Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

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mrbowes
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:10 am

Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by mrbowes »

First post here but browsed the forums a lot before I purchased my Vibe.

Problem:
- Water is leaking inside my passenger side
- It seems to be more a problem on my rear passenger side

Background:
- 2nd owner 2003 Vibe w/ moon roof
- Owned since May 2015
- Have not experienced this issue until recently
- It's been raining like heck here in Charlotte, NC for the past week

What have I done so far?
- I read the other threads about the AC unit has a tube that can become disconnected. Sure enough, it was disconnected. I have reconnected and secured (electrical tape) this but it does not appear to be the source of leak
- There's another plug about 12 inches below the AC unit's tube that appeared wet (shown in pic below). We had heavy rain last night and I checked it and it this morning and it did not appear to be the source of leak despite my comments in the picture (pic was taken before tonight's rain). Previously I thought this was the culprit because it was wet, but I'm thinking that's because the entire floormat was soaked and made everything appear wet.
- I removed some of the side paneling along the floorboard on the front passenger's side and everything appear normal - I didn't see any bad signs.
- I checked the two front moon roof drain plugs and they did not appear to be blocked.
- I touched the rear passenger side floor mat that runs up to the door and it does not appear to be wet..it's pretty much dry (indicated in pic). I thought it might be leaking in from a bad door seal or something.

Today:
I checked my car this morning (it was parked on an incline pointing up) because we had a heavy rainstorm last night. Sure enough, the rear passenger side has standing water. The front is relatively dry...it's still damp but has been damp for a few days now.


I'm at a loss as to what to do now. I'm going to buy a shop vac to try and get the water out (using towels and hand wringing them is rather obnoxious).

I have attached some pics of what I am referring to.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have the day off and would be more than glad to get more pictures to help others who may have a similar issue.
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joatmon
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Location: SMC MD

Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by joatmon »

First off, welcome to GenVibe!


Front passenger floor water is most often the AC drain tube, but it seems that rear floor water is often a clogged moonroof drain.

The moonroof is not designed to be absolutely water tight, and it is normal for water to leak in. The moonroof assembly has water collection drip channels,a black plastic drip catch tray that runs around the perimeter of the moon roof mechanism and there is a drain hose connected to each of the four corners. The front drains empty to a gap in the sheet metal, but the bottom end of the rear drains is visible near the rear tires. It's not unheard of to have material get into the drip channels and obstruct the drains, have water overflow the drip tray, work itself behind the trim and collect in the floor pan. On mine, there was stuff in the drip channel at the drain opening, other people have had the drain hoses get clogged.

I'd recommend first sliding the moonroof open and look around the top of the mechanism for stuff, perhaps tree litter or just some gunk and if you find any then clean that out. The front drains are easy to find, but it doesn't seem possible to see the rear drains without some headliner removal. For the rear's, I took a long piece of wire and pushed it up from the bottom to snake out the drain hose.

Hopefully that will solve he water getting in.

There is a rubber plug filling a hole in each of the floor pans, the plugs for the rear floor pans seems to be about the seam between the front and rear doors. It's pretty easy to pull that plug, doing so may help let water drain out of the bottom. You'd want to put the plug back before driving around int he rain, to keep road spray from getting in. There are air outlets under the front seats, so also try to run the air in the floor position to try to help dry the area out. Once you get rid of the source and the standing water anyway.
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Derf
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Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by Derf »

The item in your second pic, you thought might leak, is the lead from the Oxygen sensor off the exhaust pipe below the car. They almost never leak, but if it was replaced they may not have ties the end below the car tight. Sitting still, the grommet and lead would not leak, even driving it would not let in the amount of water seen in your Vibe. After you find the source of the leak, definitely want to air out the car. Lift up the carpeting at the edges and blow air under the carpeting. If left to its own, you will end up with mold and rust under the carpet.
2005 #10,524 Neptune Vibe "Bandit" Auto, Moon & Tunes 235k :D
1991 Pontiac Bonneville 3.8L "Granny's Whip" 142k (33nd Anniversary :o )
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mrbowes
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Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:10 am

Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by mrbowes »

Thank you for the replies!

I did some more troubleshooting and I believe it's the back moonroof drain. However, I have not been able to actually see/access this drain plug/. I started to remove the panels and weather stripping on the rear passenger side door so I could get closer to it. I've confirmed this is the area because behind the panels on the side I can see water and some of it is dirty.

I still haven't gotten to the actual source, but I know I'm getting closer. Not sure if i need to remove the seats, but I basically need to get to the rear moonroof drain. I was having a real hard time even looking at it - with moonroof down and flashlight I was trying to see if I could notice anything, but couldn't make it out.

