Longtime member here, but I frequent the 1st gen xB forum since I have one. My son however has a 2013 tC that he takes pretty good care of, and he has a problem. We've noticed a worsening odor in the interior the last month or so and yesterday we found the carpet in front of the driver side back seat to be soaked. The more we looked, the worse it got. We finally ended up pulling the entire carpet out of the car so we could de-water it and try to find the source of the leak. We ended up finding water in the passenger side rear and front in addition to the driver side rear. After almost an hour with my shop vac, I probably pulled 4 gallons of water out of the carpet and underlying padding. Ugh! I'm going to rent a carpet steamer tomorrow and really give it a good cleaning. Based on what came out where and how much - as well as how bad it smelled - I'd say the driver side rear is where it's coming in the worst.

In the meantime, my son is driving the car with no carpeting or interior panels in an attempt to see what leaks. Tomorrow will be an interesting ride through the automatic car wash. All of the door (and hatch) seals look good and there are no floor plugs missing or rusted out areas. The floor in fact is very solid and rust free. We also wondered about the sunroof drains, but nobody seems to be able to tell us where they are and where they run down through the interior. Anybody got any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Sunroof drains is what I would lean to as well if it's not from the heater core, but I also have no idea where they are. Maybe open the sunroof and see if anything sticks out at you for being clogged. Hopefully you'll get some more answers in the car wash.

Good news is that with the carpet out it would be a great time to sound deaden the floor of the vehicle with the loudest cabin ever.

 

We didn't get to run it through the car wash today, but we did spend 25 minutes with my son inside with a flashlight and me outside with a hose. It does not appear to be the sunroof, doors, rear, front or side windows. I was really hoping for a gusher today. Bummer. The carpet and padding are pretty dry now. I'm renting a true steamer tomorrow. That'll get it wet again, but hopefully clean and stink free too. It's not going back in until we find the leak though.

As for sound proofing, yes it could use some. You ought to see how loud it is now! I don't think we'll be adding it though.

 

@2stroked Shouldn't you be using the 4Runner to launch your boat and not your son's tC? I've got your e-mail and will actually have some time to reply tomorrow...I need to 'semi-retire' like someone else I know.

 

You're probably correct. We did verify that a 2013 tC is both not big enough to hold a 22' high performance boat and doesn't hold enough water to float one anyway.

Some progress today. A trip through the car wash showed nothing. However, after driving with the A/C on for a while, my son noticed a few drips under the passenger side dash. We're going to look into the possibility that the A/C condensate drain is plugged and backing up into the interior tomorrow.

 

You're doing it wrong...that tiny little car goes on TOP of the boat!

 

Just so everybody knows, I think we found the problem. The drain for the A/C had somehow become dislodged, so the condensate was dripping directly down the passenger side front footwell any time the A/C or defroster was being used. To get the amount of water we collected, it must have been dislodged for quite some time. We completely steamed, disinfected and dried the entire carpet as well as all of the padding that goes underneath it. (That took almost a week.) We used a half a bottle of HD Febreeze on everything before it went back in. We also zip tied the drain to make sure it doesn't come off again. Thanks for all of your help and our fingers are now crossed.

 

That could definitely do it. Would be pretty odorless too since it's just condensation. Gnarly though, glad you figured it out.