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Pontiac Grand Am Wet Floor!
dr_zoidberg
Member Posts: 4
I have a 95 pontiac grand am. The floor under the driver's side is always wet in a distninct spot, although there are no apparent seal problems, or leaks from the steering column, or under the dashboard. I haven't the slightest clue what this could be. HELP!
0
Comments
Water?
Hydrolic Fluid?
Oil?
Transmission Fluid?
What color? Temp?
Did you look under the carpet to see if there is a hole in the floor pan?
Turn on the heater and see i you get a drip? Make sure the AC drain is clear.
Just some ideas.
I hate this car. :mad:
I own a 95 Pontiac Grand Am and am having the SAME EXACT problem as you. I've taken it to 2 different mechanics who've both charged me for doing certain things to it but it's NOT FIXED! I just got it out of the last shop a couple days ago and it was nice and dry. Then, we had a rainy day and now the floor is all wet again on the drivers side! Also, the windsheild fogs up BAD on the inside due to the moisture. That causes me to have to scarp the inside of the car each morning of the winter! Basically, my car is :sick: and I need help getting it
Have you found out what is causing this yet? Please let me know so I can point the mechanic in the right direction. He's as baffled as I am!
Kind Regards,
Sissy
Kind Regards,
Sissy
Tammy
Thanks
Mary Ellen
I have the same leak too. Did you figure out how to get to the underside of the heater??
Please share.
Thanks
mes :confuse:
I was unable to ever fix the leak in my 95 Grand Am inspite of trying several mechanics. Unfortunately, the wet floor is not my only concernt anymore. My mechanic told me that it's time to let my car go as it's losing anti-freeze due to something eating it up and passing it out the exhaust. He fears it's expensive like a head gasket :sick: . Also, he thinks I'm having a computer module problem with my brakes as they act up sometimes. I am not searching for a used or new Toyota or Honda so hopefully I'll get a good deal!
I was really hoping to keep this car until my husband got here from England this August
What i did was,
*Remove the hood, removed the windshield wipers, the plastic piece under the wipers to expose the hole where the leak happens.
*There are two weep holes, one on each side of the car, they get clogged up with leaves and such and prevent water from escaping. The drivers side one is very easy to clean out, the passenger side one takes the work.
*There is a black box with a flapper on it, this is for the fresh air intake for your AC (and i belive for your heater as well) you much remove these two pieces. you will see the hole where the water runs into you car (2.5 inches high and 7 or 8 long). This hole is above the glove box.
*Clean of the black box pieces, clear the leaves and such from around that weep hole.
*Run to your favorite home improvement store (preferable in someone elses car not your since you don't have your hood on the car) and grab clear silicone. Make sure you get one that can withstand the elements. Run a bead of silicone around the black box where the old rubber gasket is and reattach it to the car, reattach the flapper piece.
And since i'm anal retentive i used the rest of the tube and caulked the HECK outta it, (well after two years of dealing with Lake Erie in your car you'll be desperate as well LOL)
After i did this i let it sit for a day in the sun to let it bake on and then i took a hose and ran it right over the windsheild not a single drip in the car.
I am still lookin for the trunk leak thou keep ya posted
Chuck :P
I have an SE but i got a hold of GT tail lights and that is when the leak got worse so i caulked it up. More than likely it's the trunk seal but i'm keeping my options open for anything else it could be.
For crying out loud i found some rubberizing spray at that HUGE discount department store that everyone hates going to but you can't help but shop there, (can you actually say their name?) and re-did the wheel wells in the rear. If that helped or not i'm really not sure but it makes it look A LOT better.
So I go to get somthing out of my car, and what do I find? 2 - 3 inches of water above the carpets. And when you step on the carpet, it feels like your standing on a water bed. I have a 1990 grand am, and I have a water problem.
I started the clean-up. I sucked about 5 gallons of water out off of the tops of the carpets with a wet-vac. I pulled out the seats, pulled up all the carpets. I found a good 2-3 inches of water under the rugs. Wet vaced it all up.
Time to fix it. The water that was ontop of the rugs was coming from the passanger door, at the top near the seatbet. pulled out the silicone and went to town. Now thats fixed.
However i sat in the car while it rained and saw were the water was coming from. It was all coming from the firewall. Tommorrow, I am going to try the fix that someone said on here, I think the weep holes are jamed. I will let you know what I find.
