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HELP wet floor - I thought this only happened to Jeeps

2K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  charley95 
#1 ·
So regarding my 91 Brougham, I just got home with the car and discovered the passenger side floor to be filled with water. No coolant, just water. Is a clogging of the AC drain common is these cars? The bottom of the heater box is wet so I'm assuming that's the problem.

How do I fix it or is there something else we know to be a culprit?

It's also been raining a LOT here but the car is pretty mint. I'd hate to think there was a leak somewhere.
 
#4 · (Edited)
No sunroof and I'm pretty sure there's no rust. Where would I investigate for rust? Around the windshield? The car is a Florida car and has very little rust on it. Even the frame still has factory paint on it. The top does have a few small holes in it but I wouldn't suspect a breach in the vinyl to cause a leak

So you don't think it's a clogged AC drain ?

EDIT: just went out and did a little poking around. The cowl is clean and shiny with factory paint. There are no signs of rust anywhere on the cowl or near the windshield. I tried to stick my finger up under the bottom edge of the glass as much as possible and from what I can tell it's solid.

I also poked the A pillars pretty good and they're also rock solid. No signs of rust that I can find anywhere.
 
#6 ·
LOL That's an interesting view. The car sits level during the rain. As I said this car doesn't have the normal signs of wear / age. It's been very well cared for. Rubber is soft and pliable, etc. I'm listening to what you're saying but I go out to check and that's not what I'm finding.
 
#7 ·
I had the exact same problem with my 78 Fleetwood. I could never find the problem until I got a crack in my windshield and took it into a well known quality window shop in town. When they pulled the windshield to replace it they noticed a ton of rust on the frame. This was not the original windshield on it. The previous owner had it replaced. After talking with the shop they said this is pretty common because usually what happens is when people have their windshields replaced some companies that do it scrape the paint on the fame when cutting out the windshield. They then reinstall the new one and it's fine for a while however that exposed metal will start to rust causing leaks which a lot of times you can't see but you'll end up with a ton of water in your dash. What a quality shop is supposed to do is touch up the scraped areas with paint to prevent future corrosion. What they ended up doing with my car was grind out all the rust and repaint it. Now when it rains it's good to go and I have zero leaks. If you checked the cowl and see no issues around it most likely your windshield is leaking. Do you know if the windshield was replaced in the past?
 
#8 ·
It's probably from the windshield area. Even if there's rust you won't know it unless the windshield is pulled.
Check around the heater box area too because there's gobs of sealer all over the place there and it's a lot easier to deal with that then the windshield.
 
#9 ·
Hmm interesting. As far as I know the car is 100% original. So much to the point that I'm considering having it certified as a survivor. I didn't ask the previous owner but he only had the car about 18 months and didn't drive it much. It lived in a garage.

Based on the condition of the car I have no reason to believe it's been replaced but who knows. Is there a way to tell by the markings on the glass somewhere?
 
#10 ·
You should be able to tell by the markings on the windshield if it's original or not if you compare it to a car that is known for sure to have the original windshield. But even if it's never been replaced it can still leak over time and it's a lot more common with vinyl roof cars :(
 
#11 ·
Hmm OK this isn't sounding good.

EDIT: Ok I was just investigating the heater box. Now we're talking about the entire assembly that takes up about the whole passenger side of the firewall correct?

The sealant you're referring to is what looks like a roofing tar that they use to seal that assembly to the firewall?

That sealant has what appear to be dry rot cracks in a few places down the left side. Is it possible that this is the problem? Now I will say that I recently sprayed that area with a hose at the carwash but I'd hate to think the floor has been flooded since then.
 
#12 ·
Yeah. The part the heater fan is mounted in. The sealant is on there in huge gobs that cover all the areas where that box touches the firewall. I don't know if all the sealant on it is necessary or not but there was tons of it I had to scrape off last year when I did the heater core on mine. If water can find it's way past that it can probably get into the car around the holes though the fire wall. I don't know how common it is for that to happen but like I said I think it's probably a lot easier to scrape that old stuff off and reseal it then it is to have to have the windshield pulled.
 
#13 ·
Mines not gobby at all. It's actually nicely applied and looks as smooth as I'd expect
 
#16 ·
OK I'll keep investigating. I may pull that cowl screening of to look inside there.
 
#19 ·
Well in your case it was the 80's. The decade where American auto makers wanted to show the world how crappy and cheaply an automobile could actually be made. So they used the worst materials, the worst assembly methods and the worst labor they could find.

And there you have American cars made in the 80's
 
#20 ·
"EDIT: Ok I was just investigating the heater box. Now we're talking about the entire assembly that takes up about the whole passenger side of the firewall correct?" Not really. The first bad leaker I had was my 81 SDV from Sarant Cadillac in New York. Nice car but lots of probs to take care of. I too noticed the water on the passenger's floor. Towels were used for the first few weeks of this annoyance. Then anti freeze was added to the mix which had me thinking crusher .......... I gave in and had my rad shop replace the heater core. In doing so, he re-sealed the top cover on the engine room side of the A/C box and when he was done, all leaks vanished. Maybe I got lucky but maybe the top part is the problem.

Cheers.......R.
 
#21 ·
OK so the car has now survived 2 days of torrential downpour while sitting in the driveway. I intentionally didn't drive the car during his time because I want to be able to draw conclusions.

After a TON of rain the floor and the underside of the heater box is dry. Bone dry.

So, I'm not sure if that proves anything 100% but where is the AC drain on these? What needs to come apart to check it for clogs
 
#22 ·
The drain is a hole on the underside of the heater/evap. box on the firewall. It's easy to see from the underside of the car. There is no hose on the drain hole. I t is a big chore to remove the top half of the cover. I just removed mine and cleaned all the factory caulking and re-caulked with no leaks.
 
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