As my car had a crack in the top when I bought it, one of my first checks was to lift the carpet to see if it was dry in all four corners, as I know from bitter experience how quick rust can accelerate under a wet carpet.

Was surprised to find that three out of four footwells had the 1.5’ (38.1mm) drain plugs missing, and added that to my tobuy & todo list.

Yesterday while having the car slightly jacket up doing some other work, I tried to spot the openings but got confused as I couldn't find any, could it be that the openings on the floor inside the car goes to some kind of frame beam?
In other words, can the missing footwell drain plugs lead to water getting into the car?

 

maybe try measuring the distance from the outside edge of the body to the hole on the inside and then go under and see where it shows it should be or the general area. also could try using light to see if you can see the light from under the car. in any case I would replace caps or at the least cover the holes.

 

I saw the holes from an angle when lifting the carpet in each well to look, but I took for granted that they went out under the car without investigating any further, was also a bit shocked how the previous owner had been driving around like that as heavy wet weather would get the carpet soaked

My current plan is to take the car to my buddy that has a workshop car lift, and then thoroughly inspect the bottom.

But first I need to finalize the work on the cooling system, had the coolant level sensor of to clean, and replacing both temp sensors (head and w-pump) as well as freshing up with some new coolant (currently only 25% anti-freeze in there).

Was concerned that I had might had spilled coolant on the opti when taking out the w-pump sensor, but when checking it looked dry and I made sure to wipe everything clean in that area, did see that it was a red MSD unit, so I guess its been replaced as that wasn’t the kind the car once came with?

 

Had the car up on a lift this Saturday, and of the four drain holes (one in each footwell), only the rear ones in front of the backseat were visible from underneath.

Checked up some other stuff as well while having the car up in the air and found an odd kind of leak on the rear axle, coming from the edge between the housing and the pipe towards the wheel, was wet also at the top of the housing near the ventilation (pict from internet, so not from my car), could it somehow have been overfilled?

 

check the fluid level in the rear differential. if normal and its not leaving a oil spot where it is parked then your good. its pretty normal for it to seep just a tad over the years and it soaks into the road dirt and sticks to it.

 

Thanks Craby, then I know this kind of limited leakage is common on our cars

Oil change in the diff is on my todo list anyways, VIN decoder says I have a 3.42 rear axle ratio (RPO says GU2= 2.73 however, which seems accurate to the RPM) , guess that means the standard differential and not a limited slip?

 

273 is normal for 6 cyl open differential is also stock for 6.

 

Mine is a 8 cyl (just updated the vehicle descr in my profile)
2.73 makes perfect sense as I drive around idling if staying within the speed limits

 

z28 will have a limited slip and most common diff is 3.23.

 

Interesting, so the limited slip is standard on the Z28

But the GU2 on my RPO sign indicates I have the 2.73 ratio, right?