My car is a 1984 Mercedes 300 turbo diesel. Today I recently got around to finding where my car with leaking water. it leaks water on the driver footwell it does so during rainfall. I remove the dashboard panel to look what was happening above. Then I had somebody pour water in the driver cowl so I could see it leak in action. I I found out it seems to leak behind a black box but I don't know where. it's definitely coming out of a hose of some sort. Can anyone give me ideas of where it could be leaking from? I included a picture. Thank you so much! https://i.imgur.com/z0eVP02.jpg

kind of a crap picture, but my piss in the wind diagnostic would be the evap drains. do a google search or search here, they're sort of a foam hose that deteriorates and flood the cabin with water when it rains. somewhat of a common problem with age.

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Allen Kroliczek
Oak Grove Autosport | Oak Grove Autosport
01 G500, 82 300TD, quite a few more.....

I believe that evap hose is only for carrying out condensate from the AC. He is getting a leak from rain, not AC.

As I remember the evap hose is on the passenger side about at his left knee. It fits on a nipple and goes down and out the bottom of the vehicle. Drains water condensate from the AC and clogs up frequently. But easy to unclog.

Does not sound like your problem.

Would I do any harm if I sealed up the cowl cover from where its leaking? My car is turning into a lake.

You would be effectively blocking the air intake for your heat/air conditioner, but I don't think it would hurt anything unless you turned the fan on.

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Milan Brown 1979 240D, rebuilt OM617.952 turbo diesel, rebuilt 722.315 transmission (my only daily driver)

Instagram: @maximed93

Can you get a better picture? Turn on the flash.

The cowl on the driver's side should drain out the rubber drain hoses inside the engine compartment. If you have corrosion where the cowl and firewall weld is, it could make its way in there. I had this problem on my vehicle but it was a slow leak. It could also be coming in the fuse box which I also had issues with. However, this was primarily from water running off the sides of the hood and down the side drip rail.

I managed to film it in action. This is the furthest inside my phone can go in.

I poured 3 gallons of water in the driver left side.

My memory is vague on it but I believe there at least one plug you can open under each of the floor mats to let the water drain out.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Much better!

Water that makes its way through the two cowls should be diverted away from the air box by two dams under the center cover. If water makes its way into the center, it's coming in the car. You need to pull the center cowl cover and figure out how it's getting in.

I had two issues. One was a missing drain tube where the right side washer arm mounts. The other was a dry rotted gasket around the cover itself. Do you also have water coming in the passenger side via the blower motor?

Hmmm interesting. I totally disregarded the center cowl. How can I gain access to the center cowl? I don't see any rivets I can take out.

Pop the hood. There should be 4 or 5 plastic rivets on the downward flange. I think you pull the center of each out and use something to push them in. The cover slides forward from under the windshield gasket. Also take off the passenger wiper arm. You can retrieve and reuse the rivets.