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GK3 · Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Cape Coral, FL

When it comes a good heavy rain, the floorboard in my backseat will be wet. I cannot find the source of where this water is coming from as there are no stains on any of the upholestry. Anyone have any idea where this water might be coming from and how I can stop it from happening???

Any help would be much appreciated.

BTW the car is a 99 4 door E46 323i
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I don't feel tardy - Diamond Dave

87 325
99 323i

bearing01 · Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 520 Location: San Diego

Have the window regulators been changed on this car? Any reason why the vapor barrier inside the doors of this car may have been unsealed? I would hose the car down and then inspect the bottom inside metal portion of the doors, just where the door panel meets the door metal. If there's water there (on the inside of the car) then it's leaking in from the door vapor barrier. The fix is to remove the door panel and remove the vapor barrier. You can get a replacement at the dealership or make your own with a piece of heavy plastic. Use Butyl tape to go around the door to seal the barrier to the door. If making a plastic one then you'll have to stetch the plastic in the area where the door panel speaker lives... to make space for the speaker. Make sure the foam o-ring gaskets go back on the plastic pegs that hold the door panel onto the door. Without those o-rings the door pegs will leak.

Other than that I can only think of maybe sunroof drains that are clogged and overflowing. I don't know where they drain to on the E46. If their drains were plugged then they could potentially overflow... maybe flood the back seat.

GK3 · Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Cape Coral, FL

The window regulators have been replaced in the back and I'm thinking that might be the cause (vapor barrier damage).

Does anyone have an idea how much the dealer charges to replace this?
_________________
I don't feel tardy - Diamond Dave

87 325
99 323i

bearing01 · Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 520 Location: San Diego

Then it is very likely that it is the rear door vapor barriers. Same thing happened to me. I decided to fix mine myself considering if the BMW tech was that poor or careless not to do it correct the first time then I was not going to bother with trying to fight BMW to do shabby work again.

It's actually quite easy to fix it yourself. You can buy all the parts at the dealer.

This thread may give you some inspiration:
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=356847&highlight

The rear doors are the same except they don't have the air bag (no need to disconnect the battery). The only special tool you need is a torx head screw driver to get the screws in the armrest.