Water In Footwells

[craggle]

Forgot about this thread until I was reminded this morning by another post on the subject.

In December I was under the car changing the oil filter and noticed the air con drain pipe that Alan identified as the issue. I hadn't noticed any problems with dampness in my car but thought, may as well have a look at the problem.

As Alan suggested I extended the pipe so cleaned the area a bit, found a piece of old fuel line in the garage that was a good fit on the pipe and pushed it on until it touched the foam insert surrounding the pipe. I then decided that the foam could benefit from being sealed as well so put a finger of silicone sealer all around the pipe and over the foam.

The silicone is still flexible but will stop the foam absorbing any moisture so it seemed a good idea. Shame I only had red sealer in the garage but it really can't be seen unless you are under the car.

Pictures below may help someone doing this job. The big cables you can see in the photos are the gear change cables so may not be there on CVT models.

Craig.

[big bad al]

:D

[simpip122]

my car smell it bit funky as wife puts it. so i invested in magic tree air freshener (black ice one ) now says it smells like a old mans aftershave! so I'll be have look at this cheap fix. oh did try one them aircon sprays that kill the bacteria still smell tho.

[Mantissa]

I've noticed that there's a terrible smell in my wife's IQ - prodded the passenger footwell matting and it was sodden. Lifted and and took everything out to dry.

Then, with the car running (AC on) I noticed that a little puddle collects (just in front of my finger in the 'photo). I couldn't figure where it was coming from (and this is just going back and forth on the drive). I went round the block and got about 10-15ml, no wonder it was awash with water. I'm going to look for this aircon drain now, but the source of the water seems to be in a weird position if that *is* the source! I have noticed that the water comes down directly above where my finger is - yet above that (near the gearbox linkages etc) is bone dry!

[JamesFletch]

That sounds like the same problem. The water seems to track into the footwell by a very weird route. Almost like it comes up through the floor, so the bodywork above the water seems dry.

[big bad al]

Yep thats the a/c drain hose tracking back.

[briandoc18uk]

The water leak has never returned after fitting the extension on the ac drain tube a year ago. I notice a large amount of water under the car now when using the air con. This volume was finding its way in my drivers side footwell. A design fault apparently, strange though it took 4 years to come to light. Perhaps the soft rubber bung initially did its job but had deteriorated so allow water to ingress.

Big Al certainly came up with the answer. Hope Toyota did take this up with the last of the newer IQs.

[Mantissa]

Thanks chaps!

Well, I managed to find a hose which was a pretty tight fit - what a silly design that is! The 'quill' style drain end is surrounded by a foam which is fitted in a manner that suggests it's designed to wick any water it can which issues forth from the drain! As I was manipulating the hose to fit, I could feel that the foam was saturated.

I drove it around for a bit after fitting it and confirmed that the hose I had fitted was indeed passing water, but was also disappointed to see a small puddle in the footwell again after I parked up. I'm hoping that I am still 'benefitting' from the route which has (until now) been passing the water still having some water to come out. I wonder how long I will have to wait.

Hmmph.

[briandoc18uk]

Hi Mantissa

It took about a week for the wet to dry up. I. Drove around without carpets and just old newspaper in the footwell. The paper got damp to start with but the became consistently dry. Perhaps as BB Al says there is still an accumulation of water from the sodden soft sponge seal that takes a while to dry out and this is source of continued wet patch. Keep an eye on it and it should dry out for sure. Mine did!

[Mantissa]

Brian,

Thanks for that, that's reassuring, I'll wait a week and see how it is then. The under-carpet spongey stuff (which is on the line) may have dried by then too!

[Cornelia]

Hi my problem was the windscreen, it was changed before i bought the car and not sealed properly, the water was coming inside from both corners and drain in the footwell plus it was !Removed! up the ecu and had all kind of nasty things going on, after i changed the winscreen i had a perfect car!!! It took us about s month or so to figure out what the problem was.

[briandoc18uk]

With a windscreen leak you should be able to confirm this by pouring or hosing water onto the screen on a dry day. The ac drain occurs when their is no rain or water getting onto the windscreen. It is a matter of exclusion. Glad you got your problem fixed. Sounds like a poor initial screen installation.

[big bad al]

The water you have found after the hose was fitted is / was just water trapped from before as it sits in small pockets and not a new leak.

[big bad al]

If you ever want to find a windscreen leak, put soapy water around edge of the screen on the out side and blow a air hose on the in side, the air leak will cause the soapy water to bubble, and save you getting the car more wet in side.

[Docgsld]

I have had exactly exactly the same thing happen the garage are saying it's the ac until condensation should be going down the pipe but is accumulating inside they are quoting £120 per hour labour for 4-5 hours and say they are going to "modify" the pipe but they won't know until they strip it down

[Mantissa]

That sounds like a more hopeful approach. I added the pipe extension as previously detailed, but it never stopped leaking. I reckon there was something wrong in the A/C unit rather than just the condensate pipe. I'd be interested to hear what the findings are with your car, Docgsld, if you decide to go ahead.

[jase4243]

A big thanks to Big Bad Al for his 2014 post. The cause of my wet footwell was exactly as he suggested, and getting some tubing onto the aircon drain worked a charm. Saved me having the windscreen replaced (original prime suspect) and spending hours and £s looking for leaks. I drive a lot of miles on the motorway on my daily commute, usually with the aircon on, so the condensation must have been blown back onto that surrounding foam grommet and wicking back into the car. Nice detective work Al!

