Driver side carpet is wet, what can it be?

[cday318TI]

Interior driver side carpet is fully wet, as if there was a leak somewhere. It's only on my driver side. Someone mentioned maybe the ac is clogged and leaking inside.

Has anyone had this problem or know how to fix it?

Also, my hood won't open, the release latch won't pop hood open. I checked the cable and it's lost some tension, but not entirely, any idea?

Not the best week to say the least, when it rains it pours.

Thanks

[1CivetDei2]

your hood maybe the catch that attaches to the front nose panel. I looked at mine recently and its all rusted up

[tiFreak]

try having someone else pull up on the hood while you pull the release

[cday318TI]

Thanks for your replies, I'm going to try today to figure this out.

Any ideas on the wet carpet leak? Anyone.

[cday318TI]

So I was able to open the hood. Cable has some slack, had to remove front grill and tug at the cable, popped right up. Now I need to figure out what happened and how to fix.

My radiator fluid is somehow leaking into my driver side interior. Not sure where to begin with this issue. Any suggestions?

[mohaughn]

It is probably at the heater core or the area where the plastic coolant pieces come through the firewall to feed the heater core. You probably need to end up removing the entire dash if that is where the water is coming from.

I'm guessing your car smells really bad of antifreeze is why you think it is antifreeze?

[cday318TI]

mohaughn,
What you suggested is so far the best guess I can think of, so thank you very much.
There's a tear in my carpet, so I was able to get in there with some papertowel, came out soaked, I could literally feel a puddle underneath, I then squeezed the papertowel and it was filled with what looked like green fluid. But, the car doesn't smell as you would think, which is why I've been confused of what it could be.

Thanks for your help, any suggestions on any good threads/posts for removing the dash?

[1CivetDei2]

Disconnect battery
Remove your steering wheel ( mark it and make sure your wheels are straight)
Take out the cluster by the 2 screws by the top at 10 and 2 o clock
Take out screws holding kick panels and underside of dash they all just clip out after the screws
Take out the screws on the glove box and pop that out and remove the light wire
Take out out center console by unscrewing the 2 in the cupholders and pulling up hard then take out the small ashtray and unscrew one there
Pop the boot out of the shift boot by pressing the left side of the boot to the right to unclip it and push the buttons out and unscrew 2 things under the ashtray and under the hazard light
Take off the knobs to the climate control and remove the 2 screws holding the faceplate on and take that off
Once everything else is off just pop out the vents i don't believe there's any screws and pop the window defroster vents out and remove the 3 bolts under there and the bolts on the side

It seems like alot but its not that bad
If you have any questions or feel like i missed a step just post here

[mohaughn]

Hang on, before you take the dash apart. If it doesn't smell like coolant, it probably isn't coolant. Coolant is very very "sweet" smelling, and it would be very noticeable inside of the car.

Have you had anybody spray water at the driver side window while you are sitting inside of the car? Watch at the bottom on the door to see if water is coming in through the door. If you know how to take the door panel off, it will make it very easy to see if this is the issue.

There is a vapor barrier on the inside of the door. It is very possible that this barrier is no longer attached properly, and is allowing rain water to run out of the door. My passenger side vapor barrier allows water to leak down into the foot well.

[cday318TI]

Thanks for the info. I was able to remove the driver seat today, and partially pull up the carpet at the footwell and it's definitely radiator fluid. I also found a broken hose at the top of the cylinder head cover that goes from the (right top side) to the crank case valve. It's a single hose, not a multy one like it's shown in the realoem site for the e36 M44 engine. I still can't figure how it would drain or leak into my interior. I also checked the long connector pipe, looked fine as far as I could tell, but wasn't able to check the smaller one behind the engine.

Any suggestions? and now I'm also going to have to replace the driver side carpet, any idea where I can order one or material to cut one myself?

Thanks for the help.

CR

[Borg561]

Originally Posted by mohaughn

It is probably at the heater core or the area where the plastic coolant pieces come through the firewall to feed the heater core. You probably need to end up removing the entire dash if that is where the water is coming from.

Would this affect the A/C at all? If so, is there an easy way to check this?

I just noticed, after several heavy rains this last week, that the carpet right by the dead pedal on the driver's side is quite damp, as is the floor mat. My initial guess would be a clogged drain, but about 10-12 days ago my A/C quit putting out cold air. It had been working intermittently before then, sometimes taking 25-30 minutes to cool down if the car had been in the sun, but now it doesn't cool down at all.

Justin