BMW 325 Problem

A friend of mine bought a used(approx. 35,000 miles) BMW 325 several years ago. I think he's had to put $3500.00 into the car in repairs. The main problem he has now is that when we get a heavy rain, the front passenger feet area get saturated with water. No other area gets wet. Any thoughts by anyone on where the water could be coming in? Perhaps a similar problem w/another vehicle? FWIW, his three previous Toyotas caused him no problems, but he always "wanted" a BMW.

if he has had a new wind shield install , the seal around the window may not have been installed correctly> note i had this problem with water getting in on the passengers side. the next thing to check to see if dirt or trash has build up around the bottom of the wind shield which can cause rain water to back into the auto. depending on how the car is made, there may be a cowl that has to be removed to check this possibly problem. if the car came where the roads are salted, this may have caused a hole in the above area mention. the other thing could be the heater is leaking, generally it is located in the same area as well, passenger side. hope this helps

Here are some ideas from bimmerfest.com:

There was a service bulletin released pertaining to a faulty windshield cowl cover. The cowl lifts and allows water to drip ontop of the AC blower motor and into the passenger footwell. In severe cases, it will also leak into the driver side footwell.

The AC blower motor bearings rust, cause squeaking noises, then eventually the bearings seize and the motor fails. Both the cowl cover and AC motor are covered under warranty. However, I don't believe the AC motor is covered under CPO.

If you only have water in the driver's side, it's most likely a bad door seal.

Another culprit can be the sunroof drains.
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The TSB will cover your cowl under CPO if you VIN falls under the service bulletin.

You can easily check if you have an issue if you see any gap between the windshield glass, and the rubber seal, on the plastic cowl cover.

In my case, a trim piece running along the bottom edge of the windshield was missing. It was either never replaced after being serviced at the dealer, or it was never installed from the factory. There was a noticeable 1/2" gap in the center of the cowl.
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Ok guys, I think I may be onto something here. I poured some water in the driver side cowl drain, and I see some water then running towards where the the wires/cables enter the driver side foot well, see picture. It seems to be leaking from the inner corner of the drain, see picture. I am thinking about putting a bead of silicone in the corner of the cowl drain see if it gets any better.

Thanks Jim and Dave for the suggestions. He had the cowling replaced awhile back; it had deteriorated and the bottom edge of the windshield was showing. We had about 3 1/2" of rain the other day; the problem only seems to occur with heavy rains. IIRC, on one occasion the inside of his glove compartment got wet as well.

Darian Rachal said:

A friend of mine bought a used(approx. 35,000 miles) BMW 325 several years ago. I think he's had to put $3500.00 into the car in repairs. The main problem he has now is that when we get a heavy rain, the front passenger feet area get saturated with water. No other area gets wet. Any thoughts by anyone on where the water could be coming in? Perhaps a similar problem w/another vehicle? FWIW, his three previous Toyotas caused him no problems, but he always "wanted" a BMW.

I work on these for a living if the window regulator was replaced and the inner door liner got ripped or missing it's made of some type of hard foam it's guaranteed to leak in through lower part of door,
Seen it many times and as others have mentioned cowel drains . HTH
Pete