Leak from under dashboard on driver's side--anyone experience this?

My wife just called, on her way home from work, driving the P85D. She drove through some rain, and the car started leaking from under the dashboard, onto her ankles. She described the amount of water as several tablespoon-fulls. As of the time I spoke to her, the water was contained on the all-weather floor mat. My concerns are, of course, where the water is coming from, and what damage it might be doing.

I attempted to call my service center, but all the techs were gone. The person I spoke to is leaving a message for the service manager.

I'm wondering if any of you have experienced a leak on the Model S in this area, and if so, what the cause was determined to be.

I did search TMC, but can't seem to find anything related to leaks coming from under the dash.

I don't have the pano roof.

Also any idea how desperately I need to get the car in to the service center? This is probably a discussion for another thread, but I live 213 miles from the nearest service center, and in the past week learned that Tesla now wants to charge me $639 any time my car needs service, including warranty service. This is obviously something I am planning to take up the ladder at Tesla, as it was not the agreement in place when I purchased the car. But I find it unlikely that I'm going to be able to resolve this issue by tomorrow, so knowing how critical it is to get the car in to a service center would be helpful.

Thanks!

jerry33 said:

If it's dripping on her foot, it might be coming in from the hood area. Check that the seals at the front are correctly positioned (the red pegs have a tendency to come out when drying the car). Maybe there will be a trail where the water is coming in.

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Thanks, Jerry. The car is updating now, so I'm not going near it, but I'll check that later tonight.

caps04 said:

This may or may not be related: I found a lot of water on my phone holder which was attached on the glossy dash but right in front of an AC vent. It was a rainy humid day and someone had previously changed the AC settings to something manual (fan speed, etc). There was enough moisture on the phone holder that a few drops dripped on my legs. I set everything back to Auto and the moisture stopped accumulating.

Edit: Ask her what the AC settings are in case it's traced back to it. It may be nothing but good to have a record.

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I'm 99.9% certain it isn't related to the AC. My wife doesn't change the AC settings, as they are saved with her profile. For both of our profiles I have manual settings set such that the air is being recirculated within the cabin, and "auto" is never on. My temperature is set to "Lo" and hers is set to 66. Except for fan speed, we haven't adjusted our HVAC settings in weeks.

Add to that the fact that the water came in just after it started raining, and I think there's really almost no chance this was related to the AC, or at least not to any change with respect to the AC.

jerry33 said:

If it's dripping on her foot, it might be coming in from the hood area. Check that the seals at the front are correctly positioned (the red pegs have a tendency to come out when drying the car). Maybe there will be a trail where the water is coming in.

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I may not have understood something correctly in what you wrote above.

I just came in from attempting to do this. By hood I thought you meant frunk, so I popped the frunk and checked it. We almost never use the frunk because we're afraid of getting the dreaded funk crease. Interestingly, I had popped the frunk over this past weekend, when showing off the car. When looking in the frunk just now, the carpeted area was completely dry. There was a little water on the outer hard rubbery shell, but not a heck of a lot. I don't know how normal it is for there to be water there after driving through rain, as I don't believe I have ever looked for it before. I could not find any red pegs, so I'm not sure what I was looking for with respect to the front seals. (Since I'm not even sure if by hood you meant frunk, I may be totally lost!)

I did notice that the hard shell did not seem locked in place up near the windshield, on either side. Also there was a gap in part of it at a seam on the driver's side of perhaps a quarter inch or so that was not present on the other side.

Did I completely misinterpret your suggestion?

Thanks again, Jerry!

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JPP said:

Under the frunk towards the windshield is a removable panel (covers some items including the fuse boxes). If this panel is not popped back into place properly, the gaskets will not seal properly under the hood of the frunk. Thus water might intrude into the frunk space. Not sure what the path of least resistance might be, but you might pop the frunk and look inside for any signs of water intrusion there.

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I was typing my response to caps04 and Jerry as you were writing. It sounds like perhaps what you're talking about could be the parts that I said were not locked in place. But I think that shell is a few large pieces, around most of the perimeter of the frunk.

I think I should go back out to the garage and take some pictures to post.

Here are some pictures of what I believe is that removable panel under the hood, surrounding the frunk.




This seems to be positioned mainly correctly, but of course I'm not sure.




This one and the next show the gap I referred to in a previous post.




The gap is most noticeable here.




There is much less of a gap on this side.




A close-up of the area closest to the windshield.




A different view




An attempt to get the entire top edge.


So...can you guys tell anything from these pictures with respect to whether or not the panel is seated properly?

Again, many thanks!

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supratachophobia said:

I've heard of triangle window problems with regards to air coming in, perhaps you have a more extreme case that is leaking water as well?

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I really don't think that's it. I'm very aware of the wind noise, and had that issue repaired, at that window, before. Also I think my wife would have seen the water if it had been coming from there. She definitely identified the source as being the seam just in from the edge of the bottom of the dash.

mknox said:

I know a/c is being discounted here, but I wouldn't be so sure. If a drain hose gets blocked, the water will overflow into the area described. I haven't had it happen on my Model S, but it has happened on several other past cars and it is quite surprising just how much water you can get. The fact that it was raining means the air would be humid and the a/c would be pulling just that much more water out of the air.

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Thanks.

I guess it is one more possibility to consider.

I still haven't heard from the service center. I plan on calling them soon. I wanted to give them at least a few hours to call me. I'm also still hoping one of the people familiar with how those pieces should be seated might be able to tell by looking at the pictures I took if it looks like that could be the issue or not. I may wind up sending the pictures to the service center too.

I just had an excellent conversation with the service manager at my service center. He didn't think I needed to be too concerned about the small amount of water, and of course they'll deal with it when the car is there anyway in about a month for my first annual service, which I scheduled about a week ago. They'll deal with another issue at that time as well. He said if the water issue became much worse, I should let him know, and he would see about trying to get the car in sooner.

He also said that he'd take care of the proposed transportation fee this time, and that he is trying to see what can be done about the future. He most definitely understands my position. I'd suggest that others in similar situations talk to the service managers at your service centers to let them know how you feel, so that they may provide that feedback back up the chain to Tesla.

I'll come back and update this thread once the water situation is resolved, to let those who took an interest know what it turned out to be, but that may not be until mid September.

Thanks again to everyone who tried to help!