I just troubleshot this issue on my '06 Coupe that I bought last fall. My blower stopped working so I removed it to see what the problem was. When I removed the bottom toe plate behind the glove compartment door, I discovered that the last owner placed some paper towels on top of the padding to soak up any water and stuffed a lot of deodorizers in the net pocket to get rid of any odor from moisture sitting there. I had left the car out in a couple of rainstorms and the towels and padding were soaked as well as some of the carpeting. The blower motor was wet too. I cleaned it up and lubricated it and dried everything out. Now it works just fine, but on to the next problem: where did the water come from?

I had to fix my windshield washer system too, so I removed the channel cover. Here is what I think is happening here: With a heavy rain, water floods around the cover windshield molding and drips directly into the air intake port, through the blower motor and onto the floor.

There is a metal mounting tab located over the port just under the cover where there should be some kind of baffle to divert water away from this area, but it does not exist. Either this part was omitted on the assembly altogether or was skipped on a production run due to supply issues or a lne supervisor drank too much Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier over lunch. I fashioned a baffle out of a stiff mylar bubble envelope I had and secured it to the empty hole with spare xmas-tree plug.

Sorry no pics because I'm sick of messing with this cover after spending two evenings trying to figure out why my washer fluid is flaccid. After fixing a cracked hose fitting and I still have poor spray.

My suggestion is to make a baffle out of something stiff and water proof that will act as an umbrella over the air intake port and fasten it to the existing metal tab. Keep the drain channel and drain tube free of debris so you don't get water backing up and overflowing into the port. If you cover the port with tape or plastic its a lot like having the internal air circulation button on all the time. There is an actuated door that blocks the intake port when you press that button. When you turn the car off, it retracts to the open position.

I can't guarantee this will fix the problem but it makes a lot of sense to me after looking at the situation......and I am an engineer. I keep my car garaged so I will have to wait for when I have to put my outboard back on the boat so that the crossfire has to stay out in the next big rainstorm.