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Pontiac Bonneville Water Leaks

146 messages,  Last post on Feb 29, 2012 at 10:48 AM

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What is this discussion about? Pontiac Bonneville, Sedan

Messages Page 12 of 15

#107 of 146 Re: rocky74, rmgoat78 [2004bonne] by maurice142

Jan 16, 2010 (8:14 am)

Replying to: 2004bonne (Jan 15, 2010 8:56 pm)
hi,
i have a 05 se, my leak is in the trunck. it comes from my sun roof, hoe's your tranny

#108 of 146 Re: Water Issues [feedex] by njpontiaclover

Jan 18, 2010 (11:09 pm)

Replying to: feedex (Nov 15, 2007 2:32 pm)
Hello there,
 
I too also do have a 1999 pontiac bonneville. I have had several times of a tremendous amount of water in the trunk that was where I had first seen the water and was trying to track it down and for months was unsuccessful until I took off the tires to rotate them and looked into the rear fenderwell and to my admise I found that the entire fender well was rotted out. It was a very big piece of cancer on the body and was hidden well with the undercoating. I have to still repair the fender well and hope that will cure some of the flooding that my car seems to be getting as I have it in the trunk to the back seat and also the front seat as well as it seems to travel underneath. I also do have a sunroof as well and will have to check on the drains to see if I can find out if they are clogged. Does anyone know where all the drains are located at and where they would drain out to and end out coming out of the body at so that I can try to fish some wire up there to open it up as well as some air from air compressor?
 
Thanks,

#109 of 146 Re: Water Issues [njpontiaclover] by imidazol97

Jan 19, 2010 (6:27 am)

Replying to: njpontiaclover (Jan 18, 2010 11:09 pm)
I have read once of someone having the wheel well rust through and allow wheel splash water into the trunk. They repaired it with a piece of galvanized metal and rivets and silicon caulking.
 
For the sunroof, do not use compressed air because it may pop the hoses off the connections and then you will have a leak. You might try suction from a shop vacuum to draw gunk back up and out.
 
Test by using small amounts of water into each corner of the sunroof and watch to see if it comes out. For the fronts, they drain behind the front wheels. I do not know where the rear drains empty.

#110 of 146 1995 Bonneville Water Leaks by syberbrat

Jan 27, 2010 (1:50 am)

I Recently purchased a 1995 Bonneville with significant headliner damage and very wet floors (all 4 floorboard areas) I suspected, before I purchased - that it had the notorious sunroof drain tube(s) problem that is mentioned in many forums. I am in the process of gutting and replacing the headliner, however I was fooling with it tonight in order to perform a temp fix on the drain tubes and found the following problems:
 
The drains are made of very brittle plastic. I put this subject on the top 10 design and manufacturer blunders of all time! I have had sunroof cars for over 25 years, and I don't think I have ever experienced such inferior made products, in such an important area of an automobile. Not only do people on these forums ask where they can ‘pull the plug’ in the floorboards, but also some mention that wiring is corroding because of water damage - all of which has possibly happened in as new as 2005 models.
 
So anyway, after removing all the screws and plastic clips, I partially pulled back the front passenger corner of the headliner. There was evident water damage in this area where the material had separated from the foam backing of the headliner. Carefully pulling the corner away from the pillar, I noticed the 3/8" size black-brittle-tubing (loom or flex style tubing) had separated from the drain boot on the sunroof pan. As I gently touched the tubing a 3" section broke off and fell apart in my hand. As a side note, I involve and teach my children about cars and at the time of this issue, my 16 yr. old daughter and 10 yr. old son witnessed this diagnosis - they both concluded it was unnecessarily bad drain tubing. I also removed the front passenger fender to check for blockage at the end of the drain system, for which I did find a very large mud blockage that could have been a restricting factor had the system not already been compromised in other locations. I suspect that the drivers side front fender will also have some sort of debris blockage.
Note: you can not see this particular blockage without unbolting and spreading the fender and fender-well away from the inner structure of the car, basically removing the front fenders.
 
