Water intrusion in trunk and back seat area (drivers side)

[s2cmpugh]

So I'm pretty much at my wits end chasing this water leak. Car is parked facing uphill and when it rains I get a pretty decent amount of water on the drivers side trunk area towards the rear of the car, but you can see the water is coming from further towards the front of the car. In addition, I stripped the trunk, back seat and lifted the carpet up in the rear some; carpet and seat completely soaked on drivers side only. With everything stripped and right after a rain fall today, I noticed water sitting on the drivers side bottom rear door jam; right where the trim piece snaps in. This explains why the carpet got wet.

It's almost as if the water is coming from the roof area and running down something, somewhere.


The following items have been checked and/or replaced

• Tail lights have been sealed using silicone - no gap between body and light housing. Location of water doesn't support that anyway.
• Gas filling area has been checked and sealed
• Checked to make sure sunroof drains...it does
• New rear windshield installed - no change
• All 8 clips are sealed at bottom of windshield

Does anyone have any ideas on this?? I know the car is 30 years old now, but I'm thinking it might be time to offload soon.

Thanks guys,

CP

[Fleetw00d]

I have experienced leaks in the following areas:
- between the front windshield and the A pillar (pillar was rusting)
- through the seams in the roof under the black strips
- through a body seam on the top of the firewall near the base of the driver A pillar
- check the condition of the door seals

You might need to take the carpet out completely, then be inside the car when it is raining or have someone run a hose over it so you can track the leaks in real time.

[s2cmpugh]

Thanks FleetwOOd!

I'm 99% confident the front half/portion of the car is good and it's the rear'ish area of the drivers side effected. I did remove the roof strips and noticed some rust areas (doesn't appear to be surface rust, but like the paint/filler is splittin) right around the C-pillar area on the drivers side. It's possible the body seem filler has failed and is allowing water in through that area on the roof, and rolling down inside the car. Maybe even behind the uni-body structure I can't see?

I'm not a fan of body work and the cost to repair this would WAY more than the car is worth. Any suggestions on a repair?

Thanks!

[Raf99]

Not sure if it will help but can you start doing some drastic steps / tests. Start laying paper towel down & tape to the inside wall of everywhere. Plastic off the whole roof and start running hose tests. Helps to have someone inside the car too. If you can rule out the back window (which obviously shouldn't leak) and the front window, then you're looking at the roof or door seal. Sounds like it's running down the B pillar ?

[Fleetw00d]

If the seam sealer in the roof grooves is cracked, I removed loose material and resealed the area with epoxy (I may have used JB Weld). The clips for the rear windshield lower chrome trim are notorious for leaking into the area under the window and draining toward either side.

[SSMAccord]

Since this seems to be concentrated on the driver’s side, you might try seeing if the leak is coming from the antenna. Either the upper mounting area might be leaking or the drain tube might cracked or disconnected from the drain port it shares with the sunroof drain tube.

[s2cmpugh]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I should also mentioned I did re-seal the antenna and dumped water all over it for testing; no leaks.

The bottom clips for the rear windshield are brand new (along w/ new glass) and are tightened up to the frame; no leakage. Replacing the glass did NOT fix the leak, so it never was the issue.

The body seam area on the roof, under the black roof trim, is rusted in one spot, and it appears that it's somewhat separating/pealing away? Hard to describe really what's happening there.

It's supposed to rain here on Sunday, so I might try a little test by taping up that area on the roof (between the B and C pillar on the rust area) really well to see if it makes a difference.

It rain earlier this week and the car was parked facing up hill and while the trunk was the worst area with water, a small amount of water was see around the bottom of the rear drivers side door jamb (inside portion of the car) where the C pillar meets the bottom frame area? This to me points to that rust area on the roof rails.

[s2cmpugh]

Update: I taped up the rusty areas on the body joints (under the black roof strips) and it had no effect whatsoever. Rain here today and water still leaks in the trunk on the driver's side and under the driver's side rear seat; right at the bottom of the c-pillar where the seat belt bolts to the body....that body joint area.

If the rear door was leaking, wouldn't I see water on the door frame itself?

What about the chrome trim around the A, B, and C pillars?

Are there any drain tubes/joints/connections in the ceiling or along the B and C pillars?

