wet carpet and at the end of my tether... SOLVED!!

I'm getting a wet drivers footwell and for the life of me cannot find where it's coming from. Please can anyone help?! It's a 2002 996t... So, what I've tried so far: 1. Sunroof drains: seem to be clear, as in I've poured water down them and it comes out under the car 2. AC evaporator - located the drain pipe above the passenger side footwell, again seems clear (I blew down it... ) 3. Front scuttle drains: every search on I do comes up with the same diagram of the car and the location of these drains, but tbh it's not the most detailed diagram and appears to be for pre-facelift cars. This diagram shows 4 "radiator tank" drains and one "tank tray" drain - god alone knows what these names mean. Anyway, I've removed the plastic covers either side of the battery and there seem to be two holes either side, one has a rubber "bung" that tapers to a point but is open, the other is just a hole in the metal. Pouring water down all 4 of these (two either side of the battery) again results in water dripping under the car. These therefore seem clear. 4. Drain under battery? Several discussion threads seem to imply there is a drain under the battery and this can get blocked. Today I took the battery out and the metal tray it sits on. There is no drain hole under it, in fact the two holes in the metal identified in 3. above seem to open directly in to the void this reveals (pic below, the drivers side hole is near where the green line ends). 5. Door membranes? The door card carpet is bone dry and the water in the foot well is collected in the far corner, just about under the brake pedal. The carpet between this and the door is dry. I'm thinking this pretty much means the drivers door membrane is OK. 6 Windscreen? The car has had a new windscreen in the last 4k miles. The area directly under the windscreen revealed when you take off the plastic covers either side of the battery is dry - so I'm guessing (and hoping) the windscreen isn't to blame. Have I missed anything?? I'm going spare, any help greatly appreciated!

As the wet patch is located around brake pedal is there the chance it may be brake fluid from the master cylinder? Had this issue in past, not sure of cylinder location on Porsche.

Car leaks have been the bain of my life, I'm jinxed with them. Fortunately though, I'm now an expert in resolving them. My advice to you would be: 1. First identify whether it's rain water or from something else: coolant, oil, etc. 2. Do you park on a hill or is the car on the flat? 3. Is the carpet wet in the back too (stick your fingers between the two carpets between the bottom of the rear footwell and under the front of the rear seat -feel the foam under the rear carpet - is it wet)? 3. Peel the carpet back from the floor pan around the edge, ie. take your rear side liners off (where your speakers are housed, carpet round the door trim, top of the foot wells - you need to expose the internal body work all round the inside of the car or drivers side anyway). 4. sit in the car with a good torch whilst your hose is strapped to the roof of the car. Also try round the windscreen, etc. You should see water trickling in wherever it's coming from. My worst issue was a drain hole in a sill on my CLK. The sill would fill with water and when it did, it then overspilled into the car. No garage could find the fault at all and after shorting out 2 lambda sensors, I eventually did the job myself and fixed it. Biatch of a job to do but worth it. Worst was a not so good one on an Audi A6 with tip box. ECU was in the footwell and fried. Car was written off.

You need to start at the wet patch and work your way back, it's the only way to fully understand the problem.

Don't know if this is much help but I had a problem with our old Golf GTi. It turned out to be the sealed panel behind the door card. The drain holes in the bottom of the door, that allow water that gets down between window rubbers to escape out the bottom, were blocked. Water filled up in the outer sealed area and then came through the failed seal. You'd never have known from looking or feeling the door card itself that this was where the problem lie. The carpet was also dry next to the front door in question and soaking wet in the rear footwell! Good Luck!

Do you park on a gradient? front end down. If so could be collecting there but coming from the back.

Are there any grommets missing In the floor? Could water be splashing up / in?

Thanks for the responses everyone. Bakerboy4s - it's definitely water, but good thought re brake fluid Alex - pretty sure it's rainwater. I haven't driven the car in the last few days but the car has been rained on considerably, and now the carpet is very wet! Good advice re tracking down the source, I'll get in there with a torch at the weekend. God knows what the neighbours will think... GP41 - yes, I'll keep in mind I haven't absolutely ruled out the door membrane yet. M9JOC - I do park on a slope, but the water is always in pretty much the same place whether I park facing up or down. BenC - the car has been stationary (but in the rain), and it's now worse than ever Can anyone confirm I have identified all the drain holes in the scuttle? Seems strange that there would be one hole with a rubber grommet and one just a hole in the metal. Can someone with a turbo or C4S coupe (and with dry carpets...) have a look and post some pictures of what they see?

Tell them you lost 5p.

One thing's for sure, when (not if) you do find the source and fix it, it will be really, really, really satisfying. :grin: Hang in there (And yes, your neighbours will think you've lost the plot....)

Did you notice any wetness prior to having the screen replaced? It seems too much of a coincidence to me, and if the screen is leaking it will leak into the interior at the rear of the dashboard then run down the bulkhead in to the footwell and give you the exact symptoms you have The area in front of the scuttle shown in your pic is designed to get wet and so long as there isn't pools of water in there you should be ok, the hole exposed by removing the battery plate is not a way for the water to get into the interior, that's actually the top of the fuel tank your looking at. Something worth checking in the scuttle area (where the battery lives) is the pollen filter, check it's the correct one and that it's fitted correctly, also I'm sure there should be a shield plate above it to stop water saturating the filter and getting in that way. I would get a helper to run a hose over the roof and screen and then look as high up the footwells as you can to see if you can see any water running down the bulkhead. Mac

Double post!!!

The windscreen was fitted by the previous owner so don't know if they're connected. Definitely a possibility though. The pollen filter is dry. I'll get in there with a torch over the weekend but I really hope it's not the windscreen. Actually, whatever, I just want to find the damn leak...

I know of one example where all these things had been tried to no avail. It was a full dash strip and re-fit, sealing as its all put back together. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

Op: where are you based? Or where does the car live? If you're on my travels somewhere, I'll happily pass by to cast my eye over the windscreen and (hopefully) eliminate it from the list.