Interior Water Puddle Windshield Gasket Replacement

A puddle of water develops on the drivers side floor of my 1970 BMW 2002 after a rain. The windshield and the door seem well sealed. Immediately below the dashboard is dry except for capillary dampness in the rug. Where does this come from?

Author: Stephen C. Gautie

I also came across this confounding problem — water puddle forming on the drivers side but no visible means of identifying from where it came.

From personal experience, the water was leaking in from the bottom corner (drivers side) of the windshield. My windshield rubber also seamed to be dry and sealed but once the rubber was pulled up you could see the dampness. The only real long term fix was to have the complete windshield seal replaced. In the interim, my short term solution was to some clear bathroom caulking to patch the corner and keep further water from getting in.

Before going the distance with the windshield, first make sure you check the door. Not just the rubber seals, but also check the window strips and the plastic sheeting covering the door (under the door panel). Any one, or all three, could be suspect.

Whether the problem is stemming from the door or the windshield, you should get this fixed as soon as possible. These types of leaks are common and are the root cause for rusted out floor-pans — and that’s a much bigger job you really want to avoid.

One last word on replacing the windshield rubber gasket, make double, tipple sure the person who undertakes the job actually has experience doing this on a BMW model 2002. The first person I hired (from a auto glass company) talked about having 15 years experience and “could replace any windshield out there”. Well, four hours later, the job was finally done — but done wrong and it leaked. I ended up having to purchase another windshield gasket and hiring yet another company to do the job.

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