Now that the serious winter rain has arrived my car has wet carpet on the passenger side. It gets very wet, I have been using the commercial shop vac at work to keep it under control. Today was the first decent day on my weekend so I started diagnosis. This is a sunroof car so I started there. With the roof open I could reach the front drains, so with a rubber tipped blow gun I gave it a little air. No restriction in the drain hoses. Next I removed the trim and the passenger side fuse panel. I have the FSM and have read the drain descriptions and reviewed the drawings. I also have a sunroof parts car apart to check locations. I could not see the bottom of the drain hose, it comes down inside the pillar and ends just above the rocker panel. The rocker panel has rubber drain plugs in four spots along the bottom. I pulled out the front one for inspection, no problems found-no dirt or rust present. Next a pitcher of water down the right front sunroof drain, the problem was obvious. There is a factory hole with a factory sticky patch over it. The sticky patch was about 1/8” too low and a nice stream of water was squirting out just behind the fuse panel. This car lived on the dry side of Washington State since new so this was probably not noticed. Now it lives in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, it rains from the middle of October until mid July. We have some really good asphalt based sticky stuff at work that I will put over the clear gorilla tape patch. I will leave the trim off and the carpet up to dry and observe. Should know by next weekend if this fixes it.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Happy Turkey Day to you too, Andy. I hope that fixes your leak. I was going to suggest a blocked cowl drain, but don't even know it that model has them!

 

The carpet is still dry, when I get a somewhat dry day I will put the interior back together! For the win!

 

Congratulations, 02 LW300! I'm sure this must be a big relief for you.

 

Exactly, I was using the shop vac at work to keep ahead of the flood.