water from under dash

[n/a]

hi experts, i am a recent pagoda owner with the wish to restore my car to a standard that i am happy with. The car is unmolested apart from a scrappy paint job, i bought the car from washington state when i still lived in the UK but now live in the USA so its time to start playing!! I washed the car today and decided to take for a drive just after washing when my feet  suddenly became awash with water....any ideas guys or have i bought a lemon...! Thanks in advance for your replys. Tony

Tony Gray
1967 250SL
1972 350SL

[psmith]

Hi Tony,

Leaking under the dash is not uncommon, it doesn't make it a lemon.  There are drain tubes at the bottom of the fresh air intake box in front of the windshield.  If plugged, the water can overflow onto your feet.  Another place is the seals around the windshield wipers.  Search this site and you'll find many discussions on the topic.

Pete S.

[iceberg]

Hey Tony,
I agree with Pete.  There are drains that may be cloged or the rubber drain pipes have cracked up.  Old rubber does that.  It may not be just the pipes but some other rubber seals gone bad that are allowing water to seap in.  As the rubber ages it either gets really soft and develops punctures or gets really hard and shrinks thus making room for water to seap in.  I had the same problem with windshield seal and the wiper washers.
Regards,
H

[Chad]

There was a thread started by Ben I believe regarding this issue. Leaves and gunk clogging the drains. Something about sloshing H2O inside the firewall. A potential real rust nightmare. There were pics in the thread I believe and good advice about what to do, where the holes are. I remember being able to find them and not discover any trouble. Just old dust or sand being the history of the car was CA and the Virgin Islands.

For some reason I think that another thread contained pics of the firewall, dash sliced in half lengthwise... maybe it was Walter's 220SLD donor car -- can't remember if those pics were helpful, or just interesting. Anyway, the thread by Ben I think was exactly helpful to me. Search.

1967 230SL (Manual, rustless driver)