I'm curious about this comment from joatmon
"For the rear's, I took a long piece of wire and pushed it up from the bottom to snake out the drain hose. "

Where in the bottom did you access this? I assume this is on the outside of the car underneath? You just took a wire and pushed it up all the way to the top by the rear moonroof's plug?

I will take more pics tomorrow of where I'm at - I was running out of daylight
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joatmon
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Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by joatmon »

The rear moonroof drains are connected to a long plastic hose that comes out under the car, it's behind the rear wheel, about under the tail light, close to the side, you should see maybe a half inch of maybe 1/2 inch diameter tube sticking out, sorta angled to the rear. The rain that soaked your car is here in MD now, so not a good time to take a picture for me. Some people have hit that opening with compressed air to blow out any debris, I didn't have a good source to blast it with so I ran a long piece of wire up there, way long enough to reach the moonroof. In my case, I think it was the front drains that were plugged, so now that I think about it, I don't know if snaking the rear drains really did anything useful.
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mrbowes
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Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by mrbowes »

I think I fixed the issue.

First - water removal:
1) Scooped water out with a cup
2) Used towel to get additional surface water
3) All last week I propped up the floormat and had a fan running - this took several days to get everything dried out


Second - fixing the issue:
joatmon - I used your wire idea. I used 16 gauge speaker wire. I took about 10 or so feet of it, split it in half (so just one wire) and then started running it up the back drainage tube/port behind the rear passenger wheel. There was little resistance at first - it almost seemed too easy. Then I started to hear the wire scrapping the side of the body, so I knew the tube would be disconnected somewhere.

If you open the spare tire compartment in the back, there's a little port where you can see the rear drainage tube connected. In my case, the tube was disconnected here. Additionally, the tube was bent/pinched at an almost 90 degree angle.

I reconnected and straightened out the tube.

What I think was happening is that the rain flow outpaced the rate at which the pinched tube could release water, so it eventually just overflowed out of the top of the drain and went down all of the side of my car and pooled up under the seats.

I took some pictures and will post today or tomorrow to hopefully help the next person that has this issue.

We had a heavy rain all last night and I went out and checked and my floors were dry this morning. Fingers crossed, but I think I have fixed this leak.

Thanks for all of the help.
mrbowes
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:10 am

Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by mrbowes »

Here's the pics...

This area is accessible once you open the spare tire compartment.

If you have a similar problem to mine, be sure to check and make sure these drains tubes are properly channeling water out the drain port and that there's no kinks in the tube.

Thanks again for the help.
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Djkevin
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Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by Djkevin »

Thanks for the post! I have had this problem for at least 7 years and have been trying to trouble shoot it. I have a 2003 Vibe and we first noticed the back right passenger carpet was wet and sudsy after a car wash. I thought it was from the bottom blast jets in the car wash, and it may have been. When I looked underneath, the rubber plug at the bottom of the floor pan was missing. I went to a junk yard and picked up a couple of rubber plugs from a Vibe that had been totaled. I put it in place and thought I was done. At different times the carpet would get wet again in different situations. My daughter took the car to college so I was unable to watch and monitor it regularly. She would say it got wet on occasion. I looked at it multiple times in the summers when she was home. I was unaware there were 4 drain plugs in the sunroof area. I kept the front two drains open. I was told it was probably water intrusion from failing seams in the floor pan area or wheel well when driving in rain or on wet roads. I recently purchased her Vibe and drove it back from Texas at the end of 2016. Yep, in the 21 hour trip home we hit rain and wet roads and the back right carpet got wet. Thanks for letting me know there are 4 drain holes in the sunroof! Knowing that and looking at your pictures under the spare tire cover tray, the hose on the right was not only kinked but the black rubber drain connector was also bent at a 90 degree angle. The left hose was perfectly aligned, so the left carpet was never wet. Makes sense. I tried to unkink the right hose but the kink had been there so long it had a lot of "memory." I put a hard plastic tube over the kinked area of the hose so it would not ease back to its kinked state. I also rerouted the drain hose to the black connector so it connects vertically (instead of horizontally like it was). To make sure the hose was clear of kinks, I snaked a zip tie up from the drain hose behind the wheel and it had no resistance and I could see it through the clear plastic drain tube. I can't wait to try it in the rain and report back. See attached photos. Kevin
Kinked Sunroof Drain Hose
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Sunroof Drain Hose Fixed
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vibrologist
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Re: Water leak passenger side - 2003 Vibe with Moonroof

Post by vibrologist »

Excellent, Djkevin!
It might be a good idea to remove the carpet from the car for a good washing and drying and a cleaning of the floor pan. Trapped water may have started rust right there. It's not hard to remove the carpet I have done it.
Vibrologist
'05 Vibe

"It is important to know the difference between 'accurate' and 'precise' even if you are neither!"

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