[rogerdodger]

new owner here on the Oregon Coast, 2021 base model with the Honda splash guards. After driving in the rain, I'm getting rather large water puddles in the garage just behind each wheel. I've seen some info on what might cause this (absorbent felt under the wheel wells) but I haven't confirmed this yet.

I'm wondering if anyone has any better info on the cause and perhaps best way to reduce/mitigate. It sort of rains all the time here, or at least feels that way...

 

[2002]

new owner here on the Oregon Coast, 2021 base model with the Honda splash guards. After driving in the rain, I'm getting rather large water puddles in the garage just behind each wheel. I've seen some info on what might cause this (absorbent felt under the wheel wells) but I haven't confirmed this yet.

I'm wondering if anyone has any better info on the cause and perhaps best way to reduce/mitigate. It sort of rains all the time here, or at least feels that way...

It really is a lot of water that it dumps. Do they make Clarity sized Depends? The worst for me is on the left side because I park my Clarity on the left side of my garage and the water dripping from the left side of the car flows to the foundation wall and soaks in. Not good. What I finally started doing is I now keep four plastic food containers in my garage and when I come in from the rain I immediately place them where the water is dripping down. That seems to catch most of it other than what I miss during the couple of minutes that it takes me to get out of the car and place all of them. I actually plan to measure how much it is collecting, I won't be surprised if sometimes it is a quart or more of water.

Only problem is it's easy to forget that the containers are there and drive over them the next time you back out. Different ways to deal with that (like uh, just remembering) but what I came up with is after placing the containers I lift up one of the windshield wipers. No way I won't notice that when I go out to the car so that is my reminder to pick up the containers.

I would love to know why it does this as it is really annoying.

 

[rogerdodger]

It really is a lot of water that it dumps. Do they make Clarity sized Depends? The worst for me is on the left side because I park my Clarity on the left side of my garage and the water dripping from the left side of the car flows to the foundation wall and soaks in. Not good. What I finally started doing is I now keep four plastic food containers in my garage and when I come in from the rain I immediately place them where the water is dripping down. That seems to catch most of it other than what I miss during the couple of minutes that it takes me to get out of the car and place all of them. I actually plan to measure how much it is collecting, I won't be surprised if sometimes it is a quart or more of water.

Only problem is it's easy to forget that the containers are there and drive over them the next time you back out. Different ways to deal with that (like uh, just remembering) but what I came up with is after placing the containers I lift up one of the windshield wipers. No way I won't notice that when I go out to the car so that is my reminder to pick up the containers.

I would love to know why it does this as it is really annoying.

lol. that is exactly what I did, before reading your post, I placed an empty lunch meat tub behind each front wheel and in front of each rear wheel, got most of it, about 3/4 cup in each. for now, until I can investigate further, that's going to work. and your 'wiper up' idea is perfect, I have adopted that. cheers, roger

 

[TomL]

new owner here on the Oregon Coast, 2021 base model with the Honda splash guards. After driving in the rain, I'm getting rather large water puddles in the garage just behind each wheel. I've seen some info on what might cause this (absorbent felt under the wheel wells) but I haven't confirmed this yet.

I'm wondering if anyone has any better info on the cause and perhaps best way to reduce/mitigate. It sort of rains all the time here, or at least feels that way...

This is not really a reply that answers your question, but it is related. Sort of. Two days ago in Wisconsin we had a sloppy 4-inch wet snowfall. After parking in my garage, I got the usual water puddles under the front tires similar to @rogerdodger. Today, after -17 degrees overnight, the front tires were frozen fast and I damn near had to bellow from the driveway for someone to push me. My wife won't let me bellow in the garage or any part of the house.

 

[2002]

Today I made a short trip to the post office, eight miles round trip. It had rained a little bit off and on earlier in the morning, but by the time I went to the post office there were just a few light drizzles. I think I activated the wipers about three times on the way there, not continuously just a single wipe each time. There was still a very slight drizzle/mist when I arrived at the post office, I was wearing a hoodie but I didn't even bother to put it on my head as I walked across the parking lot because it was hardly noticeable. The street and sidewalks were slightly damp but not enough that you would even worry about your footing. I spent about fifteen minutes inside the post office, by the time I came out the light drizzle/mist had stopped and as I drove the four miles home I didn't use the wipers even once.

To my surprise, a few minutes after arriving home there was water puddling out from all four sides. I put my containers down and I'm sure I collected over a cup of water, and probably missed a similar amount, so I would say it dumped about a pint of water in total. I cannot figure out where that water came from. The streets were damp but there was very little in the way of standing water, there were maybe two or three puddles if you can call them that, I don't remember even hearing any tire noise as I drove through them like you would if you drove through an actual puddle. So where did all of this water come from? Is it sucking moisture out of the road like a shop-vac? Is it storing every single drop of water that lands on the car in some unseen reservoir, with plenty still remaining by the time you get home just waiting to be dumped out onto the garage floor? Very perplexing and annoying.

 

[obermd]

Is the water coming from the front of the tires or from behind? I'm wondering if the air scoops are collecting water.

 

[rogerdodger]

Is the water coming from the front of the tires or from behind? I'm wondering if the air scoops are collecting water.

after driving in wet conditions, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water drips down from just behind the front wheels and just forward of the rear wheels.

 

[obermd]

after driving in wet conditions, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water drips down from just behind the front wheels and just forward of the rear wheels.

I would guess water in the rocker panels. Most cars rocker panels have a small slope from the C pillar (between the front and back doors) towards the wheels. The question is how is that water getting in there. I suspect to find out you'd have to put the car on a lift (tire supported) and look closely at the front of the rocker panels. You'd be looking for an opening behind the front tires.

