Gear Tunnel and Cab Water Intrusion

[RFC1918]

They forgot to pull the plugs in the door drains for mine. I had water sloshing inside my doors.

It rained in AZ yesterday and today. I can hear water sloshing when accelerating and turning. I think its in the doors, though I cannot find any drain holes/plugs. Where are these located at? Anyone have a picture of what they look like?

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[Bikermomjudi]

I think people that get worried seeing these issues and freaking out must be new to forums. They don’t realize that people don’t post “yup, had another normal day with my rivian” you either post to get praise or sympathy. Trust me I am one of those. But go check out a bronco forum or a land rover forum, or any other manufacturers forum, they all have people posting the hundreds of things that can go wrong with a vehicle. It has no scientific bearing on how great or horrible a vehicles manufacturing is.

sorry, had to post.

 

[Bikermomjudi]

I completely agree. Most days I love driving my Rivian and enjoy playing with all the fun features. I consider us first generation owners like beta testers. Our experiences and input will only make this car better.

 

[bael]

It rained in AZ yesterday and today. I can hear water sloshing when accelerating and turning. I think its in the doors, though I cannot find any drain holes/plugs. Where are these located at? Anyone have a picture of what they look like?

We had massive downpour here Tuesday. I had an appointment scheduled for today and noticed a water sloshing sound on the drive down. They looked into it and think it is some in the passenger door - they are draining and remediating right now actually. Mentioned having to take door apart and hadn’t heard of other issues after fixed.
they didn’t hear on a short drive but were willing to go with me for another drive and heard it.
goad I already had it on the books - hopefully no other water later
Will update if I hear anything different when complete (soon)

 

[bael]

Update to my post above: drain was clogged. They drained Tom he water and drilled a larger drain hole.

 

[duessell]

Update to my post above: drain was clogged. They drained Tom he water and drilled a larger drain hole.

Can you share a picture of the where the drain is?

 

[bael]

Can you share a picture of the where the drain is?

I believe it is contained within the black plastic that wraps the bottom. They had to replace some clips according to the work order and I think the plastic /may/ be off a bit.

There are 2-3 holes within the very bottom of that black plastic.

The plastic holes look to be the same size on both front doors - so again, I think that there is another one that is hidden that can't see

 

[louisdeg]

I have been Driving my R1T for a month and had no issues with interior leaks anywhere. I did have a fair amount collect at the bottom of the drivers door after a hard rain but it dumped out when I opened the door in the am. The tonneau sounds rather clunky but I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually waterproof instead of just weatherproof. I had a service call for the spare tire hatch not popping open when released (I fixed it with dry silicone lube after reporting it) and the tec advised me to wait on tonneau repair until it breaks as the fix is evolving over time. I did spray dry silicone into the track and will keep an eye on it. I really like the truck and have only had a few resettable glitches (phone and radio) so far.

 

[HJP1]

Hard rain north of Chicago yesterday, was at a friends house for dinner and my R1T was parked in the driveway. Saw this thread this morning and went to check for leaks in the gear tunnel and bed, dry as the desert. I've had mine for 1.5 months with about 1500 miles and my only issue so far is the key fob while opens and closes doors, front hood and tailgate it will not allow me to drive the vehicle. Rivian working on problem. While I knew there is a higher risk factor buying a brand new vehicle from a brand new company I decided to move forward and so far I am happy with what I consider to be a state of the art truck that has no competition as of yet.

 

[RoverZac]

To the OP, the way the tunnel doors are made, the seal and the plastic door trim have to be about perfect to prevent it leaking. If you simply don't close it all the way or if they adjusted it too far out for body panel matching, etc then it can leak.

I'm not saying that's your problem, but probable causes.

I've had my R1T for almost 5 months with no water intrusion and it has rained buckets here in Georgia. I have had body panel mismatch issues addressed, a 1/4 window trim replaced, and a poorly stamped door replaced.

#1454, 8000 miles

 

[kylealden]

Yeah man...the list of problems grows by the day, if not hour. This is getting out of hand. I have a week left to make a decision.

Of course the list of problems grows. Every day there are more Rivians on the road and more miles on each one. The number of opportunities for things to go wrong is rising precipitously day by day, and it's a new vehicle with an enthusiast owner base, so virtually every major incident will not only be posted somewhere, but reposted breathlessly on every forum, subreddit, and YouTube channel.

