I just completed a 1000 mile trip in the snow and then the rain. I discovered that the rear floor behind the driver is soaking wet.

I guess I'll have to get into it in a few days. In the meantime do any of you guys have any ideas on where to start?

 

Tar,
Did you read the section abover under FAQ,s?
There is a section there on TSB's from the factory on production caused leaks ( I had one in the trunk which was a pain to trace and fix).
I would first check the obvious..even plainly obvious..was a window open a little, was the door shut,then look at all plugs under floor and seals and door seals.
Still the best way to detect where the leak is entering the car is to have one person in the car in the area of the leak and another with a hose slowly moving a low pressure soak area by area including the sunroof.
Good luck.

 

Blocked drains on the sunshine roof comes to mind - if you have one fitted.

I have not got the sunshine roof, and have driven though English rain, but all a dry as a bone inside.

 

Just got my cat serviced for the same issue Tuesday. They sunroof tracks were clogged. It's raning today so I'll see if that was the cause of the leak.

My leak was only on the passenger side and was only evident on the carpet. My windows would also be fogged in the morning I'm assuming from the evaporation of rain water.

 

This is a common problem in a lot of cars with sunroofs, the water is probably from there.
The drainage system is small and clogs easily. Sometimes people will blow out the drains with air and this will push the flexible hose off the hard nipple and cause a leak.

 

hard nipples and hoses in the morning !

 

The attached TSB covers blocked water drains on the X350 for a specific range of VIN's and how to diagnose the issue.

 

Thanks all,

I certainly hope it is a sun roof drain issue as the other fixes seem to require demolition of the rear half of the car.

Fortunately the car is garaged and I don't expect to be in the wet untill I can sort this out. Will post again after the fix, or at least an attempt to fix.

 

Okay, I got after the water leak today. I poured water into the sunroof track and both drains in the front worked well. However, both drains in the back are clogged. I could not find a way to get at them with compressed air from the top.

Does anybody know where the rear drain tubes exit the car? The fronts appear to exit to the rear of the front tires and behind the plastic rocker panel covers.

What about the rears? Must I remove the plastic rocker panel covers to get at them with compressed air or are they inboard of the rocker panels?

 

They are often pinched under the headliner, but most do not present as a leak until it rains HARD for many hours. The tubes are occluded, but not totally blocked, so the increased voulme of hard rain causes a backup into the sunroof tray, and out it comes...trickles down the d-post behind the trim, and down to the carpet. Blowing it out with air will typically not resolve the issue.

 

Thanks JagTec,

Can you id the exit point on the car for the rear sunroof drain tubes? I would like to give em a little compressed air before removing the sunroof/headliner.

 

Bump

Anybody out there know where these rear sunroof drain tubes exit the car?

 

I didn't but as you haven't had a response I have just poured some water into my sunroof runners. After a bit of gurgling it appeared next to back box of the exhaust.

If you go to the back of the car and look up next to the exhaust (outboard) you will see a little tube sticking out horizontally. See attached pic.

 

Thangs U10 -- I'll give er a go tomorrow and see what happens.

 

Bummer No such tube exits my car in the area indicated, left or right.
Now what?

 

Do the test as described in the posted TSB including raising the front end.

Unless both sides are blocked, one of the tests will yield a puddle of water under the egress point. The other side is likely to be laid out the same way.

 

I am surprised that you don't have them as my car is a 2005MY car. In case there is any confusion as to their location, I have taken a more general photo of the area of the right hand one.

I hadn't actually checked the left hand side one but can confirm that mine is the same as the right.

 

Found em! Thanks for staying with me u10. The drain tubes look just like nearby revits which caused me to overlook them. I had to actually put my hand on them to i.d. them as rubber.

Now to fabricate an appliance to get compressed air up to them. Will report on the results afterwards.

 

Okay. For those of you who are interested, the compressed air did the trick. I then followed up with hot soapy water.
Thanks to all who kept me at it.

 

Glad it was such a simple fix, mine sure isnt...lol.
Ooooh, I just became a senior, damn.