it's been raining round here and everytime it does my rear footwells fill with water, a LOT of water. in 12 hours I accumulated 3" of water on the floor. needless to say I don't keep my floormats in the car anymore.
so I've done a bit of searching (both through the posts and my car) and I am still scratching my head, although that's nothing new...

-the hood spring pockets are clear and drain properly
-the windshield vents (not sure what to call the two silver vents between the hood and the windshield) are clear and drain
- windshield seal is watertight
- weatherstripping at doors is acceptable, the rear doors aren't totally watertight but don't let in enough water to accumulate a 3" deep pond in the footwell
- rear windshield seal is old and is the most likely suspect, although there doesn't appear to be any evidence of it leaking. the hat shelf is dry and there is no rust back there...

is there anywhere else I should inspect or should I start raising koi in the benz?

__________________
'79 300D "Jaeger"
'61 VW Baja "Frosch"
'92 Honda Shadow 600
'80 Honda 185 (cafe project)

Do you have a sunroof? They also have drains.

I'd put my money on the rear windshield seal. It happened on my 75 240D. Both the front and rear seals are shot on my 80 300SD. Every time it rains, it puddles up pretty badly in the rear footwells.

__________________
1979 300SD
1975 240D

Also check behind the battery and the vacuum hose rubber boots in the door jambs.

__________________
2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I had the same problem and found it to be the rubber boot under the hood on the firewall that seals the steering wheel shaft. However my front mats were getting wet too which i don't think you mentioned.

Might also want to check behind the battery. Sometimes the battery acid eats away at the firewall and the pan that the battery sits on.

Cheers,

Bill

Changing the rear window seal totally fixed this for me. Also my trunk wells are dry too. It wasn't too bad of a job, really.

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

The vacuum boots in the front door jambs caused water to leak into my w115. The water would then travel to the rear foot wells and I often would have a few inches of water and sopping wet mats. I was going to replace the boots, but I could only find them for $80 apiece. Instead, I trimmed back what was remaining of the boots and filled the holes with silicone. This was a few weeks ago. We've had a few rain storms since then and the floors have remained dry.

once it dries out here I'll be replacing the rear windshield seal (assuming I can locate the replacement one I have hiding in the shop).
no sunroof.
I'll check the firewall behind the battery soon and inspect the vac line boots @ the doors.
no water in the front footwells (except during hard braking or hill descents )

__________________
'79 300D "Jaeger"
'61 VW Baja "Frosch"
'92 Honda Shadow 600
'80 Honda 185 (cafe project)

bhahl....make sure that silicone doesn't touch the metal parts. You'll get rust from the chemical reaction between the silicone and the metal.

You can use the gummy stuff that you put around the windshield. I can't think of the name of it but it's the black semi-hard stuff that comes in a roll. Your local windshield place will give you some.

Cheers,

Bill

Also check your antenna seal....

I too was getting water in the RIGHT REAR floor panel. I checked everything from drains, windows, etc. All were fine. I changed my antenna seal, because it was busted and I knew water was getting in the trunk there. Next thing I knew, my floor was DRY! Luckily it had not been leaking long and no rusting had occured. Still like new under the carpeting. I am guessing that the water was flowing over somehow and draining into that floor panel.

The cause of said irrigation in my 1979 240D was identical to the above. The battery tray was replaced, and the offending area sealed with a fearsome black substance. Sadly, I gave the car to an old friend, who then wrecked it. wie dumm von mir.

based upon the volume of water you describe:
(a) if this water is mostly on the floorboard(s) of the front seat, I vote for front window seal... how do you know the seal is OK?
(b) if this water is mostly on the rear seat floorboard(s), then I vote for rear window seal.
I replaced seal on both of the 1980(s) M-B I have purchased and fixed the leak problems.
(c) just on general principle I would remove the battery and really go after the drain holes that are on each side up at/near the firewall and do any necessary rust prevention while you are there !

I finally found a source for battery pans... for ~$50.00 !!!
Sam

[QUOTE=
I finally found a source for battery pans... for ~$50.00 !!!
Sam[/QUOTE]
Now come on, ya gotta list this gem give us a source...

vstech,
After some sleuthing around my old e-mail files, I luckily came up with the following information regarding a source for new battery pans:

On 3/13/06 Tomb@mbz.org responded with the following to my earlier parts search:
"The battery pan is $58.00 plus $9.00 shipping from Mercedes."

My original request was sent to: rusty@***************.

My take on this now is that the Dealer is where I was being told to go.

I'm not sure of the relationship between these two, [MBZ.org & ***************] but here is the information... so please correct me if I'm off base on any of my assumptions.

I hope this helps anyone actively looking for a battery pan for a 123 chassis cars.
Sam // Novato, CA