I am an experienced fabricator with knowledge in the manufacturing and automotive industry, so fixing this problem (the right way) is not going to be a problem. Whatever advice that any of you would be kind enough to reply, will be appreciated and considered. I will also post any helpful information after the repairs have been performed.
 
Before I go any further though, does any one know for sure if there are additional drain tubes in the back of the sunroof pan toward the trunk? The windshield has a crack in it and so installing a new headliner when I replace the windshield will be much easier, but I wanted to be more prepared with additional tubing if I knew there were more drains?
 
I think we would all agree..... besides the mere purpose of getting from point A to point B in an automobile, we would like to stay warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and by all means, dry all year around!

#111 of 146 Re: 1995 Bonneville Water Leaks [syberbrat] by rocky74

Jan 27, 2010 (4:56 am)

Replying to: syberbrat (Jan 27, 2010 1:50 am)
To Syberbrat:
I am very impressed with your work on the front fenders. I'm just a middle-aged female with no particular skill regarding cars, so I am not able to do this work myself, and trying to figure out where to start to get the leaks worked out. You wouldn't happen to live near me in PA, would you? I could use some help.

#112 of 146 Water issue by sammz111

Apr 01, 2010 (8:30 pm)

I just purchased my first car last week a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville SE (no sunroof)
 
Today i got new car mats and went outside to go change them as i started to take the old ones off i noticed they were damp (it rained a day before) so i put my hand directly on the floorboards, the back ones had so much water underneath them that the best way to describe it was like a tiny water bed and they were completely soaked, we then checked the front ones they were soaked as well but not like the back ones, i then opened up the trunk to find that when i opened it the water must have been in the spoiler because it leaked right into the trunk. The trunk was also completely soaked along with the whole trunk mat. We found i guess the "A/C condensation Drain plug"? i was reading other posts on this site and my dad put a screw driver in it and for a good 30 mins water was rushing out of that little thing. Then when i went out later that night the car was completely dead so im not sure if this water had something to do with it Also nothing else in the car was wet just the floorboards and all the seals on the doors look good but i dont know anything about cars.
 
From what i can tell though something is definitely wrong with the trunk but that was the least wet part in the car so i cant really see that just from one rainfall all that water got into the car just from the trunk.
 
I really am not sure what the problem is, could it have just been that the trunk had a small leak in it and the last owner never knew and that it accumulated so much over time and the a/c thing was clogged that, that is why all that water was built up there....or do i have a bigger problem on my hand where i have some monster leak somewhere
 
Anything would be great just so i know where to start and if this is a problem Bonneville's have
 
thanks, Sam

#113 of 146 Re: Water issue [sammz111] by njpontiaclover

Apr 01, 2010 (9:29 pm)

Replying to: sammz111 (Apr 01, 2010 8:30 pm)
Dear Sam,
 
I just wanted to let you know that I too did a posting in here several months ago as to water issues with my 1999 Pontiac Bonnevillle SLE. I do have a sunroof though but upon review of the car and checking it out thoroughly I found a HUGE HOLE in the passenger side rear quarter panel wheel well where I would say I must have taken out about 12 gallons of water from as I had to empty my shop vac 4x and if you look under the spare tire area I had about 2 inches of water in there not to mention that the padding that was in the trunk was water logged as well. It appears that since I repaired the holes that I found in the rear wheel well that all is fine now and we have had some severe flooding here in NJ and I have been thru water that was up to the doors and since the fix of repairing the holes with a sheet of aluminum and some clear waterproof silicone sealer and lots of aluminum rivits as you dont want to use steel as to the rust, and then undercoated the aluminum with rubberized undercoating to protect even further. it appears there are no more leaks in the trunk and my floorboards are dry. I was even thinking that oh boy I will have to send out the vehicle to the sunroof shop to clear the drains out which I still will do as it has been 11 years but all is dry and I am very happy I hope that maybe you find the same problem and are able to fix it as well. I recommend taking the rear tire off and checking the undercoating very good as you will be surprised as to the amount of water that gets in from just a little hole. I hope this will help solve your leaks
 
