Door seals?

[ZX-14]

My driver side floor board carpet is soaked. Had the car parked outside when it rained. I looked at the door seals with door raised, they look and feel fine. There was a little water inside the by the "T" towards the back and the windshield, but other then that, nothing.
The bottom seal, between my carpet and plastic running board is constantly being pushed off of where it should be stapled, but no other clue where all that water could be coming from.

Any ideas? Could the doors be out of alignment enough to let water in?

[DavidProehl]

Could your windshield drain be leaking? Try pouring a bucket of water on the driver's side of your windshield and see if there are any fresh drips forming. Maybe the seal there is bad or the plastic cracked.

[ZX-14]

Windshield drain- can it be accessed from under the hood or from the inderside of the firewall? It looks like it's coming from the front lower area of driver door, will go to the car wash and check it out.

Thanks

[DMCMW Dave]

Windshield drain- can it be accessed from under the hood or from the inderside of the firewall? It looks like it's coming from the front lower area of driver door, will go to the car wash and check it out.

Thanks

Make sure that all the screws that hold the grill just below the windshield are in place and sealed. They are 1/8" holes in the rain gutter!


Also check for RTV around the bump stops. The windshield actually drains through a hole just above the fuel pump, but if that is plugged you'll generally flood the blower motor.

[WelmoedJ]

You can put talcum powder on the door seals.
On places where the seal lets water in, the powder will be gone.

Using that powder in the rain gutter won't be of much help as it's washed away in heavy rain.

Did you also check if the headliner on the door edges is not soaked with water?
If so, there headliner folded around the body - underneath the door seal - may have edges too far into the T-panel's rain gutter.
That will soak up water and you'll get it into the interior.

[outatym2001]

Both Doors don't seal very well at the bottom. It's just a fact of life.
Try this.
Open both of your Doors and lay one sheet of paper across the Door Sill. Make sure the paper lays across the existing black rubber Inner Door Seal.
Next close the Doors.
Now pull on the paper. Is there any resistance? Yes?/No? If No then that means the bottom of the Doors do not touch the black rubber inner Door Seal.
You can try attaching a self adhesive black sponge rubber weatherstrip onto the stainless steel Door where the Door is supposed to seal against the existing black rubber inner Door Seal.
I saw that Toby Peterson (the owner of DeLorean Motor Company Northwest) added a thin black sponge rubber seal onto both of his Doors only along the bottom and not the entire Door.
Adding that seal I hope will keep the water out that is trickling down the vertical channel that the existing inner Door Seal lays next to.
I have been meaning to do this to my DeLorean for a long time now as I have found water laying on the black vinyl and rubber Door seal when I open the Door after a heavy rain.

Stevedmc posted this in his thread below.
If your "stock" door seals are still intact you could probably leave them installed and install a thinner piece of weather stripping on the doors as well. In my opinion that would be the ultimate way to keep water out.

Door seal mod with product from Lowes
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?445-Door-seal-mod-with-product-from-Lowes

[jackb]

The bottom seal, between my carpet and plastic running board is constantly being pushed off of where it should be stapled, but no other clue where all that water could be coming from.
The same thing happens to mine; the lower seal doesn't move a ton, but I notice it's a bit off, only in front part of that seal though.
The lower seals on both my doors aren't in the best shape either. The passenger side is crumbly and the drivers side has a permanent "fold" in it, like it was held in the wrong position for too long and now it won't go back. The drivers side "fold" lines up to where the water comes in on my car. I ordered new seals last week and they arrived today, so I'll see what happens after that the next time it rains...