Hello guys, I have a 1997 Honda crv with 48K on it and I am the
original owner. I start noticing that my car stopped smelling like
the clean car it is and I knew something was wrong. Looking around
inside of the car for the cause of the bad smell I found out that the
carpet at the passenger side was socked. Since it was in the middle
of a rainy season I figured water somehow got into the car and that
it will eventually dry. The problem kind of went away when the
season changed, but the clean smell never did.

This winter I started noticing again and this time I was determined
to have it fixed so I started looking around. I raised the carpet on
the passenger side and to my surprise the underlining carpet was
socked with water and the awful smell came to life. I put my hand
further into the carpet to see how far the water had gone under the
carpet and it did go as far as the driver seat. I pilled off the
padding under the passenger side and I literally had to squize a
substantial amount of water. I have left the carpet by the passenger
side open so that it gets fresh air.

A friend and I studied further to figure out where the water was
coming and we seem to know the problem. The water is coming from the
passenger side knee height, but all the way to the back of the metal
body. There is some sort of black gasket srounded by a glue kind of
material. Apparently the gasket appears to be bleeding water
droplets and trickles down the inside body of the car and eventually
the water get collected under the CRVs computer system (scary). I
am so scared that if it rains enough the computer will be flooded.

Has anybody incounter this kind of problem?

I believe that to fix this problem a person need access behind the
front right side portion of the CRV body (the body above the front
right tire) Any of you know if this is difficult or easy to do?
Please let me know your results as soon as you can.

Thank you so much,
HGebreamlak

I had a leak in my 1997. The dealer initially blamed my aftermarket
sunroof. The 2nd time I took it in they sealed off the sunroof with
plastic and drenched the car with a hose. Sure enough the leak was
coming in on passenger side under a cracked plastic cap at base of
windshield. The plastic cap had been broken earlier when the dealer
had replaced the windshield. This black cap runs across the bottom
of the windshield. Check it out. Hope it helps.

Terryl Johnson
Titusville, FL
2002 Silver EX