Is there a smell of antifreeze? Could be the heater core which is the most common cause on most vehicles for that. see if you can see where its wet under the dash. Has the windshield been replaced?

 

I read about these two possibilities...no, there isn't a smell of antifreeze and the windshield has not been replaced.

sit in car with door open rock in as violently as you can to see if any water pours out from under the dash. this will let you know for sure if the AC is draining fully,,, yes i watched the video, that's really not a lot of water my HL looks like a faucet on trickle

?

will try when wife returns.

 

sit in car with door open rock in as violently as you can to see if any water pours out from under the dash. this will let you know for sure if the AC is draining fully,,, yes i watched the video, that's really not a lot of water my HL looks like a faucet on trickle

 

Give that drain a shot of air pressure, it does not look like it is draining properly and if so there would be cold water on the floor and not antifreeze. The air shot is not a permanent repair but a diagnostic process.

 

will try this thanks. I was hoping to feel a hose when I stuck my finger up through that hole where the water was coming out but... nothing. May have to take down the plastic shield..

 

I had the same issue. It was caused by a clogged drain tube for the AC. There are known issues with the original drain tube that allows insects to get up there and clog it. When my issue happened, I didn't catch it in time because I had WeatherTech liners that masked the problem. My carpet caused a huge problem with mold. The entire interior carpet had to be replaced twice because they originally couldn't figure out the problem. I had a post on here a couple years back on it. Toyota replaced the tube with a newer version that had a better design to prevent anything from crawling up and clogging it.

 

I have a 2013 Limited today for a 24-hour test drive. It smells musty inside and I was just going through it with a flashlight trying to find a rattle and noticed that the carpet under the passenger leg area and seat is soaking wet. It also has Weather Tech mats so did not notice it until I put my hand under the mat. We had torrential rains this evening. Given this thread, I am thinking this is not the car to buy. I have an '09 and it has never had wet floors.

 

The rear wiper washer goes through the cabin on the passenger side. Mine fell apart in my hands when i squeezed it.

 

I feel for you! I had standing water in my second row floorboards. Tried everything before finding the cause. Turned out to be a missing rubber plug under the rear bumper. Water was flowing thru a channel to the low point in the floorboard.

If not a windshield, firewall or roof leak, then yours does sound like a stopped up ac drain.

 

Reporting back with the solution. I called Water Doctors and for $100 they came to my house and was able to diagnose and fix the problem in 30 minutes.

He put a hose full blast under my passenger wiper and let it run up the windshield over the top. Within 10 minutes the water was running into the car from "side cowl" Evidently there is an upper and a lower "cowl." He was able to jam a rod into the plastic part that was clogged and didn't have to disassemble anything. Unfortunately I didn't see him do this and I didn't take any pictures.

Hope this thread helps someone some day. Cheers

 

Andrew,

Thank you for reporting back. Water leaks are nothing but a PITA and can come from many places. Fortunately I haven't had those problems but your solution / fix was very helpful and most interesting as were all the other comments trying to assist. :thumbsup:

 

Good to know, likely leaves or seeds from trees accumulated in there.
Lots of water revealed the problem.

 

Wet will generate Mold and you never get it out if it happen a lot and wet for a long time. Entire carpet needs replacing then.

Not great considering its a health hazard.

 

If carfax was clean, I'd buy it and blast the drains. Once they're unclogged, a good carpet wash steam cleaning detailing is plenty good. I've seen flood cars get cleaned up without any mold issues. Salvage yards are a whole different story(especially with leaky convertible and t-tops).

 

Wet floor hopefully solved.

We've had the same problem for the the past few months as many others. The right side 2nd row passenger floor carpet would get very wet. Only the right side 2nd row passenger floor. And only when the vehicle was parked in the (slightly) uphill direction on our driveway. Never wet when parked downhill. 2008 Highlander, no sunroof, with the roof rack, and rear air. Both a/c drains functioned properly. Removed and resealed roof rack twice - no help. Today I removed the mudflaps and the lower trim piece at the aft edge of the wheel wells. (Both sides for good measure). This trim piece was packed with debris, mud, and a healthy colony of ants. This collects from all the runoff coming through the lower cowl drains. After cleaning these pieces, I found what I think is the smoking gun. The pinch weld has an intentional gap at the lower forward inboard radius. With the debris in the lower trim piece, water can puddle enough to enter the gap in the pinch weld and run through the lower rocker box. From there it seemed to enter the 2nd row floor area near the front seat lower seat belt bolt fitting area. I've removed all the debris, and pressed some body seam sealer caulk into the gap. Time and rain will tell. You do not need to remove the trim piece to fix this. Remove the one 10mm bolt from the bottom of the wheel well liner, one plastic push pin on the bottom, and two or three of the lowest torx screws at the rear of the wheel well liner. And the mudflaps if you have them; we do. Pull the wheel well liner inboard until you can run your finger forward on the pinch weld from the front jack point until it turns upward going forward. Where the pinch weld starts to turn upward, on the inside edge, you'll feel the gap. This seems to be the only place that water can get inside the rocker box and the inside of the vehicle.

