'01 Impala Leak from Heater Blower

[joryk]

I've got water leaking into the passenger side floor board of my 2001 impala. After taking apart the passenger side dash componets and pouring water all over the cowl grille/windshield, it looks like the water is coming from way up in the blower motor.

I read in an earlier post on this board about the drain hose on the firewall. I checked that out and it didn't have any clogs in it.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where the water could be creeping in from?

Is the next step to start disassembling the cowl grille to see what's going on or do I continue dismantling the dash?

Jory

[joryk]

I found the problem. After removing the wiper arms and then plastic cowl cover, I discovered that there was a piece of rubber weather stripping that was only on half way. Any water that coming down the windshield would then hit the weather stripping and go straight into the cabin air filter and from there, right down into the blower motor.

I siliconed the weather stripping back into place and ran a bunch of water onto it to verify the fix and now I have my old leakless car back.

Jory

[nic143]

I had this same problem with my 2000 Impala LS. I thank you for your suggestion and now i have no more water on my passanger side floor! Although the air filter was yucky and it had to be replaced but all is good now. Thanks.

[bermis519]

I just took the damn filter out...it's a pain to get to and i don't even know why it's there...more cars don't have them anyways.

mike

[cavv4]

i have a 2000 impala i brought back in sept 1999 new.... the water is coming from the weather stripping under the wiper cover passenge side above the so called cabin filter this strip is all that keeps the water running off the windshield and into the blower motor, the srtip has a medal inside that rusts out . then the strip falls off ther should have been a channel built into the body ...... i used aqaurium caulk around the edge after i replaced it so that the water whould hit that before it got into the weather strip and rotted it out again no problems now for the last 2 years ???

[ThatsMrGrinch2U]

I discovered water in the same area in my 2001 Impala. I took it to the dealership and found water leaking through an opening in the windshield. They had to take off the entire winshield, lay down a beaded-seal with some sort of laminant, and reset the windshield. I had chemical odors for two days and it's now perfect!

[tanksi]

Thank you all for your ideas! I have a 2001 Impala that had the passenger side leak that seemed to be coming from the blower. First we cleaned out the mud, debris etc from the passenger side door under the insulation. Thought that would work until we found water the next day after rain. On the advice of my husband and your thread, we removed the plastic cowl and found a rubber tube type gasket approximately 2 foot in length just laying above the blower...this was probably the same piece of rubber others were talking about. It's a pain to move things around the windshield wipers, but we managed to move the cowl, replace the piece of rubber using aquarium sealant to keep the gasket in place, and put things all back together. This happened to me before and the dealer charged me at good $30 to fix it, never warning me what to look for in the future. Too bad Chevy didn't think of a better design, and the dealership wants to take my money!
Your forum is priceless!!!

[josephk300]

Just went through the leaking problem. Lucked out with not too much water, and only in the front pass well. Thanks to the good input here, not bad to fix. Never knew there was a cabin filter - wow - at 140,000 mi it was dirty!

A few pix below on how to address the problem

Overview of cowl with short arrows pointing to clips/screw to come out (center clip not visible). The round hold down is a plastic screw.

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Closeup of of clip. Remove the center part first, then pop out the entire clip

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The weatherstrip that falls off causing the leak! Careful - the exposed edge can be sharp (ask my cut finger)

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Weatherstrip side view, being crimped by welding pliers. There is a metal spine which can be crimped to "tighten" the strip to hold better. Some of the posts indicated using sealant, but after crimping the entire length, it went on nice and snug

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[twscott25]

josephk300 Thanks for the brilliant description and pictures. I went in and fixed the weatherstripping which had fallen off, crossing my fingers to see if that works.