My stuff is having a bad day.

GWashington1732

GWashington1732

Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
13,240
My car leaked, again. First time was two weeks ago. Nothing was damp, the entire back passenger seat was just filled with water. Then a couple of days ago after a big old thunderstorm, it was soaked again, though not as bad. Then today, with rainstorm Irene, it filled up again. It's not so much that it's leaking, it's just filling up with water out of nowhere. Under the passenger seat and the back passenger side seat is just floating I checked for leaks with a hose, nothing. I sat in the car for twenty minutes looking for the source, nothing. It really looks like someone carefully dumped a gallon of water into the back seat. Anyone know how this is possible?
Should I suspect the people who did my oil change the week that it started of foul play/ incompetence?
Should I call Ghostbusters?

Seriously though, I'm stumped, I've got no idea where the water's coming from, just that it's there after any kind of rain, and it's really getting on my nerves. I just got it clean and got the smell out of it from the last time when this happened, I was pretty upset. Anyone have any suggestions, other than cry?
 
Do you have a sun roof, moon roof, whatever? Sometimes theres a little drainage channel thingamawhatsit that gets blocked up or needs some rubber replaced. I had it happen with a Pontiac Grand Prix a few years ago. Looked like it was coming in through the doors too.
 
No sun roof, just a normal, 2006 Dodge Stratus. If it was leaking through the door, I would think the door would be wet. It's just a puddle that forms under the passenger seat, and from there it flows into the back seat and a little into the front.


But I've decided not to take it to the dealer for any maintenance anymore, I'm all paranoid now.
 
GWashington1732 said:
No sun roof, just a normal, 2006 Dodge Stratus. If it was leaking through the door, I would think the door would be wet. It's just a puddle that forms under the passenger seat, and from there it flows into the back seat and a little into the front.


But I've decided not to take it to the dealer for any maintenance anymore, I'm all paranoid now.
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Heater core is fubar'd I bet. Of course, this diagnosis is worth exactly what you paid for it!

I understand about not wanting to take a car in for service. I just spent most of the day today fixing things that shouldn't have been wrong and doing things that should have been done if my (ex)mechanic hadn't been such a lazy, ignorant, word I can't say in this forum.


ETA: It could be several things a/c related I think. and not necessarily fubar'd actually. When you run the a/c, does water drip on the ground? If not, it could very well just be a clogged or busted condensate drain line.
 
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roughedges said:
Heater core is fubar'd I bet. Of course, this diagnosis is worth exactly what you paid for it!

I understand about not wanting to take a car in for service. I just spent most of the day today fixing things that shouldn't have been wrong and doing things that should have been done if my (ex)mechanic hadn't been such a lazy, ignorant, word I can't say in this forum.


ETA: It could be several things a/c related I think. and not necessarily fubar'd actually. When you run the a/c, does water drip on the ground? If not, it could very well just be a clogged or busted condensate drain line.
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Only happens when it rains. I wouldn't put it past these people to intentionally make problems for them to charge me to fix. I'm at least reasonably sure they swapped out my new wiper blades, replaced them in March, for old worn out ones so they could charge me to replace them, I said "no".
 
check the windows/doors/vents or any opening for cloth which could bleed water through. Had a friend cover his car with a sheet during a heavy wind in order to keep the dust off. A small corner ripped off and got caught in the window. Next time it rained the cloth sucked an amazing amount of water into the car.

Dave

edited for spelling.
 
I found the problem. It's not one leak, it's about three leaks. One is under the door where one of the little plastic pins that hold the rubber seal in place has either fallen out or was never there, when it floods or there's strong winds it gets moved just enough to allow water in. There are two on the window where the water flows into the door and right out the bottom, right into the car. Why did it just start doing this? I had to have the door replaced in May, since then, the only hard sustained rains we've had have been in the past three weeks and in all three heavy rains, it has leaked. They did something wrong, I'd be willing to accept that the plastic pin fell out and caused the one leak, but there's absolutely no reason why a brand new door should be leaking like that through the window. This also explains why there's no water anywhere else, it's leaking directly through the inside of the window and emptying out right under the carpet, so, thanks to their incompetence, I'll probably have to pay to have it fixed, because I doubt they'll just own up to their mistake and fix it, and I'll probably need all new carpeting because now the whole car smells like dirty socks, even when there's no dirty socks in the back seat. :grumpy:
 
