Okay i have done this about 5 times now, and failed each time until i did it my way. First time i did exactly what teg tips told me to do. Order the part, replace, and ure good…next day LEAK, second time i used sillicone sealant…no good, it flaked and came off like nothing… then leaked…anyway, bottom line is i have found a method that works 100%. I know the whole passenger leak area by heart now, and this is a sure fire way to fix this problem for good. Follow the instructions completely
Time required: 2-4 HRS, depending on how fast u work and how well you know what you are doing. Everything u need to know is written here.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
-8 Small white rubber “boot” seals part # 91608-SJ6-003 (buy this from Acura dealer, Honda no longer carries it) $2.50 each
-Shoe Goo ($5.99 per tube. One tube is enough…buy from copelands sports, target, etc) …Do not substitute w/ a different sealant
-Screw drivers(phillips, flathead)
-Small needlenose pliers
WHAT TO DO:
Use a wrench to remove the windshield wipers, set aside
Remove the black cylinders underneath the wipers over the wiper motor (u will see what i mean)
Pop out black circles w flathead screwdriver
Carefully pop out the clips under the circles, if you are careless, these will break very easily, be gentle. Even if you do break a couple of these, they will still be able to be used, so dont worry. They do not help prevent the leak in any way.
Use the needlenose pliers to squeeze the bottom of the black plastic pins, and pop them out on the “firewall” side, or the bottom of the panel, where the rubber strip is
Now you should be able to remove the panel. Make sure it is loose on both ends and pull it out on the windshield side very carefully, NOT THE MOTOR SIDE, it will bend and break. IMPORTANT STEPS*
Now you will see another black panel covering the passenger side. This is the most important part. To fix the problem, you must know how water leaks in. Water seeps in underneath this panel, and leaks onto your passenger floor in various ways, such as through the broken seals, the worn out seals on the panel, and etc. To stop the leak, you must seal off the entire panel (dont do it yet, i will describe how to in later steps). Keep in mind this very important fact: WATER IS MEANT TO FLOW THROUGH THIS PANEL. alot of people try to do things like seal their windshield, etc. That does not help at all, as this panel is designed to accept water travel. Don’t beleive it? Pour water on it and see where it goes, it will flow to your driver side and out the fender. Or down through the passenger exit side. Alot of it will also dump onto your passenger floor right now too, so have a towel there if you are prepared to try it out.
Use a very small flathead or phillips screwdriver, and remove the 8 screws. The seals are located underneath these screws, and they will most likely all be cracked. Be extremely gentle when removing these screws. Most are very difficult to remove.
Remove the old seals, wipe the area very clean, and place the new seals into the slots. Next, replace the screws very gently. Now, your seals are good. And this should seal off the leak completely, right??? Wrong. The panel also has a seal around it, that has seen at least 15 years of water damage. go to the next step
Grab the tube of Shoe Goo. Shoe Goo is a very thick substance. It works like magic, and creates a waterproof seal. It is the best for this application. I have used sillicone based seals in the past, and they will flake and come off when they meet alot of water. Now, this the MOST IMPORTANT STEP. Do you see where the black panel touches the frame of the car? You need to shoe goo around the entire panel so that it is completely stuck to the frame. And i do mean literally every millimeter of it. Make sure the seal extends from the frame to the gap in between the frame and the panel, and onto the panel. If there is even a tiny spot that is not shoe gooed properly, this may have a chance to leak. Also, seal around and over all parts of the panel that have the screws and the seals. This way, water is unable to get anywhere near the seals, even if they do crack. *side note: this method also allows u to bypass the seals completely, as long as u shoe goo everything, but i havent tried that yet, and i dont really recommend it) Let the shoe goo cure for a while, and while you are waiting for it to, make sure that any spot that you see that is not sealed is sealed perfectly. (It will be 100% dry in 24 hrs, but should be partially cured in about 2 hrs)
Replace the large panel the same way you took it off (shoe goo doesnt have to be dry yet), through the windshield side. Make sure it lines up, etc. Put the clips and the black circles back in, replace the black wiper motor covers, replace the rubber piece on the bottom, and put all the black pins back in. Put your windshield wipers back on last. Replace anything else i forgot to add, the same way u took it off…Now you are done.
I have yet to have a leak from doing it this way, good luck!!
Hit me up on AIM if u have any questions or run into a problem: emericaskate46
emericaskate46… haha… figures you would use shoo goo!
Too bad I am not exactly sure what parts you are describing to apply the Shoo Goo, entirely. Pics would have been excellent. Still a sweet idea.