However, the trunk showed anoyther problem. I found over 10 inches of water in there. It was an ez fix. The grand am is prone to rusting. So I looked for holes. I found my holes by taking a sharp rod and jaming it in the tirewell. when I did that it opened a fist sized rust hole going right into the trunk. After more proding around, I found another hole in the tirewell that went right into the back seat of the car. Went over to Ace hardware, got some bondo and glooped it on. No more wate in the trunk, or back seat.
Hope this helps!
I have tryed everything!
I have a 1995 red pontiac grand am GT, 4 door... got in march 2004, had 120k miles on it. not too bad for the age I guess. it had one owner prior to me and it looked as if the previous owner took good care of the car. The exterior is in great condition and so is the interior (except for the driver and passenger side floor).
I have a leak on the driver side floor, this has been going on for over a year now. I've taken it to several mechanics, paid all sorts of money and it's STILL not fixed. Finally I just got fed up with pulling money out of my [non-permissible content removed] and it not doing any good. Mechanically the car is great and I have NEVER broke down... the car now has 165k on it. I try to take real good care of the car, regular oil changes/maintanence..etc. Truth is I HATE that car right now, I HATE IT SOOOO BAD! I hate when I spend lots of $ for something to be fixed and it's not fixed. I'd pay any amount of money to just get it fixed!
well last night it was raining hard... I KNEW that this morning I would walk to my car, open the door and see a puddle on the driver side floor... YAY! no shop vac to suck it up so I had to keep my feet out of the water so it wouldn't soak into my shoes.. and of course I needed to be able to use the brake/gas. YAY! (sarcasm) WELL I found out today not only is my driver side filled with water. but after reading everyone's post here I decided to investigate. I lifted up my passenger side floor mat and it's a little wet as well. NOW I remember checking it before and it was never wet, so obviously the problem is getting worse.
Before I left work today I decided to pop the hood as well and check my oil/fluids and all that. I popped the trunk, went to grab my paper towels and they were soaking wet! that's a first! SO NOW my FREAKING TRUNK IS LEAKING! WTF?! ya know?! I hate this POS and never again will I buy a grand am just because of all the forums I have read about them. NOT JUST THIS FORUM, but I've searched online and looked at many other forums, grand am's are notorious for leaking in these area's. (mostly the driver side floor)
and yes I know my car is 12 years old... (actually 13 cuz it came out at the end of 94 but whatever). so I don't expect the car to act like a brand new 2007 ford mustang or anything like that. Right now the car runs fine and I'd gladly race anyone in it if I had to.
as for the trunk leak, hell if I know. who knows. I've never had any problems with it til now. maybe a seal somewhere near the tail lights?
Anyways, glad to be a part of this forum, glad we can all vent to each other about our grand am problems. :lemon:
-Nikki
p.s. think it's time for me to get that 2007 ford mustang I've been wanting so bad. hate car payments like the next guy but after all the money I've put into the car, mis well get a stang instead of having this POS grand am nickel and dime my [non-permissible content removed]. :mad:
1. Trunk leak. After a somebody bumped into me at a stop light, the trunk started collecting water. I did not correlate it to that at the time, but this jarred one of the rubber washers ( or seal/grommet) loose on one of the screws holding the taillight assembly. I re-sealed with some RTV silicone sealant and it has been dry since.
2. I was collecting water in front of the rear seat on the right side. (It smelled like a cat had left a liquid gift there, and I thought that was what it was for a while, but it was just water festering under the rubber-backed floor mat.) I took off the plastic trim and peeled back the carpet in that area and put a hose on the top to pour water on that side, and it was definitely leaking in the door area. I tried to seal around the weatherstrip with silicone sealant and then with weatherstrip adhesive (3m 8011). There was still some dripping so I looked closer and noted water was dripping in from the center pillar of my 4 door. On closer inspection, I saw a small crack in the sheet metal seam sealer under the exterior drip edge trim, so I bought some new seam sealer and patched it up.