Well I just got the car back, the first thing I checked was the rubber part under the door. Well gee golly go figure, it's still not attached properly. Then I felt the rug, wow, not only did they not replace or clean it, they left it wetter than it was when I dropped it off. Then I checked the leak that was running out the bottom of the door, yep, still there. What did they fix? A third leak that I didn't even know about around the wiring. :grumpy: So they actually did a worse job with the initial work than I thought they did. Now I drove an hour home to get the car only to have it pretty much the way I left it and only to have to take it back to fix the three problems I showed them when I dropped it off. Okay, the water probably shouldn't be draining out of the plastic on the inside of the door, maybe it does, but I doubt that's the way it's supposed to work. The rubber around the door shouldn't be unattached the way it is, even if I'm wrong and that's not where it's leaking, that's still not the way it's supposed to be. But they certainly shouldn't have left the carpet that way, and they should replace it for free because it's their fault it's ruined. So to outline, they didn't do the job right the first time, they didn't do the job right the second time, and they probably won't do it right the twentieth time. All this is a hassle now because this is the car that I have registered to park on campus and it is my only transportation to work.

For anyone in the Vineland NJ area, do not take your car to Lilliston Ford for body work. They suck.
 
Yea!!! 3 cheers for Lilliston Ford. This is a great example of how to keep your customer retention sky high. Yea!
 
Do you park under a tree or does your car get crap all over it? You could have one of the drain plugs up front clogged and backing up. I've also seen customers come in with wet floors under the passenger seat due to a clogged drain for their A/C unit.
 
Possibly a dumbass question here; why would you take a Dodge to a Ford place for repairs??
 
Katdaddy said:
Possibly a dumbass question here; why would you take a Dodge to a Ford place for repairs??
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Those same people own a Dodge place up the street. I'm guessing that's where their body shop is. That's where the insurance company told me to take it.
 
Hey GW, sorry about your car hassles buddy. Since your insurance company has this dealer on their recommended list I'd be contacting the insurance to let them know what's going on and make sure they make arrangements for it to be fixed properly, either at that dealer, or somewhere else. This crap pisses me off to no end.

A couple years ago a woman speeding around a corner clipped my wife in our Audi, destroying the driver side headlight, fender, and denting the hood. We took the car to the recommended repair shop and they fixed everything (if you want to call it that). Problem was that the hood had a few previously acquired stone chips but when the dumbasses went to paint the hood they just painted over the stone chips.

I wasn't expecting them to cover the cost of filling the chips and properly prepping the hood for the stone chips but for goodness sake, call me and give me the option to pay for the additional work to get the job done properly which I would have gladly done. Instead they paint the hood and left it looking like it had a bad case of acne. When I got the car back I was livid, this is a bloody Audi, not some old winter beater, and as far as I'm concerned, they should have given proper treatment to the vehicle regardless of the type or condition.

I ripped into them and had them redo the job. Since then I've had another claim where someone else hit us and I made it clear to the insurance that I'd be taking the car to my collision shop of choice, not some company that they're in bed with. You should have that option too.

Anyhow, rant off! LOL, sorry dude, I just hate how these people get away with shoddy work. Good luck again, I know what a PITA this probably is for you.
 
I just don't believe this, I found out that they found another two leaks that I didn't know about, in addition to the two that I found, and the door's still leaking from places that they can't seem to find. It has to go back again, meanwhile I still don't have my car and the car that is not registered to be parked on campus, is parked on campus. For those counting that's at least six leaks on the same, brand new door.
 
Are we for certain it's the door? Is your trunk wet or damp? I know that a faulty trunk seal will also leak and drain into the floor board! That exact same problem happened in a Saturn I used to own years ago! Carpet was floating on the passengers side and the whole bit!
 
dslteck said:
Are we for certain it's the door? Is your trunk wet or damp? I know that a faulty trunk seal will also leak and drain into the floor board! That exact same problem happened in a Saturn I used to own years ago! Carpet was floating on the passengers side and the whole bit!
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Trunk wasn't wet at all. I know the door's leaking because I watched it happen, I just didn't realize how massively they screwed up when they installed it.
 
That's a damn shame.Now that I'm retired I rarely take my vehicles to a shop anymore.Sometimes the guys working in those shops know less than I do.I broke down on the road a few months ago and paid for a new starter,well 2 weeks ago it failed and I pulled it off myself.The SOB just sanded the armature and put it back on.Sometimes they use an air wrench and strip the threads.I would rather pay to get things done but I just no longer trust the work will be done right.My truck is do for a new timing chain so I bought a new timing set with gears and a new water pump since that has to come off too.I'm gonna just do the job myself.The last time I got hit I had the insurance company write me the check and I fixed it myself and put the rest in the bank.It's hard to find a decent shop nowdays.
 
I have but one acronym to describe this: WTF?!?!?!?!
Seems like you hitting the thing with a friggin wrench woulda done more good than the mechanics did!
 
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