I’ve tried getting that passenger side blower motor black cover off before. Those damned plastic “screws” WILL NOT come off. Or atleast I can’t get them off. I’ve tried unscrewing them and pushing on them from behind and they don’t come out. They really piss me off. Any ideas?
lmao…basically pretend u are water…and that ure trying to get under the black panel covering the passenger air intake… after u take off the main large panel…get creative…find a way that the shoe goo blocks out all water from getting under the panel
…as for the screws, for the seal screws u need to use a very small screw driver and do the screw out and pull up technique…if u push down while unscrewing they will push themselves back in and u wont be able to screw them out.
for the black pin/clip things…use needlenose pliers, and pinch the bottom of it enough so that it can be pushed out, and push it out from the bottom with the pliers, its easy once u get the hang of it
i should have taken pics…but i wrote this today without my car…its in the shop getting painted right now, i am just writing this all from memory, it should all be accurate though
Good write up. I basically did the same method but used some silicone from the hardware store. The good stuff. But I cleaned and sanded the areas that I was using the silicone on to get a nice clean surface. And it’s been good for about 2 years now.
Paint job… lucky. Did you mean in your write up that water is supposed to get under the big wiper cowl but NOT under the blower motor cowl?
Those black plastic screws… I used the right sized screw driver and pushed them from behind while turning them counter clockwise. Not dice. Those bitches don’t come out on my car. :gunright:
water is meant to get under the large panel (first panel that u remove). it is also meant to flow through the small panel (panel that has the seals)… passenger wet floor is caused by water leaking under this panel from wear and tear on the seals, etc…
after u remove the large panel, try pouring water on the small passenger side panel, u will see what i mean by it being designed for that…oh yeah and have a towel on ur passenger side before u try that.
So the integra’s are known for leaking water through the passanger floorboard when it rains? Mine leaks when i turn the heat or air on after its rained and had some runoff. Are Integra’s known to do that?
Yeah, I think its the fan blowing the water out. Ive noticed after it rains and I drive around for a while only so much water will come out. Then when it stops coming out by itself I’ll crank the fan up and its like a steady stream of water that will come out. I just always assumed it was the fan blowing the remaining water out.
This is awesome! Thanks for the update on the tip – I’m actually going to do this within the next few days. I just got my new seals today. I’m so sick of having to dry out my car after every heavy rain. I’ll let you guys know how it works out!
As for having to get new seals, I remember seeing some writeup on a British website on how to do this using RTV and retaining the old seals. However I can’t find it right now and I personally believe it’s worth spending the extra $28 to get brand-new seals in there.
Grr I fucked it up. I started taking the windshield cowl off but realized I was running low on daytime and this would be too much work. So I put everything back together, though the top weatherstripping doesn’t seem to be fully flush with the cowl anymore and now the windshield wipers don’t work that well. Lately they haven’t been parking at the full lower position but now not only do they park prematurely but they also don’t reach as far as they used to. If I calibrate the arms to reach all the way then they’ll park right on the damn windshield!
i did this to my car on the weekend, and you don’t have to glue anything. the reason water gets in is because the rubber boots underneath the plastic scrivets (yes, they’re called scrivets) are dry and have cracked. when you replace these boots with new ones there should be no water going through to the inside of the car. as oldschoolda9 said, water is suppposed to flow past there, so there is absolutely no reason why you should be gluing it. i’ve gone to a foam and rubber warehouse and bought some polyurethane and neoprene adhesive strips, same as what was originally on the underside of the cowling, because after 15 years they’re all disintegrating, and it cost me about AUD$7. these foam strips simply keep debris from getting under, and protect the plastic from the metal when you clip it back on so it’s a snug fit. before you put new foam on there get all of the old glue residue off first. and don’t glue, use the foam stripping as was originally intended for the car.
i also bought all new scrivets and other clips because some were missing, and others were generally in bad shape, and i gave everything a good clean with Shellite so it’s dust-free. make sure you clean out any leaves etc that you find underneath, i just vacuumed it up and got as much dust and leaves out of there as possible, because if they sit there, and water flows in, they can stay wet and start to corrode the metal, and that’s the last thing you want, unless you really like fixing leaks.
i was just gonna build a pipe that extended from the top of the hole that the fan pulls air from and make it do 90 degree turn and pull air from the side, so the water can leak all it wants, it’s not getting into the air vent hole lol
I have water pooled on both the driver and passenger side. Originally I thought it was coming in from the rusty hole in the floor, but now realize the hole is a result of the water coming in the way you describe and polling near the trunk release!
Thanks for the tips, I am about to tear off the plastic under the wipers and investigate. Not looking forward to having to fix both sides!
For you in CA, just be glad you did not have to pull out a completely frozen carpet to figure it all out. They don’t bend so easy when its cold.
Any further hints would be appreciated.
i’m doing this tomorrow, just ordered the parts. i’ll try and get some pics to post when i’m done. Acura has a kit for this, so i’ll post the kit # with price once Acura faxes it over to us
Here’s the part numbers for the “kit” and how many you will need…
91502-SK7-013 (6) $3.46 EA
91511-SK7-003 (7) $3.56 EA
91608-SJ6-003 (8) $2.72 EA
If you were to take your car to Acura these are what they replace. Like I said, I’ll try and get pics to post when I do it tomorrow.
Incase you break them, the clips on the top of the cowl are #
91501-SK7-013 (6) $2.96 EA
pics of “along the way” would have been cool, but its all good. might do this fix this weekend if i can order the parts.