Astra - water in driver's footwell

As header really - '97 Astra (series 3). I took the mats out to clean them,
and the underside of the drivers mat was wet. I pressed down on the carpet
in the footwell and my hand sank into more and more water.

I took the clips out of the carpet, removed the foam inderneath and there
were pints and pints of soapy water in it.

Now I use a jetwash pretty regularly, and there is no water anywhere else
inside the car - for this reason I'm pretty confident it's not heater
related so where is the best place for me to look for the ingress?

I've got the foam on a cloths-horse in front of the living-room fire drying
out after squeezing as much water out as I can. The heater has been set to
blow on the footwells all day as I've been riding around, so it's pretty
much dry. Before I put the (dried) foam back under the carpet, I'd like to
know if anyone else has had this problem and if so, how they solved it??

 

sorry for obvious logic, mark, but it must be coming from above!
have a look around the leaf filters on the air intake under the top of the
bonnet.
pull off the plastic cover etc ( if you have them)
and make sure the vents are clear.

next step is to run some water down that side of the windscreen & follow
it's course.
might even the sunroof channel ( if you have one fitted)
check they are clear ( poke some thin wire down the pipe)

lastly, not had any previous owners that drilled a hole for wires to come
thru??

good luck
hope you find it.

mike

 

Thanks for that Mike. I dried the sponge out last night and went out to the
car this morning with a view to refitting it.

When I got the carpet up again, there was the water (again). I then looked
up around the back of the pedals and spotted something I missed yesterday -
the backplate that I thought was actually made of plastic is actually
sponge, just like the mat I dried out last night. That too was completely
sodden, so I've wrung it out as best I can.

I've had the bulkhead cover off under the bonnet, and the lowest part of it
seems to be the pollen filter housing. There's nothing else under there
that seems to be able to take water apart from a square hole at either side
which seem to go through the inner-wings.

The next step will probably be a hosepipe under the wiper and the interior
trim out under the dashboard to see if it's coming in through the bulhead or
the wing. In the meantime, I'll just have to keep checking and mopping...

 

good work mark
getting a little closer.
i wonder if the stuff & the back of the pedals has 'soaked-up' water from
below or is it getting in from above it?

btw, was the pollen filter dry?

mike

 

I was wondering the same thing - I'm hoping it has, that way the likely
ingress is through the door somewhere and not behind the dash (hope springs
eternal).

I'm leaving the foam underlay out for the week to see how quick the carpet
gets wet.

Thanks again.

 

could be
any signs of water stains on the indise of the seals etc.

mike

 

ok now we know your problem....and yes it is a common problem.look under the
bonnet and where the wiper motor is situated you will see a drain pipe that
comes out just above the steering rack...unblock it because after a while it
will be full of leaves and other debris...what happens is the water collects
here and builds up, because the drain pipe is blocked it will simply enpty
into the car via the heater vents.

 

You're right - I checked it and it was full of leaves and black sh1te which
stuck to everything ('orrible stuff).

The wife wasn't too pleased with the state of the kitchen sink when I'd
finished cleaning it out, but peace has now returned chez nous...

I've still got damp in the foam rubber behind the pedals, but as I don't
want to end up shredding it, I'll leave it where it is and let the heater
dry it out slowly. We should then see if there is any more water build-up.

Thanks again

Mark

 

well, i'd take it out & dry it indoors.
the moisture will stay in the car this time of year & reform as condensation
everytime the motor gets hot then cold.

you will never know if you have cured it until you do,

mike

 

Right...

Chopped out the foam behind the pedals (all one piece so I used a craft
knife). Dried it out on the clothes horse in front of the fire (again). I
then dried out the footwell and put the carpet back.

Went out to pick the kids up (in the rain). Got home and took the carpet up
and inspected the floor underneath. HEY PRESTO !! Water was back at the
front of the seat runner nearest the door. It was a tiny amount but it made
me look very closely at the floor. The floor wasn't wet anywhere else, and
using the torch, I couldn't see any 'beading' higher up behind the dash
where it could've run in from the bulkhead area.

I looked at the floor where it was wet, and under the paint I made out what
I thought was a washer - when I poked at it with my thumb nail, it became
clear what it was; a rubber grommet and a wet one at that. I got under the
sill with my torch and looked at the bottom of the car to see the other side
of the grommet which was only partially pushed into the hole - some use that
was!!

Given that this is almost directly behind the offside front wheel, I want to
be convinced that the water is being forced up through this imperfect
grommet seal (now replaced) and that the ingress has been a slow but steady
one over a long period of time. My insistance of power-washing the
underside of the sills won't have helped if this is the source of the water,
but I'm not total sure of it (it would explain why the water is soapy
though). I will leave the carpet out for a week and see what it shows me
this time next week.

 

Also, the power washing could be what first pushed the grommet out of place
(or is that what you meant?)

steveb

 

yea, well that's the standard fitting for all vauxhalls with the crap
heater matrix....a drain hole!
makes it easy for the monkey to get it dry! HEHE.

well done mark.

good thread...one for the FAQ replies.

mike

 

Yep happened to me and was a mystery of where the water was coming from for
a while!

Regards

Philip

 

Cheers Philip - Hopefully I've solved the problem I had when I sealed the
rubber grommets in the footwell. I've still got a bit of water in the solid
soundproofing pad to dry out, but once that's done all the foam rubber can
go back under the carpet.

No ingress of water for nearly a fornight now - seems good to me.

Rgds

Mark