3. Things were better for several months, but then I noticed that dreaded smell again. Then I realized the carpet was wet also on the driver side and some in front of the front seats. I decided to remove the carpet until I could get this under control. If necessary, I was considering drilling holes in the floor to let the water drain out. I went through several stages around the doors and ultimately I replaced the weatherstrips on 3 of the 4 doors and re-did the seam seal. The weatherstrip needed careful application of weatherstrip adhesive 8011 on the top half of the door on the external side. It is not supposed to need that, but I needed it to stop the leaks. I think the adhesive would have worked without the new weatherstrip. I applied new seam sealer on the seams on both sides at the top of the pillar between the doors. I did more careful surface prep this time and completed the job with some touchup paint to protect the sealer. I should have primed the bare metal before applying seam sealer, but I hope what I did do will hold. This dried up the leaks around the doors.
4. Much to my chagrin, I was taking on more water than ever, though. With the carpet removed I was able to see it was pretty clearly coming from the firewall area, which I never bothered to test with the hose. There are channels in the flooring leading to the back seats, so this was probably the major source of the problem all along, although I am still glad I fixed the leaks in the door area. The interior of the firewall looks very difficult to access so I investigated the external side. I removed the wipers and the plastic cowl pieces. On this car, it does not look like the issue is drain holes on the sides plugged. There is a seam about a third of the way up the firewall from the bottom and applying water there with a hose will show the leak in the interior. The main drain for the cowl area seems to be a channel around the HVAC system intake and the blower. This was blocked with leaves. I removed the duct around the blower, and also noticed a pile of mildewy leaves bunched at the evaporator, and cleaned out all the leaves. I am hopeful this will clear up the recent loss of air conditioning capacity on hot days. I am in the middle of this part, but my plan is to go to town with some black roofing caulk on all the sheet metal seams on the firewall and to put some plastic screen material to block the leaves out of the air intake and cowl area. Finally, I will get some black RTV to seal off between the windshield and the plastic cowl, also for the leaves.
This has been a ridiculous amount of work, but after all this, I just have to get it stopped. Hope this is entertaining if not helpful.
Have any of you posted complaints with the National Highway Saftey Admin to see if you can get them to force GM to do a recall?
I work in one of GM's assembly plants and am happy to say that today, the firewall and wheel well on the inside of the vehicle are one stamped piece with no seem. i guess they figured it was a problem.
Mike
dang that does sound like a pain in the butt. me and my boyfriends uncle have been working on finding the leak for a while now. we spent 9 hours on the car last sunday. We'll see if it worked after we get a good rain. Right now I got other issues besides water in my car. First, my car started smoking one day when I arrived at work so I popped the hood and a good bit of smoke was coming out and a fluid was leaking onto the ground. I believe it's the power steering going out or something because my car is making a horrible loud noise when turning the steering wheel and it's getting progressively worse and hard to turn. bad news is no one is open because it's near thanksgiving so I gotta wait til maybe black friday and hope some mechanic can get me in short notice/without an appointment and hopefully fix it without it costing me too much money. All I do is keep putting money into this 95 POS grand am. GETS ANNOYING! after I get it fixed I'm selling it! right now I'm waiting on the ford dealership to call me back cuz I want a damn mustang :shades: , so I'm in the process of spending money to buy a newer car. LOL so happy thanksgiving to myself I guess. LOL stupid car problems. I wish I was a mechanic then I could fix my own [non-permissible content removed].
Bulletin No.: 73-10-68
Date: April, 1998
Subject:
Water Leaking into Passenger Compartment
(Apply RTV Silicone Sealer to Top Vent Grille Assembly)
Models:
1996-98 Buick Skylark
1996-98 Oldsmobile Achieva
1996-98 Pontiac Grand Am
Condition
Some owners may comment on water leaking into the passenger front floor area.
Cause
Condition may be due to poor adhesion of the top vent grille assembly to the windshield. The existing seal tape can separate from the glass or the grill above the A/C air intake canister and allow water to overflow into the passenger front floor area.
Correction
Remove the top vent grille assembly. Clean the grille assembly and the surface of contact on the windshield of all sealing tape and adhesive residue. Apply a bead of RTV Clear Silicone Sealer from SM(R), Part # 08662, or equivalent, to the underside of the top vent grille assembly where the old seal tape was removed. Reinstall the grille. Wipe excess RTV Sealer horizontally across sealing area to achieve a smooth finish.
p.s. I got a new car now though, so don't really care about the POS grand am anymore. LOL I just drive it in bad weather.
