Dodge Caliber Forums banner

Water on the rear floor ... leak???

32K views 22 replies 15 participants last post by  ykkrs 
#1 ·
Been awhile since I posted on here..

Here's the problem, As anyone in Southern Ontario knows we have had all sorts of rain these past couple days.. Anyways tonight the wife tells me that the rear carpet (on the drivers side) is wet. I go check and the carpets not wet it is soaked, you can see the water..

The wife said she drove through a street wide deep puddle on her way home tonight..

Is it possible that either 1) the wind driven rain got past the door seals (only thing wet is the carpet, seat and rest of the back is dry) or 2) when she drove through the puddle the water came in over the lower door frame.. or 3) when see drove through the puddle the water found its way in through a lightening hole under the car.. or 4) somehow the rain is finding its way under the roof trim and running down the door pillar (behind the trim) and pooling on the floor.

Any thoughts ???

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Update ...

Sort of .. We haven't found the source of the leak yet, but we now know that it is a static leak .. After drying the floor for several days, we left the car outside last night.. With the heavy dew and condensation all over the cars this morning the carpet is damp again ... Anyone have any ideas on where to look next ???
 
#3 ·
do you have a sunroof? if so, its likely that the drain tubes are clogged
 
#5 ·
No sun roof.. There are a couple places that I'm going to put some clear silicone and see what that does.. Also going to get the wife to back the car up the drive (driveway has a slight incline) to see if this mystery water appears on the front floor..
 
#6 ·
greetings, any update to this thread? as I have a similar problem ...
Greetings from south africa. I have recently purchased a second hand dodge calibre 2.0 cvt sxt.
After the first week I went for window tinting and notice allot of water in the left rear passenger footwell. I phoned the dealer I purchased the car from and they stated I might have left the window open during a recent rain fall. I suppose I might have, I thought.
I cleaned and dried the water up and removed the side and bottom panels front and back (as the carpet was wet in the front passenger footwell aswell, but pooled in the rear, so i figured as I drove it shuffled around...) once all was dry I used a hosepipe. All around the roof, doors... allot of water... and nothing... the water that I drained is clear and does not appear to have an odour, so assumed it's rain... and an open window.
Now I always make sure my windows are closed when it hints of raining.
So for a few weeks all has gone well. It's rained and poured here and there and nothing. I've used the a/c quite a bit and nothing. Then all of a sardine its back, not as bad as I have been monitoring it. But its there. I am coming to the conclusion it might be leaking when I use the rear water washer dispenser!! Could that be? Where is the first place to begin my troubleshooting?
Thanks in advance.
 
#7 ·
Sorry been busy lately looking and searching for a new truck (that's a story for a different time), To answer your question, no we haven't found the source of the leak yet... I have gone over a few places with (colored) silicone to see if it would stop, but to no luck... The wife is about ready to take the car into the dealer ... I can already hear my bank account screaming ...

If anyone else has any idea's let me know ..
 
#8 ·
I've been having this same issue as well. The drivers side floor boards front and rear are constantly soaked with water. I've had it in the dealership in the past and they were not able to find a cause. I've been all over these forums and I've seen multiple posts about this issue but no solutions. Anyone know where this water is coming from and how to fix it?
 
#9 ·
I'm having the same problem but on the passenger side rear floor being soaked with standing water, and sometimes the front passenger floor having standing water, but not quite as often so I assume it's coming from the rear when it gets to a certain point. I do not have a sunroof. Any ideas? Hearing it's a common problem but not hearing any solutions yet.
 
#10 ·
I found when i removed the left (passenger front and back) side, ummm, bottom door/floor plastic framing... not sure what its called...

you have to remove the middle post one first then the long one that leads back to front and then the front one, by removing the plastic screw...

anyways, i noticed where the metal framework is crimped together, in the front passgenger side just before the framework turns up (in line with my shins), there was a water mark/line... a water line like you can see where water has been dripping/running from and to (into the front footwell, i saw a bead of water in the crimp aswell... i sucked it with my mouth and a little water cam out and i sensed it was not sealed/crimped closed properly (this was just after some rain).
not sure how water would get into the framework, maybe from the black roof linings, where they "pop" into the body of the car, and runs down into the frame of the car and is supposed to drip out of drip holes at the bottom, like the doors have...

i think when the water builds up enough in the front footwell and through driving and parking on hills, etc, it switches between the back and front, and sits more in the back as there are "trap" areas and this gives the feeling that it's leaking from the back

i let it dry, dried the carpets out and forced car silicone into the crimp area, as much as i could and cleaned the evidence of the water mark

now i'm just waiting to see what happens with the next car wash or rains, if we get any more this year in south africa, durban

thanls, the more feedback the better

anyways this is my first find of where it could be coming from in my car...
 
#12 ·
Water!!

Hey, newbie here but need help with my 2008 Caliber. Love the car but hate the water that collects in the front dome light and spills out every time that I turn a corner, plus the fact that my front and rear carpets are constantly soaked. Had the car completely detailed last week after having some work done, including replacing the sunroof seal. Everything was fine until the next rain, once again, SOAKED! Anyone have a solution to the problem? This makes me crazy! Thank you.
 
