today after a bad rainstorm I noticed my entire passenger side carpet wet. However I know for a fact the windows were up and nothing else got wet in the car.

The car has never done this before but heres another thing odd for the last week my windows have been fogging up alot and there always this weird residue on the windshield inside of the car. I check the coolant level and it was down about 3/4 of a gallon of which I have never had to add coolant to this car since it was new.

Also two weeks ago my dog was sniffing my carpet in the area that it was drench. ..... My carpet was saturated in the rear foot area and front foot area and progressively wetter where the carpet rises up to the bottom of the dash.

But keep in mind nowhere else is anything damp or have signs that there was a leak. I checked the trunk area, door panels, other side of the car ... and nothing.

I am no mechanically inclined on a 4th gen but recall my 3rd gen doing this many years ago but never getting water in the rear seat foot area or is this the heater core leaking and coolant is able to run back there?
I also considered A/C condensation however I ran the a/c today and I could see water running or dripping whatever out the bootom of the car.

The car has 11,000 miles on it so I can't imagine its a rain leak since the car has been in much more severe rain and yes all weather seals are still like new.

 

wow you have a 97 with only 11,000 miles? To me it sounds just like heater core especially hat you get that weird residue on the windshield and windows... that a good sign. I have had to replace 2 on 3rd gens. Also pets are attracted to and will drink coolant, the orange stuff which orginally came with your car is supposed to be non toxic to pets but could make them sick.... the green stuff could kill them... so i would keep your dog away from it. With a bad enough leak you could get it to go to the back seat, especially when accelerating. Do you get the puddles only when its raining? I once had a rust hole in the rear wheel well and got a puddle in the back floor pan , but with none of the other symptoms.

One thing you can try is to put a butt connector on the two rubber hoses to the heater core as this will bypass it... you should get no more leaks until you have the time and money to replace it.

 

Well, it's been it rain before and never had a problem. How hard is it to change the heater core on one of these cars? This is also not a rust problem since this is a california car.

 

It's not a bad job to change an F-body heater core. It's definitely not like the newer stuff where the whole dash has to come out. There is an access panel under the dash and stuff of that sort...but search or look a page or two back, it's not too terribly time consuming.

I guess 1000 miles a year was plenty of time to have fluids in it that corroded the heater core. Especially if it's the same juice that came with the car from the factory. Yeeek.

 

Well, I pulled the black cover that covers my heater core and ran the car for about a hour and didn't see anything dripping. I even pulled the fan motor out and aside from a couple of leaves in the squirrel cage there was no dampness.

I think after an hour of running I would have seen something so now I need to figure out where this water came from and now where my coolant went because the car was low on coolant again.

with the heater core in place I should have seen something dripping right? I even lossened the little bracket that secures it the the heater box and moved it and moved the heater core a bit and nothing came out.

 

What you are describing sounds exactly like a leaking heater core. (fogging windshield, damp passenger footwell, etc.) Since GM starting using Dexcool in 96 that's probably a contributing factor. Did you have the heat or defrost turned on when you tested it for leaks?

 

Yep heater was on and the heater core was hotter then hell. if there was any coolant coming out of I am positive after a hour something would have dripped I even pulled the carpet back so any coolant would drip in a area that I could see it and nothing.

Now one thing I didn't mention is during the storm the car was parked on a dowhill incline and I'm wondering if water accumulated in the hatchback channels and got past the weather stripping. but I felt under the trunk interior panels and it wasn't damp.

Now heres another thing the car did during this storm that I found kinda weird the factory alarm was constantly chirping and randomly going of. yet wasn't much wind. But then again noisy cars make this alarm act up to .... could the alarms brain be in a area where water is getting? I figured that might be a good area to check since it always wigs out when it rains.

 

Oh and yes I tried defrost as well as A/C. was cold today so that may be why I didn't see water dripping under the car when the a/c is running. I used the car alot this last summer with the a/c and there was always a puddle of water under the car. So I don't think it is plugged.

I am also curious how leaves are getting into my fan motor area as well.

Oh and to eliminate some stuff as potential causes like I said before the car has low miles, I am the original owner of it, never been hit, oh and this is not a t-top car to eliminate that as a cause and yes coolant is serviced every 6 months on this car since it sits alot.

I know the heater isn't plugged since it can charbroil you out of the car.