An easy way to check for ingress is by spraying the suspected area with powder; deodorant, foot powder, dry shampoo, anything you can spray.
Most likely though, your rockers are full of water from the last time you drove in the rain; yes, water does get up there.
Find the 2 splash-shielded rubber drains at the front and back of the rocker. Clean them, then add 2 more in the 3/4" holes you drill between the 2 existing drains. Plug any rogue holes.
Then find the 2 weep holes from the bottom of the rocker to the floor; little slits in line with the front hinge. Seal them.

 

Jim, my auto knowledge is not quite up to snuff - What are rockers? Thanks.

 

The most common issue with water in pass floorboard is the A/C drain being clogged. Open the bonnet and on pass side look down in the evap housing and see if any debris in bottom. The drain comes out the pass ft wheel well and has a rubber normally closed flap that you can remove to assist clearing evap housing of crud and refit when drain is clear.
Visually ck before searching for something out of ordinary.
Fred

 

I think this is the evap housing? If so, no debris down there. I try to clear that out every time I wash my car. And I just poured water into it. Poured right out underneath the car.

 

I do. You talking about using it for sunroof drains? I used weedeater string to plumb the sunroof drains and then I blew compressed air in em. Front ones are definitely clear. Havent been able to access rear ones yet, but I know water does drain from them.

 

The rocker drains Jim mentioned are along the sides of the car between the wheels just underneath. Take your compressed air and blow into them (2 per side) the rubber drains are normally closed and designed to let water drain out but repel water from entering. They can clog. Also ere is a large drain that comes out right next to the evap housing drain in the pass side inner wheel well. Turn wheels all way to the left ...lock... And blow into the large drain coming out of the wheel well. Report back and let us now if any h2o comes out.

 

I wasn't able to get to an air compressor today, but I turned the wheel to the left and found the drain tube for the evap housing. I poured water into the evap housing and watched it immediately rush out of that tube. (Attached picture is an action shot of water draining out) Could it still somehow be partially plugged?

Also, in the second (undercarriage) picture, is the little black rubber circle one of the rocker drains? I tried to remove these, and they aren't budging. There appear to be three of these on the passenger side. I haven't forced them because I think the rubber will fall apart if I do.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll try that out this week and will get back to you.

 

A friend of mine had water ingress( drivers uk) same side, and they eventually found it was the door seal..hinge side... at the glass/frame level, as the seal was not good enough anymore, I also have a similar issue(yet to sort), on my 'new' vert, but thought it was the air intake, as the outlet was blocked, so I though I had cured it, but no, :evil: wet carpet again grrr

 

It's has been a long time since I had a 900 but I think I remember a rubber plug in the floor area.

You might give the carpets a good drying, a shop vac will speed the process, and then duct tape over that hole or smear it with some silicone caulk (you can peel it off it's wrong), and wait for a rain. If the carpets remain dry, bingo and then make the seal more permanent.

 

Unless the case is cracked the evap drain is good to go. Does your car not have 2 drains like pic below ? As process of elimination make sure it is clear as well.

 

Dave make sure these drains are clear just under bottom of car all way back to rear wheel well. Posting insividually from phone as will not allow to post all at same time for some reason ???
Fred

 

Another

 

Add pic

 

Damn techie. Thanks a lot for all of the pictures.

I don't have those drains running along the rockers(?). (I think I'm using the term correctly.)

I just have those flat rubber seal-looking things. They're pretty much flush to the rockers, so there's no way water is coming out. Where did my drains go??

I did notice that my driver side (LHS) has one of those diagonal cylindrical drains behind the front wheel - Like one of the pictures you posted Techie. But, on my passenger side, there is just a hole where it looks like there should be a drain tube. What is that drain tube?

Thanks for all of the help.

 

One more

 

Again designed to let water out and deter water from coming in. There should be one there, very likely where the water is coming in ....once in the rocker is can travel ,slosh around and either exit( potentially days later) same hole or exit into carpet depending on the landscape in which you drive( or how "aggressive" a driver you are :lol.......in my younger days I would always learned in "driving safety school" ....I was the RED car :cheesy:
Next trip to the yard and snag one but also hit the above mentioned areas with some compressed air.

Fred

 

wet carpet and pad

My '86 SPG had this problem also. The water was being forced through the firewall around the bottom of the condensor coil box. Some silicon sealer provided the fix.

 

My '86 SPG had this problem also. The water was being forced through the firewall around the bottom of the condensor coil box. Some silicon sealer provided the fix.

There's meant to be a sponge gasket there. What is water doing there in the first place?

 

apparent water source

As to the question of how the water got there, it appeared to be the result of driving in rain and wet conditions. I now limit driving in wet conditions, and seek to avoid the whole issue. Yes it's very "Peer Gynt" of me, but I have seen and smelled the consequences of water-soaked carpets and pad and dry is "way cooler". lol

 

Update

So, I think I found the culprit, for now. I put a small patch of duct tape over the opening along the runner in my original picture. (circled in yellow). The carpet has stayed dry and I've been out in rain a few times since over the past couple of weeks. I'm assuming the water was coming up through that hole from road splashes and water spun up from wheels too. I intend to replace the duct tape with a more permanent seal this weekend.

