Water Leak, but from Where?

Has water leaked into your Protege5 ?

OK folks, I need to hear about your past experience(s) and I need your advice. This evening I took my P5 through one of those Touchless Car Washes because I didn't feel like washing the car by hand after work -- if the car is not heavily soiled the touchless wash does a good job. Regardless, I've taken through this wash four times prior, and tonight I was greeted with a surprise I didn't want.

When I wash my car, wheather by hand or at the wash, as a rule I always hand dry the exterior with terry towels. I also clean the door jams. When I opened the door tonight to dry the jams, I noticed that my seat was wet from water falling from above. When I entered the vehicle to examine, I noticed that the fabric on the roof, near the driver-side front pilar, was SOAKED. The profanity that flew from my mouth amazed me. My car has exactly 3200 km on it. This should not happen. FOrget that, even if the car had 32,000 km on it or 320,000, this shouldn't happen.

I checked the frontwindsheild for leaks, but nothing (of course ot, that would be too easy). Have any of you ever had a problem with water leaking into the enterior? Anybody? Please help. I am going to Mazda armed with knowledge that I hope comes from you. Again, please help.

In advance, thanks for your help.

--Leafsboy

Sundin, Mogilny, Roberts, Domi, Nieuwendyk, McCabe, to name a few. Can you see a problem? I think not. Bring home the CUP!!!

1) Do you have a sunroof? Maybe that leaked? I have a sunroof and if I leave the ceiling "door" open, a tiny sprinkle of water comes thru during touchless car washes. Nothing to soak anything though. If I close the moonroof "door", then nothing gets into the interior.

2) Were your windows rolled up all the way?

I use Ernie's Touchless Car Wash regularly (every 1-1.5 weeks) and have had NO leaks of any kind, other than the moonroof sprinkle, nothing soaking.

I would strongly recommend that you bring the car in to a Mazda dealer, and, if they give you s***, insist on going to that car wash w/ a tech, because this should not be happening in a car this new (or even if it was 3 years old).

Do you have your roof rack removed? If you removed it or it came removed from the dealership, there might be a leak in the original mounting holes. I took my roof rack off a while ago and I noticed a discoloration on the headliner, so I took off the plastic strips and used silicon sealant to seal those suckers closed. When I still had the roof rack on, I went through a power wash once and had a few trickles from the moon roof, but that only happens when there is pressurized water hitting the car. I dont go through car washes any more, just hand wash now.

Thanks for the quick reply

I can say with absolute certainty that my moonroof was closed. It is a habit of mine to double check the roof, windows, doors, etc. Everything was shut, the fan was off (for good measure), the radio was off. I am paranoid.

Additionally, I don't have a roofrack. In Canada, roof racks are accessories. Our Proteges come with streamlined roofs and the plastic pieces that fill the roof-water drainage channels installed.

I like the idea of taking the tech with me to the car wash again. I will do that, provided he/she tags a long. I am extremely angry that a car of this vintage (sacasim) is exibiting this symptom. I believe that the widsheild seal has a leak. That is the only explanation I can think of. I thoroughly inspected the sunroof rubbers, but I ruled that before I finished inspected due to the area of the roof fabric that was soaked. Like I said in the original message, the front driver-side ceiling, exactly were the windsheild pilar meets the roof, the fabric is soaked. Regardless f the crap they pull, I am having them replace the roof liner, the fabric, and the windsheild seals. i won't take no for an answer. The sad thing is, once youplay with roof liners or interior trim, the car is never the same, at least not in my mind. A new car should have to through this. OOOOOOOOOO, I'm so angry just thinking about it.

Anyways, thank for the advice/info/replies. I'll keep you posted.

--Leafsboy

Sounds like your 'plastic pieces' is leaking. there are mounting holes I believe and just like Elemental said, there could be a possible leak from there....