 

[rogerdodger]

I would guess water in the rocker panels. Most cars rocker panels have a small slope from the C pillar (between the front and back doors) towards the wheels. The question is how is that water getting in there. I suspect to find out you'd have to put the car on a lift (tire supported) and look closely at the front of the rocker panels. You'd be looking for an opening behind the front tires.

it's definitely coming from the felt in the wheel wells, it is soaking up lots of water, still wet a full 24 hours after driving the car in the rain. Looks like up front it drains out of the felt mostly to the rear of the tire. The rear wheels most of it drains down in front of the tire but some also comes down behind the rear tire.

the higher density felt covering the entire undercarriage is not absorbing water but that stuff in the wheel wells was a poor choice of materials.

work around 1: park my car in the driveway for about 15 minutes, most of it drips out in that time, then move into the garage.

work around 2: pull right into the garage, place 6 small plastic tubs under the main drips (I'm using tubs that lunch meat came in). Lift one windshield wiper until they are picked up.

cheers, roger

 

[obermd]

I wonder if that felt's primary job is to reduce road noise. This would require a softer, more absorbent material that would definitely soak up water.

 

[rogerdodger]

I wonder if that felt's primary job is to reduce road noise. This would require a softer, more absorbent material that would definitely soak up water.

that is my guess. when we get a few days of dry weather here on the Oregon Coast, which this year will probably be in mid-July (we have had 20 inches of rain since Jan1), I'm tempted to test out something like Scotchgard Water Shield to see if it will reduce how much gets absorbed into the wheel well felt.

https://www.scotchgard.com/3M/en_US/scotchgard/products/all-products/?N=4340+3289398953+3294529207&rt=rud

 

[rogerdodger]

Yesterday- drove 20 miles in steady rain and parked in driveway for 2 hours but it continued raining- moved to garage, slight amount of water fore and aft of rear wheels, but still about 1/2c from behind front wheels.
Test- poured 1/2c water on lower corner of windshield, several minutes later it started dripping out from the felt at the rear of front wheels. Seems like water draining from the windshield corners is passing through the lower part of that felt which slows it down.

Adjustment to my observations:

work around 1: park my car in the driveway for about 15 minutes, after driving in rain or on wet roads but rain has stopped: most of it drips out in that time, then move into the garage.

work around 2: pull right into the garage, place 6 small plastic tubs under the main drips (I'm using tubs that lunch meat came in). Lift one windshield wiper until they are picked up.

Conclusion: if it's still raining, best to just pull in and deploy the plastic tubs. ¯\(ツ)/¯

not a big deal for me, absolutely love the car.

 

[obermd]

Yesterday- drove 20 miles in steady rain and parked in driveway for 2 hours but it continued raining- moved to garage, slight amount of water fore and aft of rear wheels, but still about 1/2c from behind front wheels.
Test- poured 1/2c water on lower corner of windshield, several minutes later it started dripping out from the felt at the rear of front wheels. Seems like water draining from the windshield corners is passing through the lower part of that felt which slows it down.

Adjustment to my observations:

work around 1: park my car in the driveway for about 15 minutes, after driving in rain or on wet roads but rain has stopped: most of it drips out in that time, then move into the garage.

work around 2: pull right into the garage, place 6 small plastic tubs under the main drips (I'm using tubs that lunch meat came in). Lift one windshield wiper until they are picked up.

Conclusion: if it's still raining, best to just pull in and deploy the plastic tubs. ¯\(ツ)/¯

not a big deal for me, absolutely love the car.

All cars have windshield drains. Apparently the Clarity has rear window drains as well. The felt is in the way of these drains operating properly - someone at Honda screwed up as these drains must remain open to avoid water backing up and entering either the passenger cabin or the trunk areas.

 

[rogerdodger]

All cars have windshield drains. Apparently the Clarity has rear window drains as well. The felt is in the way of these drains operating properly - someone at Honda screwed up as these drains must remain open to avoid water backing up and entering either the passenger cabin or the trunk areas.

I'm not ready to say the felt interferes with the drains but there was definitely a delay in the water dripping out the bottom. After 12 hours overnight in the garage, the felt had drained but was still damp, it seems like the water I poured that was coming down from the windshield saturated some of that felt first and then ran down the back of it and then slowly dripped out.

 

[2002]

Have you had any experiences where you drove on wet roads when it wasn't raining, then pulled into the garage and still had water dripping from the wheel wells? I'm wondering if some of the water is being kicked up by the tires and sprayed onto the felt even when it's not raining. This would occur if it had recently been raining but the rain had stopped by the time you pull out of your garage, and there is no rain for the entire time you are out driving. If it still drips when you get back home then this would mean that all of the water in that situation would have had to come from the ground. And this also would mean that even when it is raining not all of the water is coming from the windows or wherever. My post office incident was similar to that, but there was a very slight drizzle on the way to the post office so it wasn't a perfect test.

 

[rogerdodger]

Have you had any experiences where you drove on wet roads when it wasn't raining, then pulled into the garage and still had water dripping from the wheel wells? I'm wondering if some of the water is being kicked up by the tires and sprayed onto the felt even when it's not raining. This would occur if it had recently been raining but the rain had stopped by the time you pull out of your garage, and there is no rain for the entire time you are out driving. If it still drips when you get back home then this would mean that all of the water in that situation would have had to come from the ground. And this also would mean that even when it is raining not all of the water is coming from the windows or wherever. My post office incident was similar to that, but there was a very slight drizzle on the way to the post office so it wasn't a perfect test.

that is what got me poking around a bit more under the wheel wells, I drove the car several miles when it wasn't raining but roads were still a bit wet from overnight mist/rain. Pulled right into the garage, didn't bother to deploy the plastic tubs, and came back later to find significant water had dripped out.

I have some waterproofing spray coming soon, more tests planned.