#13 ·
2008 R/T Leaks too!!

We found water was collecting in the driver side rear floor board and also was wet in the front floor board. We have found two leaks - the first was the Sunroof seal was defective so it was allowing more water in then the drain hoses could take in. We had this fixed, dried out the car which took a few days. The mechanic even had to redo the corroded wiriing which is also in the bottom of the car -(nice design Dodge)...a couple of days or so later, more water in the back floorboard. This time we finally found the culprit to be the backtail light assembly has a tube as well. when they replaced the tail light ( which also houses water within the tailight..UGH )it seems they crimped/cut the tube so all that water was also leaking in as well. So had to start all over again, drying out the car, etc. It has taken 3 months to figure out these two problems. All the water was shorting out the wiring and was making the engine light come on and throw all kinds of codes and could not get the car inspected... we fixed everything that could possibly be wrong that would throw the codes,replaced all the wires and the computer sensor and we finally got it to pass, even though the engine light still goes off and on...just got the car back literally after 3 months of turmoil ...and now guess what, the front floor board is damp now after I took it through the car wash...really?! If I didnt owe so much on this car it would be gone. I see someone riding by in a Caliber and I want to ask, does your Caliber leak?? If anyone has found other potential leak areas, please post!!
 
#14 · (Edited)
I've a 2009 SXT with a sunroof that collects water in the driver's side front and rear floorboards. I bought it used about 2 months ago from a Ford dealer - I highly doubt they'll be helpful in correcting this.

I looked for the drain tubes in the sunroof and behind the gas pedal to see if I can clear them myself. Cannot locate them. Do I have to remove any panels? Is that hard to do without doing any damage?

Also, if this is a manufacturing defect, might I still be able to get Chrylser to address it?
 
#16 ·
Rear Pass Floor Leak

After Super Storm Sandy, I found my rear passenger floorboard beyond soaked. I had a bag with a blanket/pillow that was completely soaked, the floor mat poured water when lifted, and then filled up a full size bath towel. Still soaked. I do have a sunroof, but no sign of water on the interior of roof. No sign of water coming from the door. The only thing I can think of is from the metal bracket/bolt that is under the rear passenger side bench??? I am very upset by this. It is a 2011 and of course now past the year warranty. I have always loved Dodge (have a Dodge Ram Pickup as well), but after this I am seriously considering moving on. You would think Dodge would come out with a recall for this.
 
#18 ·
After Super Storm Sandy, I found my rear passenger floorboard beyond soaked. I had a bag with a blanket/pillow that was completely soaked, the floor mat poured water when lifted, and then filled up a full size bath towel. Still soaked. I do have a sunroof, but no sign of water on the interior of roof. No sign of water coming from the door. The only thing I can think of is from the metal bracket/bolt that is under the rear passenger side bench??? I am very upset by this. It is a 2011 and of course now past the year warranty. I have always loved Dodge (have a Dodge Ram Pickup as well), but after this I am seriously considering moving on. You would think Dodge would come out with a recall for this.
the year warranty?
 
#19 ·
with pics...

Please refer to my previous post in this thread (soz I'm late)

As per the pics, I found the leak in my Dodge. I tried sealing the crimped section with silicone but it just leaks further up (still also comes out that threaded hole)
I've had the door frame panels off since my last post and have gone through allot of rain since. I found by removing the plug in the front passenger footwell i have not had any pooling of water.
It seems like the water in the side frame does not drain, I checked the drain holes are free, unless I missed something.
I was going to drill two holes in the side frame, left side of crimp, lower than where it leaks and hope I can get it to drain away. As I need to put the side panels and footwell drain plug back.
any comments/suggestions welcome
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Major water leaks in 2008 caliber

Let me start by saying I love my little car. 2 months ago I started with wet floors behind the drivers seat. I mean soaking wet. I thought I had left the windows down. We had not had any rain for while though so I thought maybe it was a hose under the car running the length. I was grasping for straws I guess. I took it to the dealer because it just wouldn't dry it up. I was greeted by "Oh we don't do water leaks or damage" I asked well can you at least put it on the rack and see if theres anything going on underneath and so they did. Nothing, so off I went well 3 weeks ago, the water got worse and was now on the drivers side front under the pedals and it was soaking. By the time I would get to work my pants would be soaked! So I checked on here and there were alot of suggestions so off I went back to the dealer and they kept it for a few hours and still nothing. So they referred me out to a water specialist because they don't deal with water issues. So I took my car there and it was going to cost me hundreds of dollars to diagnose and fix this problem whatever it may be. Finally I decided to call corporate I explained to them what was going on. the assigned me a case mgr and #. next thing I knew my car was in the shop at the dealer with their water specialist imagine that! I had 6 leaks! they took my carpets out and dried them as well. I recommend that if you are having this issue you contact corporate because this seems to be an issue with the calibers. they need to be made aware about this so that we don't need to pay out of pocket even if we are out of warranty. I feel it's an manufacture problem if we are all having so many issues

good luck
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top