firewall cabin water leaks.

My leak was in a different place. My 02 Protege was leaking from the drivers side and soaking my carpet every time it rained. I tore everything apart and found the drain holes were plugged and a huge puddle of water behind the fire wall that was leaking in. I took a video of what i did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgArFTc0dFY
 
My leak was in a different place. My 02 Protege was leaking from the drivers side and soaking my carpet every time it rained. I tore everything apart and found the drain holes were plugged and a huge puddle of water behind the fire wall that was leaking in. I took a video of what i did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgArFTc0dFY

Your a brave man.. i wouldnt cut into my car like that but then again you had other issues going on.
 
found and corrected the leak...

edit: see 1st post.

Hey Stealth, after doing all the siliconing on the holes... has the issue came back? I just noticed my passenger side footwell all the way to where the carpet meets the rear seat was soaked... I guess I have a new project to get cracking on...
 
Hey Stealth, after doing all the siliconing on the holes... has the issue came back? I just noticed my passenger side footwell all the way to where the carpet meets the rear seat was soaked... I guess I have a new project to get cracking on...

Only spot where it has come back is the holes under the wiper cowl... ill clean it up and user body seam sealer which is what i should of used first... the other spot on the passenger side the issue hasn't come back where i used body seam sealer on.
 
Only spot where it has come back is the holes under the wiper cowl... ill clean it up and user body seam sealer which is what i should of used first... the other spot on the passenger side the issue hasn't come back where i used body seam sealer on.

Cool thanks ill be tackling this Monday and Tuesday hopefully... Defiantly going to be riced for a week or so... Carpet is going to be drying...
 
So I'm also struggling with this. Pulled off the cowl and everything looks good there. No visible weld issues and water seems to be flowing out of the drains as intended. Definitely coming in from somewhere in the firewall though. Highest point of water I can feel behind the padding is right behind the brake pedal.
 
Seems to be coming from where the steering shaft passes through the firewall. That's a big mess to take apart and find the source though.
 
I FIXED MY LEAK !!!

I had this exact same crack last week in my wife's 03 Protg with ( still only) 55k miles.



The water drips in, runs down the side / under the carpet, and there is over 1" of water in pass side rear floor.



Advance Auto sells "seam sealer" for the crack. $16 for a "tube of caulk". ugh. At least I know I used "the correct tool for the job".
and in the cowl, I sprayed a large amount of



I used a spray tube ( like from the WD40 can) to help get the stuff where I wanted.
I don't have a great pic of the seam I drowned with the Flex Seal, but it's on the bottom of the cowl, in front of the fresh air duct.
The arrows are supposed to point to the bottom, not the lip edge. The seam looks like 2 pcs of sheet metal laying on another, with no weld lines or spot welds visible.
Just make sure you do not spray near the drain on the side !

 
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To be more specific, I sprayed A LOT of that stuff on the bottom of the cowl. and around the seam for the air intake. pretty much the everywhere. Used more than 1/2 a can.
They sell it in black or clear.
Use the clear, and no one will ever see it after you re-install the the cowl cover.

I'm still not sure what the true cause of my leak was, but it has rained buckets, for days. twice. and the car is still dry (yippy)
 
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I also replaced the wet " jute " (?) padding with 4 foam "welcome mats" from "Christmas Tree Shoppes". They are the correct thickness, and DO NOT absorb moisture !
Have you ever tried to dry out that factory padding ??? What were they thinking ?
 
I know it's usually not done to bump an old topic like this, but I just wanted to say THANKS for posting such a detailed description with clear pictures!

I haven't fixed the leak in my Protege yet, but now have a very good idea of where to look. I live in Alaska and thought my 2001 Protege ES was 100% rust free. There is not a speck of rust anywhere on the car.
I vacuumed the car out last week and removed the floor mats, only to realize the carpet underneath on the drivers side was SOAKING WET. I NEVER realized this, as the floor mat is dry (weirdly).
This must have been going on for years. It explains why my windows fog up after a heavy rain and why the car sometimes smells funky.

The bad news is that I discovered it very late and my drivers side floorboard is now pretty rotted. This is not visible from outside, as the floorboard has obviously been rotting out from the inside, and I never noticed it. Looking at the bottom of the car, it all looks very solid.
But the floor now has a lot of flex in it (I can push up from the outside on the bottom and see the floor come up inside the car), so I'm afraid I'll have to have a body-shop weld in a new piece of floor.

That sucks, because I'm sure it'll be hella-expensive, so I'm a little upset over that. Especially since I never realized the car was leaking water...

Anyway, I just sprayed a ton of water on the wiper cowl with my garden hose and could see the water trickling into the cabin. Looking up at the clutch pedal the top of the pedal (where it's bolted to the car) looks rusty, so it looks like that's where the water is coming in.

I'll print out this topic and will go do some checking tomorrow. Gotta fix the water leak first before I have any welding done.

