Uhhh... I meant Cowl Vent...
I am a brand new TJ maintenance tech. Actually my daughter wanted a Jeep so we got her one and I'll be doing the maintenance.
I did some reading on the biggest TJ issues and wanted to share my cowl vent story.
I pulled the cowl, and learned later there was no real need as the funnel was accessible on the firewall and the cowl area was pretty clean.
My 97 TJ has the plastic funnel and not the tube. Anyway the cowl area was clean, looked in good shape but the drain was full of mud/silt. It literally was a brick. Solid dried mud packed from the top of the plastic funnel to the bottom. I had to pull it, soak it and jab a long ratchet extension all the way through to break up the mud inside.
No big deal, easily done, but I was amazed it was so plugged and how much mud went into the cowl. Now I'm really curious about whether its the original motor, wondering about hydrolocking and I'll drain the diffs this coming weekend. Obviously if our new TJ addition could talk it would have some tales to tell.
Moral of the story: If you bought a used Jeep, do a preventative check of the cowl drain before the floor boards floods. My daughters surely would have.
I am a brand new TJ maintenance tech. Actually my daughter wanted a Jeep so we got her one and I'll be doing the maintenance.
I did some reading on the biggest TJ issues and wanted to share my cowl vent story.
I pulled the cowl, and learned later there was no real need as the funnel was accessible on the firewall and the cowl area was pretty clean.
My 97 TJ has the plastic funnel and not the tube. Anyway the cowl area was clean, looked in good shape but the drain was full of mud/silt. It literally was a brick. Solid dried mud packed from the top of the plastic funnel to the bottom. I had to pull it, soak it and jab a long ratchet extension all the way through to break up the mud inside.
No big deal, easily done, but I was amazed it was so plugged and how much mud went into the cowl. Now I'm really curious about whether its the original motor, wondering about hydrolocking and I'll drain the diffs this coming weekend. Obviously if our new TJ addition could talk it would have some tales to tell.
Moral of the story: If you bought a used Jeep, do a preventative check of the cowl drain before the floor boards floods. My daughters surely would have.
Last edited:
