Water Leak help

[royalflush313]

There is a cover on the firewall (engine side) you have to take off to get to the blower motor and the windshield wiper motor. Take off that and look in there. See if you can see where water is going. If you dont see anything, pour a little bit of water in and see where it drains to. See if any goes under where the blower motor is.

Will

I'll try removing that cover and see if I can see anything. Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it!
As much as the heater valve seem like the culprit, I should probably ignore that for now, as I'm only getting water, and only when water enters the grills.

[PeaveyBassist]

I gotcha. I thought it was always leaking. If it is ONLY when it rains or something then its most likely not the heater core and heater valves so dont worry about those. That panel that covers the blower motor I believe is just (4) 8mm bolts that hold it on. Should only take a couple minutes to get it off.

Will

[golde30]

I've cleaned up the "elephant trunk" drain on the passenger side. Problems remains.

what is this elephant trunk drain? im also getting wet carpet syndrome when it rains for weeks at a time...

[Dave]

what is this elephant trunk drain? im also getting wet carpet syndrome when it rains for weeks at a time...

http://e30.bmwdiy.info/passenger-water-leak/index.html

[golde30]

http://e30.bmwdiy.info/passenger-water-leak/index.html

thank you sir.

[royalflush313]

Yet another little progress.

I found out that the drain under the rocker panel is defenetely not the culprit.
If you look inside those vents below the windshield, water drains towards the outside of the car. There's a small plastic blocker disallowing water to flow towards the blower motors. BUT, when it is raining hard, the water manages to crawl over to the other side.
The water is going somewhere by the blower, and into the cabin.

When the water goes to the side where the blowers are, the water is supposed to drain from the elephant trunk (that I didn't know) - and it is draining freely, however, some of the water manages to escape into the cabin

Any other ideas?

[royalflush313]

bump

[DaN]

There's really not much any of us can do. Roll up your sleeves. Get in there, take stuff apart, get a super bright flashlight, use the good old eyes and a bucket of water.

[Giorgio]

When water leaks into the foot wells (passenger's side first, then eventually the driver's side), causes are: clogged "elephant drain" and/or defective windshield gasket (most likely "elephant drain", I have yet to hear of an E30 with a failed windshield gasket).
If I read correctly, you said that you cleared the elephant drain, then it rained once again, and you noticed MORE water managed to make it's way to the foot wells?
When water reaches the foot wells, it does not have any place to drain, therefore if you do not lift up the carpet and soak up the remaining water (yes you WILL have to do this, there is no way out of it at this point), your carpet remains soaking wet. What I am getting to, is that I don't see how you could have noticed MORE water in the foot wells when there was already a huge sum resting in the foot wells with no place to drain.
What you need to do, regardless! (or rust will eventually form):
Lift up the entire carpet (no need to remove blower, center console, etc.), and soak up all of the water out of the foam in the carpet. You then should leave fans constantly running inside the car with a place for moisture to escape (quickest way to dry it out, because I assume this car is driven daily and will be missed). Unfortunately, you would be down a car if you were to follow through with this, but it's not nice having a mildewy car, or rust eventually forming holes in the cabin floor.

[royalflush313]

When water leaks into the foot wells (passenger's side first, then eventually the driver's side), causes are: clogged "elephant drain" and/or defective windshield gasket (most likely "elephant drain", I have yet to hear of an E30 with a failed windshield gasket).
If I read correctly, you said that you cleared the elephant drain, then it rained once again, and you noticed MORE water managed to make it's way to the foot wells?
When water reaches the foot wells, it does not have any place to drain, therefore if you do not lift up the carpet and soak up the remaining water (yes you WILL have to do this, there is no way out of it at this point), your carpet remains soaking wet. What I am getting to, is that I don't see how you could have noticed MORE water in the foot wells when there was already a huge sum resting in the foot wells with no place to drain.
What you need to do, regardless! (or rust will eventually form):
Lift up the entire carpet (no need to remove blower, center console, etc.), and soak up all of the water out of the foam in the carpet. You then should leave fans constantly running inside the car with a place for moisture to escape (quickest way to dry it out, because I assume this car is driven daily and will be missed). Unfortunately, you would be down a car if you were to follow through with this, but it's not nice having a mildewy car, or rust eventually forming holes in the cabin floor.

more water is appearing because I did a leak test, and poured more water into many of the drains.
It's never a huge amount of water leaving the carpet absolutely soaked, more just slow drips that makes my carpet moist. Anytime this happens, I can dry it up good enough. Once I figured out the cause of leak though, I will tear up the carpet and make sure there's no moisture.

I have found out that it is NOT the rocker panel drains or any of the sunroof drains.

The water is skipping over the triangular water blocker, and it is seeping through somewhere where the blower motors are located.
Most of the water drains from the elephant trunk, however, minimal amount manages to make it's way to the floor from the places where I red-circled in the pictures.

I am almost starting to think that it is normal when the blower motor side gets flooded from hard rain, minimal amount would leak through the air ducts.

Someone pointed out to me that the elephant trunk drain is for the moisture that condenses on the AC coil. So perhaps it's not able to handle large amount of water that gets in there.

If those rare leaks under hard rain circumstances are indeed normal, I'm just going to build a taller blocker to avoid leaks. I live in a place where rain is expected on a daily basis....

Anyone who live in a fairly rainy climate, yet, have NEVER experienced a leak in their cabin, can you do me a huge favour? I want you to open up the passenger side vent below the windshield, and pour a bottle of water into the blower motor side where the elephant trunk is located. I want you to see if you find trickles of water coming down from the specified place.

If you can do me the favour, I will be more than happy to paypal you $10 for the inconveniences.

Thanks

[YAN-3]

Dude bro I just reading this whole thread, I am also having the same problem with my M-Tech II. However in my car its not just a litle drip its a big, and i mean big puddle of water in my driver floor are. Nothing in the passenger are though. I riped the carpet out from the driver side and im gonna rip the entire blower cover/whiper motor are and see if i find anything. If you end up finding somthing else out please let me know. PM me or something. I will do the same here. Just like it your case, it only happens when it rains. The weather here has been wicked cold and rainy/snowy so i bought a uber car cover and didnt touch it. The car cover worked. However I do want to be able to enjoy the car on the road. and i cant drive it bc Im worried that it might rain on me and ill get water again. so like i said, as the weth. gets beter ill rip into it and find out for sure whats going on. keep me updated.

[FredK]

I have the same exact problem as well.

I removed my carpet (it's still sitting in my basement). I poured water down both the driver's side and passenger side heater intake vents. There's a plate that the blower motor mounts to, and the plate has four 10mm nuts that hold it to the firewall. The plate has a foam gasket, and I believe it has rotted out. I tried to dam the gasket up with some silicone, but that didn't work.

I honestly believe the only way to get to this leak is to remove the blower motor and somehow make the plate budge just enough to remove the old rotted gasket. I will attempt this once the weather gets better. It's just too cold to work on cars right now. For now, though, I'm just gonna leave my carpet out. It smelled like wet dog.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=AF93&mospid=47305&btnr=64_0480&hg=64&fg=15

[royalflush313]

FredK and E30-330i, we will keep each other updated.

If I have some time today, I'm gonna remove the blower motor and see what's up.

[YAN-3]

great thanks. will do.

[metrix2025]

hey bro
i've got a similar problem..working on it gradualy...seeing as my carpet is out

but anyways if you need some help working this out shoot me a pm we can meet up and put our heads together