 

We've had the same problem for the the past few months as many others. The right side 2nd row passenger floor carpet would get very wet. Only the right side 2nd row passenger floor. And only when the vehicle was parked in the (slightly) uphill direction on our driveway. Never wet when parked downhill. 2008 Highlander, no sunroof, with the roof rack, and rear air. Both a/c drains functioned properly. Removed and resealed roof rack twice - no help. Today I removed the mudflaps and the lower trim piece at the aft edge of the wheel wells. (Both sides for good measure). This trim piece was packed with debris, mud, and a healthy colony of ants. This collects from all the runoff coming through the lower cowl drains. After cleaning these pieces, I found what I think is the smoking gun. The pinch weld has an intentional gap at the lower forward inboard radius. With the debris in the lower trim piece, water can puddle enough to enter the gap in the pinch weld and run through the lower rocker box. From there it seemed to enter the 2nd row floor area near the front seat lower seat belt bolt fitting area. I've removed all the debris, and pressed some body seam sealer caulk into the gap. Time and rain will tell. You do not need to remove the trim piece to fix this. Remove the one 10mm bolt from the bottom of the wheel well liner, one plastic push pin on the bottom, and two or three of the lowest torx screws at the rear of the wheel well liner. And the mudflaps if you have them; we do. Pull the wheel well liner inboard until you can run your finger forward on the pinch weld from the front jack point until it turns upward going forward. Where the pinch weld starts to turn upward, on the inside edge, you'll feel the gap. This seems to be the only place that water can get inside the rocker box and the inside of the vehicle.

I hope you can give an update on this after some time. Btw, is there a way you can get a picture of this?

 

I was of the opinion that the trans filter did not need to be replaced since it was just a filament screen which does not filter much.

 

Very hard area to get a photo of, but easy to feel by hand when you pull the lower part of the wheel well liner inboard. So far, no more water getting in, but this weekend hurricane Florence will be the real test.

 

Your have a tarp or plastic wide sheet.

Rap it over and close the door on the cover. Be sure the sunroof is covered if you have one and have it over lap onto the hood to drain away water.

 

Its been almost two years since I first started this post. Car has been dry up until this week when hurricane Cristobal rolled through... my passenger floor is soaked again. First thing I did was pour water down the sunroof drains. Driver side drains out the bottom of the door as expected. The water goes down the passenger side drain fine but does not drain out the bottom of the door. I tried blowing out the line with my compressor but it did not work.

I tried using some trimmer cord to snake out the clog but that didn't work. Since the water goes down the drain fine but dose not exit, I am hoping that it did not disconnect. I just don't know what else to do at this point than call the Window Doctor again.

 

UPDATE. I just blew the passenger line again and hear some gurgling behind the dash. I poured water down the sunroof drain and noticed a little trickling out the bottom (but not streaming out like the drivers side drains) The water puddled up by the sunroof drain this time. Will try snaking the line again but I am wondering if the sunroof drain and cowl are connected and its the cowl that is clogged?

 

This seems to be a recurring issue for many HL owners. Lots of posts of wet floors and many difficult to resolve. Some only when professionally serviced to resolve.

 

Andrew, go here: Water pooling and seeping to carpet from pillar bottom Read the entire thread, please.
Many of us have experienced this and solved it, too. Good luck.
Will

 

After reading 100s posts here about what the causes could be, I am stumped as to why the passenger floor is getting drenched (no other part of the car is wet.) To make things a little more cloudy, the floor was wet after massive rainfall but also after the wife ran errands all day with the AC on.

1) I ran the car with AC on full blast for 10 minutes and watched water drip heavily from under the car. (video below)

2) I poured a half gallon of water down each of the sunroof drains only to watch it drain properly out from the seams under the car

3) I ran a hose over the car rails and down the windshield into the cowl drains.

The only other thing (i think) it could be is a crack on the firewall somewhere like this person experienced.

Posting here is my last chance before I take in for repair!

I understand this would be a temporary solution only but until I can afford to fix it, is there any reason why I couldn't pull this plug which happens to sit at the bottom of the low point on the car floor where the water puddles? Hard to see whats under the floor but I can see some light so it would eventually drain out of the car.
Video here for reference:

Any recommendations on what else it could be?

Cheers

I know I'm late to the party on this but still battling the same issues and haven't seen this fix yet. I have a 2006 Highlander and have had wet floorboards front and back and both sides. It seems to be worst when the car is parked point slightly uphill. All four skylight drains seem to be draining fine but everything is soaked. I finally stripped the seats out and center console and the carpet out to dry. I took the rear bumper off to look for missing drain plugs. And while doing that I noticed that one of the drain tubes for the back drains of the moonroof (they drain out between the bumper and rear wheel. a little tube poking through a black rubber gasket) was dry, but a small drip coming from around the plug. when I tried to remove the plug, water gushed out soaking me. and the same on the other side. Between the two plugs, there was close to a gallon of water. it seems when sloped uphill the water heads to the rear drains and they fill whatever void they are dumping into. That then spills out and runs forward under the carpets up to the front floorboards. And then when you drive and brake and turn, more of the remaining water finds a way into the carpets. Even after drying them, I didn't realize they were not dry. The rubber membrane under the carpet trapped the majority of the water. Think carpet and padding under your carpet. Now before I put things back together I am going to run soapy water over the car and see where it comes in. But after trying everything else and tearing it apart, It looks like pulling those plugs loose and letting water drain around them may be the fix. What a terrible design this is. Now I have to figure out why my 2013 Sienna is leaking water down the seatbelt from one of its skylights. I HATE SKYLIGHTS!!!

 

This works great. Very easy too

Water pooling and seeping to carpet from pillar bottom

My wife's 2008 Highlander Hybrid has had wet carpet on the driver's side. Blew air through top front sunroof drains and up the tubes behind the rear wheels for the rear sunroof drains. Pulled rubber hole plugs from rocker panels behind front tires and blew air and verified that the seam weep...

www.toyotanation.com

 

I've done all the other water intrusion fixes and still had water getting in until I found this video on youtube…...This worked for me 100%...No more water in the '08 HL