Meanwhile nobody is going to a Toyota Corolla forum to complain about their premature transmission failure or leaky door trim.

There are more than 10,000 Rivians on the road now. Some small but non-zero number of them seem to have water intrusion issues; just like we've seen a couple where a wheel fell off, or a motor failed, or some other relatively carastrophic failure occurred. But if you're talking about single or double-digit reports, you're talking about small fractions of a percent of current deliveries.

None of this is an excuse for Rivian, which clearly has growing pains and very real production and QC issues. But it's a mistake to equate subjective impressions of quality via vocal minorities on the forums with actual reliability; anecdotes are not data.

By contrast are folks like me who have kept theirs outside in Seattle since May with nary a drop of water intrustion or any other significant issues* (#44xx, 6700mi).

Is there a small but real chance you'll get issues that will require a warranty repair? Yeah, sure. And it's reasonable to decide you're not up for that. But it's important to keep these things in perspective with the number of vehicles on the road. And IMO it's a little odd to preorder a first-generation EV with a totally novel design, from a completely unproven startup, and then get cold feet at the 11th hour because 0.05% of vehicles appear to have water intrustion issues. But your risk tolerance is ultimately up to you.



* (Besides the tonneau, which is an illustrative contrast; it certainly affects a significant double-digit percentage of vehicles, and therefore appears to be a universal problem.)

 

[Tonicart]

Note to self: don't park facing downhill during a rain... I have a pretty steep driveway, but I park facing uphill. Luckily no leaks yet.

 

[Birdowin]

I'm going on 6k with my Rivian and I love it. No problems except that the wipers swipe once when I put it in D or R. Not a big deal and I have a trouble ticket in on that. Been on two long road trips and had a little bit of a learning curve on third party charging stations. But that is to be expected. I have owned pickups all of my life and this one is so far and above any one of them that I can't believe it. Rivian has built a great truck that has capabilities far above any of the competition. As a new company I expect some issues but also believe in Rivian's ability to solve them.

 

[yizzung]

I'm going on 6k with my Rivian and I love it. No problems except that the wipers swipe once when I put it in D or R. Not a big deal and I have a trouble ticket in on that.

FWIW, I think it's a feature not a bug. Mine does this also...

 

[yizzung]

Of course the list of problems grows. Every day there are more Rivians on the road and more miles on each one. The number of opportunities for things to go wrong is rising precipitously day by day, and it's a new vehicle with an enthusiast owner base, so virtually every major incident will not only be posted somewhere, but reposted breathlessly on every forum, subreddit, and YouTube channel.

Meanwhile nobody is going to a Toyota Corolla forum to complain about their premature transmission failure or leaky door trim.

There are more than 10,000 Rivians on the road now. Some small but non-zero number of them seem to have water intrusion issues; just like we've seen a couple where a wheel fell off, or a motor failed, or some other relatively carastrophic failure occurred. But if you're talking about single or double-digit reports, you're talking about small fractions of a percent of current deliveries.

None of this is an excuse for Rivian, which clearly has growing pains and very real production and QC issues. But it's a mistake to equate subjective impressions of quality via vocal minorities on the forums with actual reliability; anecdotes are not data.

By contrast are folks like me who have kept theirs outside in Seattle since May with nary a drop of water intrustion or any other significant issues* (#44xx, 6700mi).

Is there a small but real chance you'll get issues that will require a warranty repair? Yeah, sure. And it's reasonable to decide you're not up for that. But it's important to keep these things in perspective with the number of vehicles on the road. And IMO it's a little odd to preorder a first-generation EV with a totally novel design, from a completely unproven startup, and then get cold feet at the 11th hour because 0.05% of vehicles appear to have water intrustion issues. But your risk tolerance is ultimately up to you.



* (Besides the tonneau, which is an illustrative contrast; it certainly affects a significant double-digit percentage of vehicles, and therefore appears to be a universal problem.)

Exactly. It also doesn't help that folks can sit on a waitlist for years and during that time may never encounter one in-person. Lots of time to agonize over every little bit of "news" that comes out.

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