Beretta.net

Just wanted to pass along kudos for this forum having excellent diagnostic resources for detecting a leak. Yes, I finally had to deal with water in the front and back passenger footwells. I removed the seat, and raised the carpet. Also removed dash trim and glove box. I removed the air shield and passenger wiper arm, as well as the metal air intake cover. Found two leaks: First one was at the ECM connector (as described in the leak diagnostics). Covered that area with GE silicone II. Second leak was large hole (sorry, no pics, but it was the length and width of a horizontal index finger) just below the cowling drain flapper (directly below the blower motor). I filled that hole from the inside with polyurethane roofing sealant and a scrap piece of stainless steel sheet. Spray with hose, no leaks. Need to dry out carpet and liner material, but I think that I have it. Can't stress enough how much easier leak detection is with the seat removed and the carpet lifted. Sadly, rust is beginning to take over on this car, but we are hopeful to get the odometer over 200K -- 3K left to go.

I had some water issues as well, under the wiper cover looks brand new but i re sealed the seams anyways, and around the steering shaft and wire connectors and where the shifter cables come through, i noticed some water on the driver side over the winter but dont know where its coming in i even tryed checking when it was pouring rain, i have to remove my dash to finish it 1 of these days and pulling engine soon as i build my new one so will seal everything then.

I noticed water in the trunk too, my car has no rust, no holes, all the seams look mint. with all the factory sealant looking new still, i checked when it was raining and... on the rear corner there is a lip below the tail light in the corner.. the water is running off the body down to that corner and coming in a little crack i guess in the sealant. was the same on both corners.

This is what I was trying to show and describe in my tear down on how the leak is not in the cowl as we always thought. The only place the cowl can leak is the fresh air vent if thats not properly sealed. Everything else is at the base of firewall where it mates with the floor pan, the seam in the cowl is an exterior seam and if you seal inside that area all your doing is directing the water toward the drain flappers, Granted yes thats a good thing since the water won't get in between the stamped firewall and the cowl part, but it is not leaking in if that sealant is bad.

I ripped of all the factory firewall sealant and re-sealed it... I'm hoping it fixes any leaks I had and keeps them away.

Right side seam





Left side seam, goes all the way around the booster... I had to re-seal the whole thing and I did have some flakey rust down at the bottom, no holes though.







I also did seal all up in the cowl on the corners and in the middle to direct the water out properly.

And of course it also got a good coat of bedliner... so that should help the sealing process as well.