I had the same problem in the same spot. I unclogged the hood hinge drain and caulked the windshield gasket hoping that would fix it, but to no avail. Turns out the drains must have been clogged for some time and rusted a hole near the drain and water leaked down the A pillar(I believe that is what the area is called) and rusted a tiny on the drivers side wall by the emergency brake. I still need to figure out how to do a rust repair in that area. I hope your problem has an easier fix.

I have water in the driver's side footwells, dripping off the hood release lever and the parking brake pedal, puddling in the back.

I just did a windshield gasket, I have done the cowl drains, and stay on top of the sheet metal drains in the engine compartment. I scraped and caulked the hood hinge cubbies.

I don't have water on the passenger side (that was my first wagon! ) but I pulled the battery tray on this one anyway, found some surface rust, scraped, sanded and primed the firewall, and did the batter tray for the heck of it.

I still have water, although it seems to have lessened a bit after the windshield gasket. It is a real pain in the winter when the front and rear carpet padding freezes. Try driving four hours with your feet on a block of ice.

My next task (spring) is the sunroof drains, but my tech is convinced they are not the problem. That, and actually running goop around the windshield gasket (as prescribed by the MB service manual, actually) are the only things left.

I searched the forum here and heard differing views on windshield gasket goop. Some (including the windshield guy, who is convinced my problem is the roof rails) argue that the gasket will "seat" itself without the goop, and the differing qualities of the gasket and the goop as well as the hardening of the goop over time, will cause problems. I figured I would try it dry first, then goop it if I still had problems.

BTW, the caulking I used on my hinge area was gutter sealant. I used some once on a leaking chimney joint and that stuff works! I used grey in the engine compartment, may get a tube of black for the windshield gasket.

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Peter
1985 300TD 4-speed 212K
1992 400E 343K
2001 E320 72K

I have the wet hood release lever and emergency brake pedal also in the wagon. It isn't the hood drains, sunroof drains. I haven't replaced the windshield gasket, but have used windshield seal around the outer edges, and that lessened "Lake Back Seat" quite a bit.
I need to replace my rubber diaphrams in my vent pods under dash, and will leave dash off so I can watch it during a rain. My dash is out of the parts car, and when it rains you can see it coming in all around the rubber seal, top and bottom.
The hood hinge drains get a ton of water that runs down the windshield, and down that A-Pillar outter gutter......

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

There's zillions of places where the water can enter, in my 200D it was from a hole under the battery tray and on the driver's side the water entered the fuse box and ruined 2 conectors what lead to some electrical problems!

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Mercedes fanatic

1985 200D (w124) and totaled 190D

All because the drain tubes where completly clogged!

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Mercedes fanatic

1985 200D (w124) and totaled 190D

I have the A-pillar covers off of my '83 300D turbo and the water comes in about midway down the pillar through one of the pillar holes on both sides. I tend to think its the rail/gutters leaking too. It drips down and fills both back floorboards. It will do this parked in the driveway. I tried to remove the gutter trim and reseal it but I couldn't get it loose after removing the three screws. Now it leaks more.

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'83 300DT
'04 Forester XT--modified
'61 Beetle EFI Turbo
Burley recumbant

If it comes out there I would definitely check out where the metal of the sunroof connects to the rubber tube that runs down the A-pillar. The sunroof forward edges form a metal tube, which fits into the rubber line running down the A-pillar. Seems like that piece above your sun visors has to come off to see where they connect.

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

I don't have a sunroof. That leaves only the gutter trim near the windshield or water from the windshield seal, right? There is a tube running down the drivers side but I just assumed it had the dome light wiring in it.

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'83 300DT
'04 Forester XT--modified
'61 Beetle EFI Turbo
Burley recumbant

Kafer or anyone else, could you direct me to where exactly the A pillar covers are. I would like to check mine. Mine had a tiny rust pinhole up about 1 foot on the from the floor board by the emergency brake. I put rubber sealant on the inside but would like to do a more permanent fix so it doesn't rust further.

I don't think you guys realise that the inner floor insulation had become porous after these many years. Even one day with a "lake" of water in the passenger floor well has already created a rust sandwich between inner and under insulations. Believe me, I found out the hard way. You gotta get these cars as dry inside as humanly possible before it's too late. I'm thinking the factory must have known these cars were going to leak eventually interior wise or they wouldn't have installed so many rubber drain grommets inside.
Do a search on floor board rust and you'll see what water leaks can do.

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1981 240d
Newport,RI

Oh, believe me I'm painfully aware of what water damage does and takes to repair. See my avatar. Literally all of the bottom 4 inches of metal on that car (pillars,firewall, heater channels and much of the window frames)are all me and my welder! The A-Pillar cover is what I call the plastic trim that covers the post that holds up the roof between the windshield and the front door on the inside. The post that has the front door hinge but higher up about where your face would hit the car if you weren't wearing your seatbelt and were hit at an angle on your front turn signal light.

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'83 300DT
'04 Forester XT--modified
'61 Beetle EFI Turbo
Burley recumbant

After some testing during some rainy days I DEFINELY have leaky windshield rubber. I really don't want to but I guess I'll have to put one in this spring if I want to dry the car out. I also found that one of the taillights leaks too. I have a name for my car now--Nemo.

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'83 300DT
'04 Forester XT--modified
'61 Beetle EFI Turbo
Burley recumbant

I have the same problem on my 85 300cd. I am pretty sure ithe water is not coming from the door side of the body, but after reading these posts, it is possible it is coming from the emerg brake area. My floor mats and carpet are wet only on that side , and quite a bit of water accumulates there.

On the top of the hood is a black plastic vent, near the windshield wipers that had a broken rubber hose that attached in the engine compartment side. I took it off, it looked like it just circulated fresh air into the engine compartment. Could that be a problem. It was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and was open ended on the engine side. I haven't looked for other areas yet, because I thought it was coming in from the door area.

Could you provide more info to help me isolate, thanks,

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85 300CD Turbo "Das Polluter" 230K sold for $3,000

98 BMW 323is

spugeddy,

That hose is a drain for the cowl area. It is supposed to be open inside the engine compartment. It should NOT be clogged. The only way to be sure is to pull off the vent covers and make sure the area underneath is clear of debris. It gets muddy in there.

Some folks have reported water dripping off that hose onto cables or wires coming in at the drivers' feet. You could caulk the holes in the firewall.

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Peter
1985 300TD 4-speed 212K
1992 400E 343K
2001 E320 72K

thyere was a recent sale going on for windsheilds- I looked into it and found i could get new glass installed for $200. of course, a new seal would be in order. It was safelite compnay- google there website and you can check the prices.

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1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.