water that ran inside when I opened the rear hatch while washing the car. That area tends to stay moist for a long time.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll take a look at those boots at the top of the hatch. The car was recently repainted.

One thought I had was that the drain line (black rubber hose) was backed up. Any idea where that hose fills from and drains to?

 

My guess would be the sunroof drains.

I can't remember where they come out but I think it's under the car in the bin area so I'd take a look under your car and see if you can find the outlet. They can become unplugged/disconnected or as mentioned clugged up.

If you can't find it I'll take a look at one of the cars I have.

 

I just looked around under there and didn't see anything too obvious. I also looked around the sunroof for where they start, and no luck there either. If you could point me in the right direction, it would be appriciated.

 

My previous two FDs had this problem... Both times it turned out to be the same issue. The rear hatch drains under two black triangle pieces of plastic (water goes under them and behind the tail lights). First make sure these are not clogged with leaves and junk. Then look at the following: There are held in with three screws which screw into plastic plugs. The plastic plugs shrink and get loose over time and water goes in them instead of going around them. Both the rear bins and the spare wheel well can get wet from this. I pulled the plastic plugs and RTV'd them back in... No more water. Both my last two FDs weren't garaged either and I never had wet bins/spare wheel well again.

 

I finally got the car off jack stands after installing my new rotary extreme vmount and rolled it into the driveway so I could look into this more closely. I removed the rear quarter panels and headliner, so I could actually see the source of the water. Then I poured water over the roof of the car with the sunroof closed to see if it was leaking from the rubber grommet for the rear hatch. No leak from there, and the sunroof did not leak while closed. Next I opened the sunroof and poured water into the track. I observed water draining from the four drain hoses, so I don't think those are plugged up. I did notice water leaking from the sunroof track next to the rear drains when I pour massive amounts of water near the rear drains, but I don't think that much water would come in naturally especially since the sun roof has to be open for water to even go to those drains.

Tomorrow, I will look into the plastic near the tail lights. I will also investigate any penetrations from under the cargo bays. If I still can't find the source, then I will have to drive around on a rainy day with the interior pieces removed to recreate the problem.

 

Part of my driveway is on a grade and it's been raining a lot here in North Carolina. With the hatch open, I noticed water pooling in the sides of the car next to the hatch area when it was parked facing downhill. The inner sides of the drain path is lower than the outer sides of the drain path so water can pool and if enough pools it will drain into the rear hatch area. The area that I'm describing is where the bend in the sides of the hatch move from angled downward to more parallel to the ground. about 40 percent of the way back from where the hatch is connected to the top of the car.

 

I had a pesky leak that pooled in the spare tire space, while driving and breaking downhill I would assume the water creep up and down under the bins. For every grommet I saw, near the tail lights. I would applied a thin layer of silicone under and around the grommets, been dry since.

Why not pull the interior and have some hose your car while you look for leaks? Beats waiting for the rain and maybe they could help wash your car afterwards too

 

I just finished doing the hose method. There was a very small 1 drop per minute drip from the wire gromet at the top of the hatch, but a much larger leak coming from the plastic that the screws for the tail light go into as Lance suggested.

The plan is to wait a few days for everything to dry. Hit those plastic pieces and rubber gromets at the tail lights and the top of the hatch with the black RTV silicone. Wait two more days for silicone to cure. Repeat hose test. If there are no leaks, I still want to drive the car in the rain through puddles in case the water is coming from one of the penetrations under the chassis. If everything is dry after that, then I will glue the little tabs I broke off removing the interior trim pieces and put it all back together.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions so far. It would have taken me much longer to zone in on the source had you not recommended these known problem areas.