Gary

#114 of 146 Re: Water issue [sammz111] by kts0347

Apr 03, 2010 (3:14 pm)

Replying to: sammz111 (Apr 01, 2010 8:30 pm)
Yes, it's a good idea to check for rust penetration as a possible source of leaks. My trunk also leaked and I lay inside while a friend ran a water hose over the deck lid. I discovered that water was coming in UNDER the truck lid weatherstripping. It is glued down at the factory, and over the years the glue had dried out. I bought the correct glue at an auto supply store, pulled off the weatherstrip and re-glued it. This cut down the flow, but I didn't use enough glue to stop it. So I siliconed all around the outer edge of the weatherstrip and it stopped leaking.
I had another leak at the bottom side edge of my rear window. The sealer there had also dried out. A gob of silicone on a stick to reach the right spot fixed that. And, then there was a leak where the Factory had applied sealer on the metal joints at the tail lights. More silicone. And, there are several screws penetrating the sheet metal. They have sealer under the washers. All dried out. More silicone. And, finally the sunroof tubes. They exit out the rear just behind the wheel wells. They have a slip on connection right at that spot. If it comes disconnected, the water runs right into the trunk. It all heads for the spare tire well. You don't discover it until you have a serious amount of water in there.
 
Also, your other problem of the battery being dead is probably because you developed a short under your floor carpets, due to all the water in there. There are a lot of wires running under there, to the power seats, as well as to the rear of the car. Many areas for a water penetration to cause a short. Sounds like the AC condensor was the culprit in your case. But, you still have the electrical problem, as well as a very smelly floor mat. I removed mine (there's a huge amount of foam rubber on the underside that just sponges up the water) in order to clean it. You can get a product at Home Depot/Lowes that will remove the mildew. Check in an earlier post in this thread for the product name. Then let it air dry before replacing. You have to pull the seats to get the carpet out. Kinda heavy job for one person, but do-able.

#115 of 146 Only three things are certain in (a Bonneville) life. by kts0347

Apr 03, 2010 (3:20 pm)

They say the only things certain in life are death and taxes.
The other thing you can be sure of with a Bonneville of that age - it will have leaks. You either fix them, or wear rubber boots.

#116 of 146 Re: Water issue [sammz111] by 2004bonne

Apr 05, 2010 (11:13 am)

Replying to: sammz111 (Apr 01, 2010 8:30 pm)
Sam, I too had water pooling in all 4 sections of the floor - both driver and passenger. I also had water pooling in the spare tire hold of the trunk but mysteriously, that has stopped.
 
For the floor boards, I had two problem areas. I had leaks coming in through both the passenger and driver doors. Also, I had a small leak that was coming in along the windshield wiper arm (driver side) and draining in to the driver floor through the firewall.
 
For the doors, water naturally drips inside the door coming in through the window cracks. It is supposed to drain out the bottom. Some of the drips splash against a plastic shield and if sealed properly, the shield deflects the water and it drains out the bottom of the door and outside the car. If the plastic shield isn't sealed properly, the water will leak into the car and get your front and back mats soaked.
 
Solution is to pop off the door panel and test it for leaks. You'll need some auto body tools to help you get it off. Take your time and find some directions for removing the panel. Once you get the panel off, test it for leaks by running water from the hose against the outside of the window so that it drains inside the door. You will see how it drips. If the plastic shield is working correctly, the drips will not come through the shield. If it is not working properly, you will need to purchase some caulking at the autoparts store and re-seal it. It is the same caulking they use to seal windshields when they are replaced - very tacky and black - about 3/8" thick.
 
Seal up the plastic shield and try running water again to see if the leak stopped.
 
Try both doors. I didn' have a leak in the back doors.
 
Good luck.

Messages Page 12 of 15

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