Question: Is there any good way to remove the carpet in the car? I removed the trim on the side underneath the door and for the little fuse box, unscrewed the fusebox and the relay box above it (man, it's all hard to get to) and undid the plastic dead pedal and plastic fastener for the carpet, but I still can't see an easy way to remove it. It seems it goes all the way to the top.

Did you guys just cut the carpet to remove it? Am I missing something? :)
 
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I know it's usually not done to bump an old topic like this, but I just wanted to say THANKS for posting such a detailed description with clear pictures!

I haven't fixed the leak in my Protege yet, but now have a very good idea of where to look. I live in Alaska and thought my 2001 Protege ES was 100% rust free. There is not a speck of rust anywhere on the car.
I vacuumed the car out last week and removed the floor mats, only to realize the carpet underneath on the drivers side was SOAKING WET. I NEVER realized this, as the floor mat is dry (weirdly).
This must have been going on for years. It explains why my windows fog up after a heavy rain and why the car sometimes smells funky.

The bad news is that I discovered it very late and my drivers side floorboard is now pretty rotted. This is not visible from outside, as the floorboard has obviously been rotting out from the inside, and I never noticed it. Looking at the bottom of the car, it all looks very solid.
But the floor now has a lot of flex in it (I can push up from the outside on the bottom and see the floor come up inside the car), so I'm afraid I'll have to have a body-shop weld in a new piece of floor.

That sucks, because I'm sure it'll be hella-expensive, so I'm a little upset over that. Especially since I never realized the car was leaking water...

Anyway, I just sprayed a ton of water on the wiper cowl with my garden hose and could see the water trickling into the cabin. Looking up at the clutch pedal the top of the pedal (where it's bolted to the car) looks rusty, so it looks like that's where the water is coming in.

I'll print out this topic and will go do some checking tomorrow. Gotta fix the water leak first before I have any welding done.

Question: Is there any good way to remove the carpet in the car? I removed the trim on the side underneath the door and for the little fuse box, unscrewed the fusebox and the relay box above it (man, it's all hard to get to) and undid the plastic dead pedal and plastic fastener for the carpet, but I still can't see an easy way to remove it. It seems it goes all the way to the top.

Did you guys just cut the carpet to remove it? Am I missing something? :)

remove the center console, remove both from seats, remove the rear seat, remove the door sills at the bottom of all 4 doors, and I think you might have to unbolt the from seat belts near the floor, and everything else should be straight forward. it has been YEARS since I pulled the carpet out.

if your going to pull the carpet out hit it with a pressure washer to clear out all the dirt. then hit it with a shop vac to remove extra water and let it dry out in the sun for a day or two and reinstall. You can put your seats back in the car and drive it around while the carpet drys. Also you might save a little on shop labor if you remove all that stuff out of the way before you take it to the shop.
 
Well, it's been a few months, but I am happy to report all problems have been fixed. In my case the water leaks were caused by the previous owner, who used to have an amplifier in the trunk, and had ran a thick power cable from the battery, through the firewall and into the car. The big hole that was drilled into the car was never sealed properly, and so every time it rained, water would gush in through that hole.
The hole was located on the drivers side, underneath the wiper cowl, right were the hood hinge is. It was hard to get to.

Anyway, got the hole sealed up on the in- and outside with Automotive Black Seam Sealer (costs about 15 bucks at O'reiley's, comes in a tube you can use in a caulk gun) and that stopped the water from coming in.

Of course, the water has been coming into the cabin for years and years (I've owned this car for almost 5 years, it has at least leaked that long, and so my drivers side floor was rotted, both the front and the rear.
Here is a picture of what it looked like:
20151006_220524.jpg
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I called a lot of body shops to see who could weld the floor for me, but they all refused to take on the job. Ultimately I googled for "car restoration" shops in my area, and found a one-man small business specialized in restoring old muscle cars, and he said he would take on the job.

I took the interior and carpet out myself, then brought it to the guy. He had the car for a week, welded in new patches in the floor then treated it with POR15 and added soundproofing material. I got the car back yesterday. It looked like this:

20151021_180343.jpg
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And after spending about 2 hours putting the interior back in, it looks like this:

IMG-20151021-WA0007.jpg
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Total damage: A grand to fix the floor. But, I wasn't able to find a comparable car second hand on Craigslist, and this lil' Mazda just got new shocks a few months ago (front and rear), and I put new brakes on her about a year ago (calipers, discs, pads, lines and fluid), so she practically drives like new. Didn't want to let her go, I love this little car.

My only issue with it is that now that it gets older, the interior starts to become a little rattly sometimes, but that's OK. I am hoping to keep her for at least another 5 years. I think the new floor will be good until at least than... :)
Also, when I put the drivers side windscreen wiper back, I didn't line it up properly and when I bolted it down I somewhat stripped the little teeth that hold it down. The end result is that the drivers side windscreen wiper now also rattles sometimes when the engine is idling. Learn from my mistake, be careful when putting the wipers back... :)
 
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