My car was sitting in the rain, and when I got back to my car I noticed a puddle of water in my interior. Where is it coming from?:
Unfortunately, this was one of the first problems I encountered with my car when I purchased it. It too me months to track it down, and living in the rainy Northwest definitely didn’t help. If you notice this problem with your car, the solution could be as simple as the following:
Pop your rear hatch and look along the side “gutters” that surround your trunk. You should notice that each side has a drain on it. These drains are used to help distribute the excess rain water out of the gutter (if, for some reason, it can’t escape out of the rear of the hatch). It is quite common for these drains to get plugged – whether it be pine needles, a mud like substance or any other type of crud. If this is the case, the gutters are prone to overflow into your car – creating those dreadful puddles and wretched smells. To see if these drains are plugged, simply poor a cup of water into them. Give it a second, and take a look under the back tire. You should see the water seeping down at some point. If you do not, and if the gutter still has the water that you poured into it, then it is time to pull out the shop-vac. Put it in reverse, blow air through the drain, and see if anything comes spitting out under the car. If this doesn’t work, and your drains still seem full, you might care to try the old household pipe de-clogging trick. Put the vacuum in normal mode and suck up the excess water. Crumble an alka-selzer pill into powder and poor the powder down the drain, followed by a bit of white vinegar. Enjoy the bubbling action, and flush with water. This should help loosen up whatever is clogging the drain up.
Now, if you poor water into the drain, and the water is indeed drained but it does NOT come out under the car, you most likely have a disconnected drain tube inside your car. Simply remove the interior trunk panel on that particular side, and you should see the tubing. Make sure both sides are attached.
If all of the above does NOT fix your problem, then my last thought would be that your problem was similar to mine. If you leave your car parked outside on an overly rainy day, do NOT park your car on a downward slope. This will make your hatch’s gutters DEPEND on those small drains to remove the water. After that, it will drain directly into your car making one heck of a mess. My suggestion is to park in the opposite direction so that your rain gutters depend on those drains as little as possible.
Note: also check that your windows are completely rolled up and/or that your sunroof isn’t leaking, just to state the obvious.