1. The window had a long crack across the drivers side. Had it replaced by a mainline window vendor. They said that all the metal around the window was fine, paint was fine, no rust, no need to have anything welded or rebuilt. They said that they vacuumed out the air intake / windshield wiper levers box. I quizzed them about this and they said that there had been some organic stuff in there ( leaves, pine needles, etc.) but that it had all been vacuumed up.
2. Previous to replacing the window, I had sprayed Fabreze all over the interior and trunk to knock out the mildew odor. The car had not been used on a regular basis for some time and the mildew odor was overpowering. It significantly reduced the smell. I was then able to drive the car and take it in to have the windshield replaced.
3. I used my carpet cleaning machine with the upholstery attachment and spent a Saturday afternoon cleaning the interior and trunk. I saturated everything with spray, let it sit for awhile, and then used the spray and vacuum to finish the job. On a warm fall weekend, I left the windows open so it could all dry out. Nice clean smell now. ( I did look into using a detail company, but I figured I would give it a try first to hold costs down. )
3. Much later, after some major rain storms, i experienced some more water on the front drivers side floor. Arrg!!! I did some searches on the internet and found discussions on the plugged drain holes. I raised the hood and popped off some of the plastic retainers on the black plastic coverings over the air intake / windshield wiper levers box. Near the drivers side, I squeezed my hand in and felt around looking for a drain. My fingers pushed through a small rubberized, magnetized, flapper opening into the engine compartment. I was able to verify that this opening was working and would drain out any water into the engine compartment. I then went over to the passenger side. I found the air intake box, but was not able to find a flapper opening on that side. ( curious, there should be a way to drain water on the passenger side.) I examined the firewall from the engine compartment, and saw a rubber covered fixture below the air intake fan motor housing. I was finally able to check that flapper valve by putting my left hand, palm facing backward and upward, down through the tubes and pipes, and lift up the flapper valve. There was a small chute under the air intake box and it was plugged with a lot of wet organic material. I reached in with my fingers and was able to pull out a lot of the wet material, but not all. I then poured water, cleaned out, poured more water, cleaned out, etc., until I was sure that the chute was clear. So, water must have been filling this chute, encountered some loose seams on the air intake box, and then flowing in to the passenger cabin. Success at last! Keep that chute/flapper valve clean and working and this problem is fixed!!!! ( Not! )
4. After some time, some water began to appear on the front passenger side. There had been some rain storms, but how was the water getting to the passenger side? The mildew smell started up again. I found "odor genie" at Home Depot and that has help keep the mildew smell from coming back. Back to the Internet! There were discussions about the rubber door seals leaking and a leaking seam between the firewall panel and the floorboard panel. I checked and verified that all the drain holes and vents on the bottom of the doors were clear of dirt and debris and should properly drain water. Today I removed the lower plastic trim in the passenger compartment near the doors and pulled back the carpets from behind the pedals. I found a lot of moisture on the driver side by the door molding. The rubber looked a little worn in places, so I will probably replace it. I looked at the condition of the seam sealer all along the front edge behind the brake petals and on the passenger side. The sealer looked to be in good condition, but I did find a lot of moisture. I dried it out and stuffed old towels along seam. I will check the towels tomorrow to see if I can tell what direction the water is coming from. I looked to find a drain line from the ac/heater box under the dash, but could not see or feel it.
4. I will go to the Library and see if they have a shop manual so I can find the condensation drain line from the ac/heater box under the dash. I will also look to figure out how to remove the windshield wiper arm so I can totally remove the black plastic cover over the air intake box and seal any seams on the air intake box.
my advice, there is water laying somewhere. I'm guessing it might be coming through the firewall.. maybe lift the carpet up where the gas pedal, brake pedal are. the water might be coming through the firewall and coming right down through the panel behind the brake pedal. hard to explain but I saw it for myself when I pulled the carpet back. watched the water come right down behind the brake pedal. I've spent hours and lots of money on my 95 trying to fix it. FINALLY I said wtf? and bought me a brand new ford mustang.
I doubt it's the windshield but who knows. that's the only thing I haven't had replace in my car yet. when it rains I still get water in my car but not as bad since we sealed up where we saw the water coming from. I'd save yourself a lot of aggravation and buy a car cover for it... when it's supposed to rain go out there and put it on. this is a flaw that A LOT of people have had with this car... no definite fix. my car smells like mildew and mold, it's disgusting. I hate it. it's frustrating so you're definitely not alone! good luck.