Water Leak at Drivers Door

[Naccas]

G'day,

I've noticed that the drivers carpet is very wet in my VT, obviously the water is leaking past the door seals somewhere.

Is this common, and if so what is the best way to tackle it?

Cheers,
Naccas

[gsmrobinson]

Not sure about the door seals but it is common for all of the Commodores to leak A/c drain water onto the floor.

Does it only happen when it rains?
Do you run the A/c when it rains?

Might be door seals so don't rule that out!

Regards Guy.

[Naccas]

Yeah, I thought about the AC, but is definintly a door leak. Over the weekend I think I have pin-pointed it, so will let you know.

Cheers,
Naccas.

[Duncan Bench]

Same thing happening in my 97 VT wagon.Had 2 inches of water in the drivers side footwell.I hope you've cracked the problem.If you have I would be very grateful for any advice.All the best Benchy.

[Redfox]

Hi guys, had exactly the same problem for the last couple of days here in Sydney... it's been raining and when I've been driving I've noticed drips either coming in the top of the drivers side door, or water accumulating and dripping down near the side window demisters and over the door aircon vent. I am a bit peeved about it but I seem to have managed to find the problem. I'm not sure if you guys who are having problems also have drivers side plastic visors installed, but I did and then thought it was the problem so I removed it.

I have had a much closer look at the VT door sealing system. It is really quite a pathetic design if you ask me. What happens is that the door seal on the actual door around the window frame just presses against the rubber trim on the car chassis. This is the primary seal on the door.

The secondary seal is the rubber seal attached to the car chassis along the roofline and this seal presses against the plastic part of the door/window frame. This seal is really quite pathetic because if water does manage to get in past the primary outer seal, it can't actually flow down a water channel, because the secondary seal wasn't designed to channel water away.

What you will find is that if the water gets past the primary seal, it will just sit in the gap between the secondary seal and the plastic door frame. There only needs to be a little bit of water accumulating there and you'll find that it leaks into the cabin. The evidence of this is when you open the drivers side door after driving in the rain and you find a beaded line of water on the plastic of the door frame where the secondary seal presses against. This means the primary seal is not doing it's job.

If you ask me, the design is really pathetic. I spoke to a guy who used to work at holden and he agreed with me regarding the poor design of these seals.

Now the way to fix it is this... if the primary seal is not pressing against the rubber trim on the roofline very well, you can pull the door frame back into place which causes it to press against the door surrounds slightly harder. Just remember to wind down your windows completely when you do this or your risk cracking your windows! Apparently this is a very common method performed on these commodores by the holden dealerships! The theory behind this is apparently because since the drivers side doors gets the most use, it gets banged out of shape quite easily.

If this doesn't work, I can only suggest that you get the door seal replaced with a new one where the rubber hasn't been pushed away from the roof trim.

Sorry for the long winded post, but had to get it off my chest since I've had this problem recently and it's been frustrating me immensely...

my 2c

[Naccas]

Thanks for your advice Redfox.

I'm not 100% exactly where the water is escaping past the seals on my car, but Redfox is right that the water settles on the seal at the bottom, and eventually will overfow onto the floor.

My quick fix for now was to cut a few small holes into the bottom seal channel to allow the water to drain away. It seems to be working OK for now, until I get the time to fix it properly.