It is best to look for water leaks when everything is dry. First is the door seal or door, damaged in anyway? I have seen the seat belt having damaged the door seal on many vehicles. Do the doors close flush with body? Ensure the door seal makes good and uniform contact with the door (particularly important if the vehicle has been involved in an accident. You may need to pull back carpets pull back the carpets and sit inside the car (you may need a flashlight) and get a friend with a garden hose to spray water around the door jams to determine if the water is entering the doorway. Then spray water around the windscreen moving around the circumference of the windscreen. Look around the windscreen area and look up from the floor mat area (as best you can) to determine if water is leaking in around the windscreen seal. Is there any rust around the windscreen area or body work? If you have a sun roof there is a drain tube at each corner of the roof to channel away water. A blocked drain may cause water to fall from the sunroof area Water can also come up through the floor pan as you drive through water on the road, if any rubber bung or “seam sealer†has been disturbed or is missing. Remove any debris present in the panel below the windscreen, and ensure any drains for the cowl area there are free and not clogged up or restricted.
Not coming in around the door,for sure. It collects in the heater or a/c box right above the passengers feet. i know its not a/c condensation because the only time it does it is after a heavy rain. No sunroof and rubber bungs are securely in the floor board. When I say it pours, I mean like gallons as soon as you turn the first corner. I have not taken the front cowl off to determine if there is any rust but i doubt it (southern car it's whole life). Its got to be coming in around the windshield or front cowl somewhere, but the two drain pipes are clear and so is the area above the pipes, I just don't understand it. the rubber between the windshield and cowl is kind of old (2001 model) and has shrunk a little leaving about a 1" gap at the edge of the cowl. could this be the culprit? If so, how does it get from the cowl to inside the car?