Leaking Water Inside of Car - HELP!

You might want to check the 12V battery compartment and the spare tire compartment. There have been reports of the hatch rubber seal leaking. Sounds like you a pretty bad leak somewhere. Someone may have driven it into high standing water also. Good luck.

Edit: The smell at this point may also be associated with mold. This issue must be addressed immediately for health reasons.

 

sit in the car and hit it with a hose nozzle until you find it. make sure you hit all the window edges, gaskets, seal, door handles and joints, seams, etc. all the best!

 

if u hear some water sloshing somehwere in the front, it might be the space underneath the windshield cowl. either there a seal that leaks when the water travels down, or it's overflowing somehow to the passenger compartment. try and take it apart and check. there are instructions here on how to do it. search on how to install a strut bar.

 

Mold isn't going to be removed with a detailing. You're going to have to pull the carpets and padding out. You'll have to do this anyways to find and fix the source of the leak. It's an easy weekend project, just unbolt the seats and get to pullin'. Good luck!

 

I had a similar issue with my last car - a VW Passat. I found that it is relatively easy to dry out the carpet and padding - I would pull it by the doors and then shove towels in to mop up much of the water. Once mostly dry I'd then prop the carpet up to let the rest air dry. After it was dry I'd spray a ton of Lysol in and close it back up.

As for figuring how the water is getting in, that is very tough. I'd recommend that you not bother with a hose - water coming at the car from strange angles and at pressure will just confuse things. You just need to become a sleuth and check the various spots where you could get leaks. Remember that just because you find water in one spot that its source could be on the other side of the car - a small trickle of water will run along a smooth surface so once it gets in, it can go many places. Also factor in the spot or spots that you park in if the are on a slope or even try a different spot and see what changes.

On the very off-chance that you have an aftermarket sunroof look there first.

After that I'd check the seals on the rear hatch and doors. If raining try running your finger or a paper towel around the inside of the seal to see if there is any water. It is likely a very small amount of water so you to only find a trace of it.

I'd also check under the hood below the windshield - I have not had to deal with this on my Prius, but this is one of the spots that VW's have issues as leaves block the drain holes long the firewall - I guess that this could be the case with a Prius.

Good luck.

 

The drain to the HVAC is most likely clogged. If you put the car on a lift you will see on the passenger side a small hose coming out of just in front of the floor panel. That is the drain for the HVAC unit, using high pressure air
blast that out and stand back as lots of water and other nasty stuff might flow out. You might have to do this a few times as it might re-clog. After all the water drains you might want to flush it out with lots of clear water. This you can do once. Make a mixture of 1/2 cup of bleach with 2 gallons of water, carefully pour this in through the cowl.
This should get rid of the mold in the HVAC unit. The carpet, is a whole other problem. Once the intial problem is
solve the carpet and pad will dry out, then have a detailer shampoo all the carpets.

 

Hi all, hope I'm not breaking any rules posting here for the first time and bumping and old thread but I just got a Prius and found the problem. These are stress cracks in the seams of the hatch under the rear tail lights and under the rear apron behind the bumper. Hope this help fix the water in trunk of prius mystery. I wanted to add that I'll be using Napa auto branded seam sealer, some vise grip clamps and some blocks of wood to press everything back together.


SM-G935P ?

 

welcome and well done, thanks!

 

Whatever you do never induce bleach into an ecoil. It will attack the coils and ruin the ecoil.
Plus the car will reek of bleach. This is the the same thing as putting bleach in your home ac air handler. It ruins the coils and the house will reek.

They make microbial coil safe cleaner on amazon.com called kooli to use on your ecoil. Comes with the rubber hose attachment that connects to the drip hose and injects cleaner back up the tube in the ecoil box.
Same thing the dealer uses. Pleasant smell. Basic car maintenance. My dealer charges $125 for this service.
Koolit is $15 a can,

If your windshield dam is clogged take the wipers off and remove the cowl. You will see leaves and wet waste filling up the dam void. You will have to pull that out and then flush it out with soap and water.
When the dam drain is clean you will see a Strong stream of water behind both front wheels. I check that every time I wash my Prius.

A clogged dam is because you never open the hood and keep the dam clear of debris.

 

Thank you!

SM-G935P ?

 

Well I finished my fix by using the seam sealer and forcing it in the cracks. I then used self drilling screws to pull the two seams together to prevent future separation and covered then with swam sealer. Since the cracks were behind the lights and bumper area it didn't matter how much sealer i used but I did smooth it out as much as possible with my finger and a latex glove. Left the lights on loosely overnight and the rubber seal around the trunk area out over night and wouldn't you know it was pouring rain for 6 hours last night. Well I was relieved to find only a few drops of water beeding on the trunk area. . The repair was a success. One thing I would recommend is that you remove the trunk rubber seal and clean all the area around it. This will prevent water build up which will cause premature wear of seals and welds. Hope this helps because this site gave me the confidence to take the PLUNGE into the Prius culture.

SM-G935P ?