Stigedis

Trying to get some help diagnosing issues with 2000 Rx300. Wife wet to clean her RX300 this past week. Has weather tech mats throughout that get routinely cleaned during winter. Deep clean this time.
When she removed the front passenger side mat, the floor was saturated with water. Upon taking back the carpet, the water didn't go past the front seat. Driver side and rear floor dry.

Initial thoughts were clogged drains. Poured water down both sunroof drains. Both drain immediately to outside on ground. Poured water down all 4 windshield cowl drains. All drained immediately to outside. Removed AC drain hose no issues. Blew compressed air from exit hose underneath. No clog.

Then thought heater core issues. But liquid on floor felt like water. No smell. No sticky. Appears clear (coolant is red).

Dried everything. Now is dry. Turn A/C on no issues. Full bore heat through cabin and floor vents for 10 minutes produces a few small drip from underneath center area of dash console. That appears clear as well. I reach up under the center dash and its wet. But feels like water. Again no smell or stickiness.

So here is another factor. 2 weeks ago, windshield was replaced by a novice technician. He totally boogered up all the trim pieces on the pillar and above the glass. And f'ed up the rear view mirror. After notifying the manager and him ordering new pieces, he assured the fix would with stand any water after 24 hours of being replaced. Well. by the time the ordered pieces arrived and another windshield replaced, the care had been in the car wash once and driven in 2 torrential downpours.

THEN after the second fix. She noticed the wet floor. Rarely does she have a passenger in the car.

Question is: wonder why it leaks with heat? Is it bad heater core? Wouldn't the fluid be red if so? And since no heat has been on for months (we live in MN), wouldn't it have started to smell long ago, like winter or spring? And maybe even dried out over at least the last month or two?

Could the poorly installed windshield have let water in, not been detected until now, and now residual dripping from somewhere? be in the ductwork and get blown out when the heater is on?

We are at a loss of what to do or what to try next....Hope this is enough information for someone to chime in with their theory to test....

Thanks in advance....

Michael

LeX2K

Sounds like the windshield is not sealed properly can hypothesize as to why water leaks under X conditions doesn't do you much good. Confirm by applying foil tape around the edge of the glass see if your leak goes away.

bordenj66

Have your wife drive through a car wash while you’re passenger.

Jhixson

Our windshield was leaking too but on the drivers side. We did most of the stuff you did and could not find the leak.. Turns out we had a crack in our windshield that was where we could not see it along the bottom edge and close to the trim. We found the leak by spraying water all around the windshield and sun roof and having someone inside the car to see where the spray was when the dripping started. I also like the idea of riding in the passenger seat when the car is going through a car wash.