ND Miata soft top, water in the passenger footwell after rain, is it the drain holes behind the seats

drains first, nine times out of ten. there's one on each side at the bottom of the well the top folds into, right behind the seats. they're small and they plug with leaves, grit, whatever falls in when the top is down. when one plugs, the water backs up and finds its way forward into the footwell.

the trick everybody uses is weed trimmer line. a few feet of the .080 stuff, feed it down the hole slowly and twist. it should come out low behind the front wheel area. then pour a cup of water into the well and watch it drain out underneath. if it pours out clean you're done.

drains are the right first call. if they're clear and you still get water, check the window indexing. the glass drops a little when you open the door and comes back up into the seal when you close it. if it isn't going all the way up, rain gets past the top corner of the window and runs down inside the door. passenger side only fits that too. close the door, look at the top edge of the glass from inside, it should be tucked into the rubber with no light showing.

whatever you find, pull the carpet up and dry it properly. we live in Savannah where nothing ever dries on its own, and on our Boxster a wet footwell turned into mildew under the padding in about ten days. shop vac, then a box fan pointed in with the door open for a couple of days. the padding holds water long after the top of the carpet feels dry.

same thing happens out here, just with dust instead of fir needles. the drains pack up with fine dirt all spring and nobody notices until the first monsoon storm in july. i run line down mine every june now, it takes five minutes.