Interior Leaks - '91 Legacy Sedan

[subarutex]

I have 2 distinct leak areas in my newly acquired sedan. I'm hoping for some insight on where I should look to find the root causes, and hopefully ways to cure it.

Pertinent info:
'91 Turbo Sedan
Sunroof (previous owner reports it has been resealed)
Garage parked nightly
5spd Swap

Area 1:
Passenger footwell carpet. Super Damp. Didn't notice it until the other day when I swapped in some new seats. I've monitored it for the last 2 weeks and its been consistently damp. I have no idea where to look for this. The door seal doesn't show signs of leaking.

Area 2:
The trunk. At first I thought it was the trunk seal... a problem a buddy had in his tleg a couple years ago. However, I can't find obvious signs of where its getting by. I have noticed it dumps water out of the trunk lid from near the latch area, when I open it. This leads me to think perhaps its the reflector piece?

Let me know if you have any ideas!

[Legacy777]

For area 1 check to make sure the vent line for the HVAC evaporator box is connected. It may be dumping water into the cabin. Other possibility may be coolant if you have a heater core issue. But you would likely also notice a sweet smell and the windows fogging up.

For area 2 I'd suggest checking the seal between the rear spoiler & trunk lid and also check the seal for the lock cylinder in the trunk lid. The reflector does bolt on, but I don't see that you would get much water through those bolt locations. I'd suspect either the lock cylinder or rear spoiler seal.

[subarutex]

Have a pic or general location where to find the hvac vent line?

[subarutex]

Took a look at a couple things tonight, here is what I found.

Area 1:
Pulled seat, and pulled back carpet. Carpet and pad damp. Was most damp in the footwell corner, right below the front right seat mount bolt. I noticed the ground screw there was pretty rusty as well. I removed a portion of the black rubber sound deadening under the glovebox area around where the HVAC hose dumps out. Hose passes through the body just fine, no signs of leakage there. The pad below that rubber does seemed to have wicked some moisture up from the floor, but only 2-3 inches.
On close inspection of the window seal, I found 2 tears. 1 on the window sealing surface, and one outside of it... about 3" apart. The outside tear did feel like it had some moisture in it, but that cavitity of the seal is firmly on the outside of the body. The tear on the sealing surface felt dry, and its a bit in from the edge of the window so I don't see how it would get water in to it.

Area 2:
Pulled Reflector strip off, and it was very damp behind it. Some water came through when I undid the nuts, but hard to tell if any were leaking. My lock cylinder is missing something on the backside of it to retain it, so it is loose in its hole. The rubber on the outside of the lock cylinder is hard and compressed, and not really doing anything. However it seemed somewhat dry around it.

I then removed the spoiler. Both nuts behind the trunk rubber stoppers were very rusty. The stoppers themselves had a good amount of water in them, and rust particles. I found signs of any sort of seal in between the spoiler and the trunk lid, and it appears to definitely be carrying water through there.

Is there any recommended ways to seal the spoiler holes? Is there a factory seal that is supposed to be there?

[crisco]

lots of options for the trunk leaking. i have 3-4 sources of leaks in my trunk:

-the rain gutters from the roof have a tube down in the trunk on each side. water from the roof gutters runs into 2 tubes, then merge into one tube that goes back out through the side of the floor and out below the car. the one on the driver side was disconnected from someone shoving the spare tire tools in there the wrong way and the rain from the tube was running into the trunk floor.

-there is a couple of small holes where the rear wheel well connects to the rear outer fender, and mud and water had been coming in, and i need to seal those with some body sealer or similar.

-the rear lights drip water into the trunk when i open the trunk, it's like a waterfall pouring from the taillights on the back side into the trunk. this means i am getting water into / or behind the taillights from cracks or bad gaskets.

-the trunk seal behind the rear window looks okay but i think there may be some water coming in near the top right and left corners where i can see where water sits in there when its raining.

-the other thing to do is check your stop-plugs below the spare tire.

[Alphius]

The spoiler is supposed to have rubber gaskets that it sits on that are the exact same size as the base of the spoiler. Sounds like this might be your problem, since you found rusty water behind the plugs and there is never supposed to be water behind there.

I found a tiny spot of rust when I took my spoiler off for a repaint. I made sure all the bolts were tight and the gaskets were in good shape when I put it all back together after fixing the rust. My trunk has never leaked, but I do have a leaky center fascia. All my bolts were in pristine factory condition with no rust and I have over 250k on my car.

[Legacy777]

If you want, you can buy the gaskets that go between the spoiler and trunk, or I suppose you could try using some generic rubber gasket material or just a flat rubber material and cut out a gasket to fit the area where the spoiler sits.

[subarutex]

Any chance on a part number for the gasket? or a good place to find the part number?

[Legacy777]

You can d/l the parts book from me, which has all the part #'s you'll ever want.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=30531