Wet Door Panel

It rained the other day and I happen to touch the lower door panel on the drivers side and found it was wet. The bottom 1" of the carpeting just slightly front of the center of the door is completely saturated? I've searched and found a few hits but with no solutions or causes. It's a '02 C4 Cabrio. I do know the PO did replace the speakers if this helps in the diagnosis. Any help where to look or what to fix will be appreciated. Thanks

I bet your cabrio drain tubes are clogged.

For example, here are the drain tube locations on a 986 (I know yours is a 996 but I don't have that drawing):

put your top up

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Doh!

Also remove the door panel and check if the vapor-membrane layer is fully sealed especially at the bottom... If not water will leaked through there and get into the car. This happened to my wife 325i after I replaced her window regulator and the tacky vapor-layer was not sealing at the bottom and let water leaked through. You may need to buy a tube of black sealant and re-apply to that vapor-layer. Though it could certainly be the drain plug as well. Good-luck.

+1 Plastic door liner is not sealed. Make sure that it is sealed all of the way around, whever it touches, the door shell with no holes/leaks near the aftermarket speaker.

Just to be clear, everything inside the car is dry, it is only the bottom of the panel which is wet. I do have a question about the membrane, assuming it isn't sealing properly and I fix it, water obviously gets inside the door, if it doesn't leak out from the membrane how will it exit the door?

There should be drainage holes at the bottom of the door frame so that any water can exit but if your membrane is correctly sealed then water will not get pass it and everything will be dry inside the car including the door panel. You can very easily test it by spraying/dousing some water on the outside window and see where that water is going from behind the panel...

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Unless I'm missing something (and I'll check again) I see a couple of drain holes, but they all have plugs. I will check the membrane after New Years and keep the car out of the rain until then. I will report back to let everyone know what I find.

Clogged door drains are the big reason that the door bottoms rust out , especially in older cars that have collected a lot of dirt/junk in them or if the body wax rust proofing is applied too heavy sealing the drains. Look at the door bottom and you will see two or three drains that let any water drain out on to the jam outside of the door seals. Look along the bottom edge where the door layers are crimped together. You will see a couple of slots that are drains. "As the rubber seals around your car's door windows degrade, they allow rainwater and moisture to seep through. This moisture settles at the bottom of the hollow door, where it either drains out or becomes stagnant and contributes to corrosion. Keeping your door from getting rusty on the bottom isn't tough; the work has mostly been done for you by the auto manufacturer, who has likely engineered several drainage holes along the underside of the door. Many drivers never consider these holes, however, so they don't notice when they become clogged with dirt, rust, leaves and other debris. Follow these steps to keep the drainage system up and running." Read more: How to Keep Car Doors From Developing Rust | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4576279_keep-car-doors-developing-rust.html#ixzz18queIhvc"

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Hello, I know this is an old thread but I too am now experiencing this with my 2007 997.1 C4S Cab. Was wondering what you found and what your resolution was? TIA

Has anyone ever found the solution to this? Carpets on both of my doors get wet when its raining and i cant find the cause.

I hate to be brutally honest but c'mon.... 1) No door window seal is perfect...the doors get water in them. 2) The door has drains at the bottom just for this reason. Look under the door, pull back the black rubber seal a little bit (carefully) and look for the slotted drains. 3) If the carpet on the door is wet (a) the drains are clogged (b) the membrane behind the door panel is not sealed and needs to be resealed. This is not complicated. There..my two cents on a very old topic.

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If it's the carpet on your doors that is getting wet then it is the same issue I had. Which was that some of the door panel clips were bent or not "reset" when previously re-install by dealer when work was last performed. How I fixed it was to remove the door panels and replace the door panel clips with new one. Carefully reinstall panel an make sure clips are aligning with holes and press to make that crisp "pop" sound; the clips form a seal. Good luck, was an easy job. Just take your time. -Asencio

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No one is expecting a rubber seal or any type of seal to be perfect, especially on a 10 year old car. My drains are clean and I've applied additional silicone sealant around the moisture barrier. I'm still getting wet carpets.

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The problem might not be with the membrane, at least not 100%. The window seals the ones that seal the window where is comes through the door could be leaking. These can age and leak and 10 years is a long time.

OK, I need some help here as well. I am getting the wet door panel on the carpet. I have pulled the door panel to see where it was coming in, seemed to originally be from the front of the outer door seal, solution seemed to be replace the outer door seal, did so, and when I checked to see if that had done the trick, it was only worse. Either I got a bad seal, or I installed it incorrect (put it on exactly the same way the other came off). Just hoping someone else here may have dealt with this and found something else going on. I had a tight membrane seal and all my door panel pins are in working order, and yes my drains are clean.

How is the window to seal seating? There are rubber plugs under the door that provide access to the bottom bolts of the window regulator. Adjusting those bolts inward and outward allow you to tighten the window to seal seating. Maybe need to adjust the seating of the window to seal tighter. You could also check the window/seal seat with the door card and membrane removed...use a low pressure garden hose and try to locate the leak. Those seals are expensive! http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=804-10

The seal to window is fine all the way around, nice and tight, or so it seems. I have the door panel off, and have been spraying it, that was my first step in this whole procedure, to see where the water was coming in at. Seemed to be just coming in from the front end of the door seal where it meets the mirror. I replaced the outer seal, and now its leaking worse than before. I have adjusted the regulator with little to no success as well. I figured I would try adjusting exactly like the passenger door, no luck there either. I am at about all I can take with it, before I drive it off a cliff, lol. I am tired of seeing a water fall come in when everything looks fine. My only next solution is either take it to a body shop, porsche mech (I really hate to give up, especially when there is little to no parts involved, unless there is something else up in that door that I just cant see, but I doubt that as well, who knows), or I have a bad seal from the seller.

Pictures might help?

I'm not really sure how a picture is going to help. I have described everything as best as possible. If you have had a door panel off, you know there isnt much to take a picture off, and you can see your outer window seal every time you get in the car.