[pongool]

Happy New Year all!
Got into my 05 today and saw this on the pillar on the drivers side. It has been raining all day, but I have never had this issue before.
Has anyone had this happen to them, or does anyone have any idea how/why it has decided to rain inside my vehicle?
Any help is appreciated.

 

[habbyguy]

My guess is that there's a gap in the silicone sealant around your windshield - and the odds go up drastically if you have had the windshield replaced, or if you've noticed a bit too much wind noise in that area of the windshield. When I last had my windshield replaced, I saw a couple sizable gaps in the sealant at the bottom - never caused leaks (and besides, I live in the desert) but DID create a good bit of wind noise.

You might be able to force some extra sealant into the area to fix the leak, at least until your next windshield replacement (we do them frequently out west because of the predatory flying rocks here).

 

[habbyguy]

I should have added that you could potentially have a leak from the sunroof (probably be able to see the track of the water with the sunroof open if that's the case), or that you could possibly have a rust hole inside the windshield channel (this normally happens when a windshield installer nicks the paint and doesn't take the time to cover the nick with sealant or primer).

 

[pongool]

Thanks for the reply habbyguy. I haven't had any work done at all on my windshield. I "roto rootered" the sunroof drains and poured water in the channel and saw the water come out of the bottom of the vehicle near the front tires. Ugh...this sucks!

 

[pongool]

Not raining today (snowing instead) but I took the MDX to a car wash after looking and seeing nothing on the windshield that might suggest a gap.
No water seems to come into the cabin so that good. Last night the pillar was literally dripping on my leg.

 

[habbyguy]

Sounds like you might have fixed the problem when you cleaned out the sunroof drains. I'd tend to ignore it all until my leg got wet again. ;-)

 

[pongool]

As more snow fell in the CLE, more water landed on my lap!
I finally found the issue...I hope.
On the roof of the vehicle, there is a black rubber strip that runs the length of the roof. It somehow separated from the front top molding of the windshield. There was a tiny tiny separation, which of course is enough for plenty of water to get into.
I hopefully filled up the tiny gap with silicone that was used in a bathroom renovation. I'm hoping it holds. Luckily my vehicle is white and so is the silicone so it doesn't look too awful.
Hope this helps someone someday.
Thanks for the help!!!

 

[PQExpress]

Thanks for this post. I have had the same problem on my '03 MDX at the top of the driver side A Pillar. I checked the sunroof drain hole and it does drain and run out at the bottom of the car. Looking at the black vinyl seam strip on the roof, it did seem to be pushing the windshield gasket away from the roof edge. The strip slides back about an inch or so and I was able to put some silicone into the very small seam between the gasket and roof gap, then slide the strip back, but not enough to distort the windshield gasket. I also put a little silicone between the end of the strip and the top edge of the gasket. Its going to rain in the next day or so and I'll reply on how this fix worked.

 

[PQExpress]

I have tried a couple of times to add silicone to the small gap between the windshield gasket and the unit body, at the end of the channel where the black plastic strip is located. No luck, I still have a leak at the drivers side roof pillar (left A-Pillar). The last attempt was with "Flowable Silicone Windshield & Glass Sealer" by VersaChem bought at Auto Zone. It seems to work as advertised, and flowed into the suspect gap then solidified, but I still have the leak. Anyone know where else this leak might be coming from?

 

[habbyguy]

I'm betting that the leak is somewhere you won't get to it from outside the car. Here's a photo from today (just had the windshield replaced by Safelite after it was cracked by a rock thrown by a semi) that shows you what's under the windshield. The smooth(ish) part of the black silicon was up against the windshield, and is a little rough by being cut out with a "string cutter". You can see that any water that gets past the silicon sealant anywhere along the top of the windshield is going to run down to a low spot, which would be by your pillar.

If the windshield has been replaced, OR if the channel's been nicked and developed some rust, the seal between the windshield and body might not be 100%. If the water's not coming from the sunroof drain "system", it's almost certainly getting in around the silicon sealant that holds the windshield in place. You might get lucky and get it sealed with a liberal application of that sealer you bought, but you're probably going to have to apply it all the way across the top of the windshield, at least from the center out (if the leak was on the right side of the windshield, it would be leaking into that pillar).

 

[PQExpress]

I have had more wet carpet issues this past winter with the only evidence being wetness and drips from the lower part of the joint between the headliner and the A Pillar cover in the river side. I had put a flowable windshield sealer in the upper corners of the windshield gasket on both sides even thought the leak was just on the left side. That seemed to work last year, but in the fall and winter it was back, then after some very cold weather here in Connecticut in last December and January the leak got worse. I've removed the left visor and grab handle and pulled down the headliner a little to try to see what's going on. There was a some black mode in the lowest point of headliner right where it meets the A Pillar cover and it also looked like it extended up toward the top edge of the windshield, so yesterday I applied the flowable sealer to the whole left half of the top of the windshield by pulling the gasket back and squeezing the sealer in behind it. It rained today and I still have wetness up there. It may be coming from the sheet metal cavities under the roof. I am wondering if there is a leaking seam under the black plastic strip that runs the length of the roof where the roof racks mount. Does anyone know how to remove that black plastic strip without braking it? I'll also sealing the top edge of the windshield again, as well as the right side. And by the way, I pulled back the inner fender liner on both sides and sealed the firewall seam as described by DAVY in his very helpful post, just for goodness although I did not think I was getting leakage from there, but who knows maybe I have more than one leak. The carpets got very wet in the past month.

 

[ssri]

If you are still having the leak, I once had it myself, it was coming from the sun-roof. Here is what happened for me - there is a drain hole in the sunroof which drains the water through the windshield pillar into the fender area. I would suggest you open the sunroof and pour some water in the area where you find a drain hole, if the water clears the area, it is not your drain hole, if it does, this is the culprit. This was very hard for me to detect, but once I unclogged the drain hole, the leak was gone.