On 9/28/2014 at 10:01 PM, big bad al said:

well good news i've found out where our cars are leaking from and its a very quick fix , after looking at it and following all the suggestions from the previous replies you are all wrong ( not the pollen filter ), the water from the drain hose on the engine bay is designed wrong and is to short and has a chamfer that does not disperse the water away from the body enough. look on the bulk head from the battery side and you will see a white tube sticking out 3/4 of the way down ( to get to this jack the car up and go in from the front of the car), the water is running out of the pipe and back in to the body ( as my insulator was completely sodden at the bottom of the pipe and not the top ), the fix solution is to put a small amount of rubber pipe on the hose so that it drains away from the body more and lower. the reason you get it more when your driving is that the wind from under the car is blowing it back in to the body causing it to got back in to the car, that's why you will not find the leak with it sat on the drive and the a/c on !

 

[PAJS64]

I noticed that i have the same problem yesterday, when to buy a Mac Donald left the food on the floor, then i notice that the bag was all wet.

 

[briandoc18uk]

PAJS64

Follow big Al's remedy. Allow a few  days to dry out thoroughly and make sure hose pipe is approx 4 inches long. 

I had no problems after attaching hose to air con drain pipe. Just took out front carpet and covered floorpan  with newspaper, drove around like that for 2 weeks. Replaced carpet after 2 weeks, 2 years later no further problems!

[PAJS64]

So the problem is with the small pipe under the Battery, need to fit a bigger pipe.

 

[briandoc18uk]

I identify the aircon drain pipe as in Big AL's blog. It is white plastic and about 1 - 2 inches long and approx half inch in diameter. Access from underneath car, by using axel stands, place a piece of hose over this pipe in order to extend it length by 2 more inches and leave in place. Problem should be solved.

[PAJS64]

now i am seeing that even under the driver seat it is a bit wet also but not as much as on the other side

 

[MarcusIQ]

Hi everyone, i´d like to share my story on what exactly happened to my 2009 Toyota IQ and possibly give you a solution to what appears to be a baffling problem.

Like everyone reporting here, about 4 months ago i discovered alot of water underneath both carpets in the front footwells.  So much water in fact that the soundproofing under the carpets was completely saturated.  I initially thought it was a leak from the window or coming up from outside somewhere.  So to test, i pulled up the carpets, dryed the whole thing out and waited until it happened again.  Within a few days, the carpets were soaked, but it had never rained and the car is always parked in a underground car park.

So i went to investigate deeper.  Firstly, some reported pulling and out and cleaning the airfilter which sits in the bottom of the middle console.  Did that, it was still pretty clean.  Then i jacked up the car to check the AC drain pipe.  As most of you know, the IQ air con unit is tightly packed inside the centre console.  It attaches to the front firewall, in the middle of the car along the bottom.  Through that connection is a drain pipe that goes through the firewall to the outside of the car (see picture below).  So i jacked up the car and tried to see if water was draining (with the AC running), but nothing.  I placed a small plastic tube within the drain pipe to see if it may have been blocked, even blowing air through.  But nothing.  It all seemed clear and strangely, the drain was dry.... So back into the cabin to start again.  Having the carpets lifted and the soundproofing pulled out i decided to run the engine with the AC on full and just wait and see.

After a few minutes the culprit showed its head.  From the floor of the centre console, where the AC unit connect to the firewall, i saw this little river of water starting to form and then, run direclty down into both footwells.  It looked to appear that where the AC joins the firewell, there is a sponge like seal, and the water was dripping fast from this point.

Not having the ability to open the dash up any more, i took the car to my Toyota dealership and they found the issue.

I am here in Germany and they found the culprit to be the compact AC unit itself.  The housing that goes around the unit had cracked and water was leaking directly out of this, running down the AC unit (within the console), directly to the floor and then down into the footwells.  From what i could work out it was a joint in the housing unit that came apart(or cracked) and Toyota said they had to "re-glue" it back together.  In German the unit is called the "Heizngskasten" or the "heating box" but i believe this is slightly misrepresented because i think both the heating and cooling are combined in the same housing.  Anyway, i have attached a picture of such a unit. It cost me 374 euro, pretty much all for labour to get the unit out which appears complicated due to the compactness Toyota created.  The service person did hint that they had seen this same issue before.

So i have attached 3 photos.

1.  AC unit (complete unit) developing a crack somewhere on its housing (example photo).

2.  Photo of external AC drain between firewall and engine.

3.  Just under the accelerator pedal, next to the centre console, a small river of water appeared coming from the centre console, running down along that yellow glue seal and then directly down into the footwell.  If you look closely you can see the water forming.

Anyway, i hope this has helped some of you solve the mystery of this water leak!

 

 

[KurlyKeef]

I had this problem too and this thread was extremely helpful. My local mechanic extended the hose as suggested ad the problem has now disappeared.

[tarquin]

Hi some have had success with the hose extension but others have not. There was i think Geman guy on here that found a gap had appeared around the A/C unit where it meets the bulkhead hand had to have ir re-bonded. So still not sure the hose is the cure. The botyom of the car should be waterproof so short or long hose should not really matter. 

 

David