 

power steering fluid follows the tubing

I had a problem with PS fluid - took me forever to find it. The tube under the PS fluid reservoir had the slightest seepage. It would follow the tube down and around to the firewall, where it would then catch a ride on the vacuum hose entering near the passenger side footwell. Remarkable how it did managed to travel so far. Check the PS tube for oil as well as the vacuum hoses.

I also have a second leak somewhere from rain intrusion. Also on passenger side. Similarly, I've cleared the sunroof drains and the wheel wells rockers and the AC drain. Doesn't rain much here so I haven't followed up with locating the drain, so I'm interested whether your duct tape area works.

One other very nice thing I did (to eliminate the smell), is I replaced the padding under the carpet with Mass Loaded Vinyl with Closed Cell Foam that I got at a soundproofing store for very very cheap. Helps a little with road noise (those the saab creaks and rattles so much that road noise is not the main issue) as well as temperature insulation. The closed cell doesn't absorb water, so at least I don't have to pull all the foam out and dry the carpets anymore. The water eventually drains through the hole under the passenger side rear carpet.

 

Found the real problem.

A year later after original post and I finally removed all carpets and padding. Passenger floorboards were consistently damp even though I thought I had a makeshift patch in the rocker underneath the car.

There was water leaking on passenger side (and to a lesser extent driver's side) through an indention along side the frame well that seemingly leads to the rockers. Check out the indention in the attached picture (driver's/left side). I put a hose over top of the closed passenger door and then watched water slowly seep in through this area.

First question:

What is this indention in the frame rail? Because the water has been seeping in, the floorboard had begun rusting out. Seems to been going on for a while.

Second question:

After thorough prep, can I cover and fill the indention with bondo to prevent further water intrusion? I would only do the bondo after completing the process of scraping and grinding out all rust in floorboard, then treating with some rust buster. (metal still solid). Finally, I'll top it all off with a bed liner spray.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

Picture of indention

Forgot to attach

 

Water intrusion passenger side

I replaced foam with closed cell foam, mass loaded vinyl underneath the carpets. I got this at a soundproofing distributor for very cheap. It's heavy, like lead (that's the Mass Loaded Viny part). Used as sound deadening in aircraft. The "closed cell foam" means it won't absorb hardly any moisture - unlike the saturated foam originally underneath the carpet.

There's water intrusion also from behind the back passenger interior panel, so I've read. I have yet to address this on my own car but where I live it rarely rains. On rainy days, I still get water intrusion that pools underneath rear passenger carpet. See the excellent thread by tony2x "from turbo to carlsson - a c900 restoration thread" who describes this problem, and the posted reply by Peter Martin which I've also pasted below:

"The puddle on the passenger side floor is the same as I found on a '92 900S I once owned. The source of the water was the wide vinyl side moulding which runs from the trailing lip of the door to the wheel well opening. If you peer inside the panel where the back seat panel was, you will see there are holes in the panel where at one time there was a trim package (early 80's or SPG?) which was affixed through the panel. Water gets in around the double side adhesive as it ages & eventually will go to the lowest point. It is likely you will also find rust at the bottom of this panel cavity so be certain to look there. It can eventually cause the front of the rear wheel well opening to rust from the water collecting at the bottom of the closed area."

 

the indentation is for strengthening purposes, have a flat piece of steel and it will bend basically where you want it to, put some indentations along it's length and it will be more rigid.
I replied a few weeks ago to someone's similar issue, and reading some of the rep[lies you may have the same issue as I did. I was always getting a damp rear/front carpet, and thought I had a windscreen leak?? as had done the air intake etc when I realised the problem after buying/using it. I had removed the front carpet so I could dry it out easier, and if it rained , I left a newspaper on the floor to soak up the water. I went to pick my other 900 up and my som drove the car back and said when he stopped on a slope he could hear sloshing behind him, and I had thought it was when I got a low tank of fuel, but he said it was 'RIGHT' behind him,, so I then decided to remove the Tupperware, and as I undid the securing bolt (nearest to the door) I started to get a wet hand, and once the screw/bolt was out about a pint of water came out, so I had had water contained in the panel behind the door of my vert since I bought the car. I checked the drain bung, and it had crap in it, hence not being able to let water out, but this was caused by the Tupperware fouling the drain bung outlet, as I would have though there would have been a hole directly below the drain, so it flowed straight out to the road, but instead it runs down the inside of the Tupperware, then out??, so remove the trim and check, I have had lots of rain since I found the issue, but no wet carpets.;ol;;ol;;ol;
Obviously the rear vert windows seals are leaking, but they are always going to be less than 100% perfect due to the nature of the window, but if it lets water past, as they knew it would, it should drain out the bottom, but if the drain is block(like and other on the car) the water cannot get out, and only when it gets to a level where it can escape, will it, and in yours and my case, it's the inner panel holes(whichever) where it leaks in;ol;