Ok well Ive only had my box now for about 3 months. After it rains, and after I wash the car, I started noticing the inside started smelling a little mildewy for a couple days, and then it would go away. Well I started feeling around and I noticed that my floor was wet behind my drivers seat. So I searched here and found very little information about leaking in the rear. So I decided to go take it in to the dealer and see if they could figure something out under warranty.

Well today was the day, I took it in and they checked it out.....Not under warranty. Come to find out that the previous owner had tried fixing the problem and may have caused the problem by installing under-car neons and having wires ran under the carpet for the subs in the rear. It looks like my two drain plugs are shot. and it seems that water is getting in through the plugs.
The dealer said they wouldnt fix under warranty due to the fact that the previous owner seemed to have caused the problem...Go figure. $40 bucks for diagnostics, and $5 for each of the plugs.

I started to tear the car apart today, and found that the front plug had tape over it in a weak attempt to keep water out. the rear seemed ok, but there was water there as well. My passenger side was perfect not a drip of water and the plugs looked to be in great shape. I went ahead and pulled the carpet to let everything dry out and Ill be going back to the dealer tomorrow to check on getting new carpet.

Ive never heard of this before, and was wondering if this was a common problem?
Would adding silicon around the drain plug help it to seal beter or would it be fine by itself?

 

I can see where the dealer is coming from, if the previous owner screwed something up. I have had no problems with wet floors in mine, 21 months old and 36k miles. I installed underbody lights on mine, but ran my wires up to the firewall and then through.

 

I would love to see a picture of these plugs.

 

They are simply round rubber plugs that fill drain holes in the floor pan under the carpet. There are 2 different sizes used large ones and some smaller ones. If you look up from under the car you should be able to see the larger ones from underneath, they are roughly 3 or so inches in diameter. Very good design I thought. this type plug generally seals well (if it doesn't, applying some RTV around it as it is installed will certainly seal it), and allows for easy drainage of liquids should the car get flooded somehow.

 

Here are the pictures of said drain plug.





It seems that the carpet is going to be ok. I let it dry out and sprayed it with antifungus / bacterial/ mold/mildew stuff.

I ran the water hose on the car for about 5 mins to see if the water could be coming from anywhere else, but it seems as though it is coming from underneath as I drive. It still seems strange to me that there was so much water soaked into the padding.

Since I have the carpet out nows a good time to run some dynamat material on the floors.

 

DO NOT put dynamat yet. Put nothing. Go drive in the rain a few times. See where the water comes from assuming it does. Dont waste money applying mat that you may have to remove to access a seam. Make sure first then dynamat.

 

and incase you didnt know... new xB carpet is just under $600

 

Probably a good idea...Thanks
Just have to wait until the plugs come in and then Ill be able to check to make sure that water isnt coming in from a seam or possible one of the other plugs.

 

No Problem<-----been doing this stuff a long time....it is really easy to get in a hurry (I have the tendency mostly when I work on my own car) and end up backing up:0

 

Alright well I found the culprit and guess what, its not a damn drain plug!

I went back and looked over the seams once more and found this dirt line coming from the left drivers side corner, near the dead pedal area. I then took a harder look and I could see that the seam was busted. I looked on the outside wheelweel and there was a 3 inch line (the seam) completely exposed. I then ran and grabbed the hose and proceeded to spray water on the seam from the outside, and sure enough all the water came rushing into the car.

Im damn glad I found this before I put everything back in. I went and talked with the guys at the dealership and they said it would be cheaper and better if I fixed it, since it wouldnt be covered under warranty. SO I grabbed some Steel reinforced epoxy and some rtv sealant, and seal the inside with rtv sealant and then sealed the outside with the steel epoxy. When everything is cured (24 hrs) then Ill go back and spray over the epoxy with rubber undercoating just to be on the safe side.

Here are some pics of the seam.









Ill post pics of the finished product, and how well it works.

 

Awesome so now it will be fixed

 

Tell us more about this seam in the body that "busted" and let water into the car and is not covered by warranty.
It looks like the seam is a actually a horizontal gash - some kind of damage. What do you think caused the gash?

 

i wanna know that too...

 

There does appear to be a weld tab that would appear maybe like a seam at that spot. My xB has no nose on it atm so was easy looking. Around yours looks like hammer marks. Did you hammer it?? Tire clearance perhaps? I did! But I resealed mine just to be sure. If you did not hammer there look at the other side see if it looks like hammer marks seal if it does. My xB is pretty flat (no dimples like I see in your photo in that area).

 

I think the guy before me messed around with it either to clear the tires, or he hit something in the road. Im guessing he hit something in the road due to the fact that the passenger side wheelwell has no visible signs of tampering.

That Epoxy is hard as hell now! I shouldnt have any other problems out of that spot.

Thanks guys.

 

Wow lucky you didn't live up north with salt. It'd be rusting out by now also. Glad that fix took care of the problem.

 

So far all the water in the cars has been caused by mods:
1. Drain tubes from the rear corners of the sunroof routed to rear pillars, forming a sagging horizontal run that held water and kept the internal sunroof gutter from draining.
2. Drain plugs in passenger footwells cut or removed to run wires for under-car neon lighting, then not resealed.
3. Body metal in front fender well split by hammering to clear lowered body and/or oversize tires.

 

i have 20inch wheels and i had to move the fire wall a little to clear them in the front. after i finished i sealed it up same way you are doing now... months down the road it rained and the rear driver side filled up with water like 4inchs in the back. took it in to dealer. they re sealed the inside seam said it might have been broken from factory .. not here i am again today repairing the passanger side seam again the out side of both is good but some how it run down from the dash.. either way it smells and gets wet.. but i too though it was the plugs. good thing they are there for letting the river flow back out,. lol good luck,,[/img]