leaky mitsubishi

[sailor86]

I own a 2002 Mitsubishi Galant ES and have driven it for about a year now. It was several months (maybe there was no rain to speak of) before I noticed the backseat passenger-side floor was soaking wet after a rain shower. I looked and looked for the source and never found it. Now just this morning (we've had rain for the past two days) I look, and find the front passenger floor was puddled up too. I looked underneath but saw nothing. Is this a common problem with this model?

[sailor86]

Is there anybody out there? Just kidding. I know it must be a boring topic but I made headway into the dilemma. Yesterday I removed the front passenger side seat, and pulled up all carpet/padding on the passenger side. I sopped up all I could with a towel and let it air dry for several hours.

Today I went a little further and started removing chunks of whatever material the top layer of flooring is and took WD40 and a wire brush to all the rust I could see. Upon further investigation, it is all but evident that the leak is occuring via the firewall. Under the hood I notice loose trim (molding! wise ass). Under the glove box, there is an air outlet with no conduit attached to it. I reach under and cannot find the ducting at all. What's going on there? If I need to disassemble the dash, I will. (How terribly difficult would that be for a novice mechanic?).

As an after-thought, I would probably need to replace the flooring that crumbled upon touch but I don-t know where to go for something like that. Should I just go with more padding? What else is there? The original stuff was sort of lilke a weak slate-type material.

Is there anyplace online I can take a peek at a drawing so I can make some educated decisions?

[shorod]

Well, before you go replacing carpeting and pad, you need to determine the source of the leak.

Does your car have a sunroof? Is the headliner also wet in any locations? If so, you may have a plugged drain for the sunroof channel or a disconnected drain hose.

If you don't have a sunroof, you might have a leak at the windshield or around one of the doors. Is there any evidence that the windshield has been replaced or the car has been in an accident? You might try washing the car, then inspecting the weatherstripping around the doors to see if you can find a place where the weatherstripping doesn't seem to be touching the door.

Were you running the defroster and driving in the rain? Maybe the evaporator core drain is plugged, but then you'd also notice moisture on the floor after a long time using the air conditioner as well.

-Rod

[rick33324]

2003 gallant I have wet driver side carpet in front and back of seat after it rains. I had the windshield tested (not leaking) drains on doors not clogged no sunroof pulled carpet back saw a little water come in behind gas pettle in firewall but not enough for the soaking the carpet got. Any thoughts?