This is really frustrating me because I'm out of ideas.

[Fleetw00d]

The chrome strip that runs above the doors and down the front of the C pillar is held on by clips that penetrate the body and have thin gaskets on them that stiffen and may crack with age (the clips may even break). There are some screw holes and one clip in the piece on the C pillar as well. You might try taping over the top of the chrome strip to see if that stops the leaking. If that is the source, be careful if you try to remove the trim, the clips (#23) break easily and they don't show as available from Honda any more.

[SSMAccord]

Hmmmm... if it’s in that area, might the upper end of the sunroof drain tube be disconnected from the sunroof body or perhaps brittle and cracked? It might be just enough to drain some water into the tube and allow some water to escape and then drain into the trunk?

[s2cmpugh]

The chrome strip that runs above the doors and down the front of the C pillar is held on by clips that penetrate the body and have thin gaskets on them that stiffen and may crack with age (the clips may even break). There are some screw holes and one clip in the piece on the C pillar as well. You might try taping over the top of the chrome strip to see if that stops the leaking. If that is the source, be careful if you try to remove the trim, the clips (#23) break easily and they don't show as available from Honda any more.

This is very helpful, thank you! I was wondering if any clips/screws, etc. existed on the chrome trim around the windows and it appears it does. I might just try removing the trim, very carefully, and then re-sealing all of those holes. If a clip breaks....it breaks. I can't have water coming in like this all over creating mildew, mold, and rust and it's one more thing to cross of the list.

[s2cmpugh]

Hmmmm... if it’s in that area, might the upper end of the sunroof drain tube be disconnected from the sunroof body or perhaps brittle and cracked? It might be just enough to drain some water into the tube and allow some water to escape and then drain into the trunk?

Good call on the sunroof tube being old and brittle. If the chrome trim re-sealing above doesn't work, I guess I'll strip the interior and see how the hose looks :/

Thanks gents for the help and advice, it's greatly appreciated!

[s2cmpugh]

Update: Before ripping more trim off, I decided to poor a glass of water around the drivers side rear drain holes for the sunroof one more time. Well, well, well, well, well....yes water is draining as it should from the rear of the car, but I noticed a rather large amount of water streaming inside the car from the drivers side rear grab handle by the rear fastener. This probably shouldn't be happening I'm guessing, no matter how much water is being poured (within reason of course). Unless I poured too much and it overflowed out the sunroof tray?

Does anyone have a link to any pictures on the drain tube routing/connections in the headliner?

I tried searching for DIY on headliner removal, and the only one I found was this one: https://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb5/forum/...-out-headliner

You gents know of any others?

Thanks again for your help!

[Raf99]

Ya, take the headliner down and inspect the drain tubes and connections / clips. Guaranteed you'll have bad rubber hoses or broken clips and water is leaking from the crack in the line etc. Some of the water is going down the hose, some of the water is going through the crack. Once you take the headliner out it should be easy. For headliner removal you'll save yourself a headache if you take the seats out. You can also put them reclined all the way back, and then obviously you have to remove the A, B, C pillar points etc. Grab a haynes manual and it will have all the proper steps.

[s2cmpugh]

Good day everyone. I thought I would report back with what I've found and corrected so far:

• A, B, C pillar panels and headliner were removed for inspection
  • Headliner had condensation on roof facing side from the leaks and sitting in the sun - dried headliner
• Removed one sunroof drain tube to test for water tightness - passed
  • DO NOT REMOVE THE TUBE! Why....it's impossible to get it back in place, so that one drain port is not plugged and sealed now.
  • All other tubes appear OK so I left them in place
• Removed trim around windows and attempted to re-seal using grey RTV (clips no longer available from Honda)

Final cause - body seams on both right and left side of trunk area between trunk "tub" and rear quarter panels; around where the trunk weather stripping is. Re-sealed all seams with RTV, and this appears to have fixed it.

While everything was apart, I ordered a sound deadening kit for the roof from SecondSkin audi - Butyl rubber and reflective insulation. Re-installed everything and WOW what a difference in NVH just from doing the roof. I also added some leftovers to the rear wheel wells and trunk area - much better from the back now.

I highly recommend using products from SecondSkin, and I plan to continue my NVH reduction journey using their products.

Thanks again for everyone's helps!