Water leaks on passenger floorboard (maybe not the A/C drain?)

[JTrigg]

Was getting the water on the passenger side floorboards thing, still haven't had the jeep long enough to really be able to say with certainty that things occur only when or only if, so I just hit it two pronged.

First fix was the simple. 5/8" ID tubing to the drain plug, hose clamp, and route it down into the fender well. Costs about 4 bucks, and probably needed to be done anyway. But it did not solve the problem. Rain was the issue, and a LOT of it was coming into the cab, right onto the passenger side floor mat. Filling it easily after the hard rain from last night. And the issue always seemed to appear when it was raining. Nothing wet ever noted up high (window seal, soft top lip, etc.) So. it was coming in low. There is a drain in the hood cowling, and there is a fresh air intake for the cab right by it, so......

 

[JTrigg]

Looks like there might be an issue. Full of leaves and nonsense.


Need to take the wiper arms off. Easy enough. A little hook tab and it slides a small cam head off the wiper shaft and they pull straight off....flat tip screwdriver takes care of that.


4 phillips tip screws on the top lip of the cowling, right under where the wipers would have been on each side. Lift the hood and pull off this strip of rubber from where the top of the firewall meets the hood.Should have taken a picture of it on, but I forgot
.

 

[Oldguy]

Post results, chasing the same issue.Already cleaned everything underneath and was thing it was a seal also but to cold here to tear it apart

 

[JTrigg]

Now there are two phillips head screws, one each side, that hold the cowling on, take those out...You may want to flap the hood back to full open, not on the hood prop......


Once all 6 screws are out, a light pry on both sides with a flat tip and the cowling will pop off and you get to see this sort of thing.....

 

[JTrigg]

Water hose and a flat tip to push all the debris and leaves around, lots of water in all the available holes. Eventually it looks like so.....just push lots of water in and around, and focus on the slot drain. Lots of water or air in it to clean out stuck crap.

 

[JTrigg]

While the cowl is off, if you (like I do) have wiring running from LED's through the cowl, go ahead and re-wrap or clean up the wire covering. Easy enough to do. Reverse the process of screws and so on. I found it easier to not fully tighten any screw until all screws were in place on the cowling. Wiper arms are interchangeable side-to-side (99 Wrangler, anyhow) , so don't worry about that too much. Timing on them (in terms of the angle it takes to get them to lay horizontal on the windscreen) is a matter of playing around until you get it right. Be advised that they must be placed back on the wiper spline in this position....

as it won't lock in the extended position. Place the wiper on "folded" and then extend it.

 

[JTrigg]

Take a hose, run a lot of water through the vent on the cowling like so......


And hopefully, underneath you get this....


As you can see, there had been an ongoing issue with the water coming in via the fresh air intake, and not going out the drain. Possibly one of the things that frustrated the last owner into selling it...



In any case, hopefully the fix for the problem. If not, at least that won't become an issue.

Also, while the cowling was off, I touched up a bit of wear around some of the screw holes and added some "anti rust" Valspar I had laying around. Just touch up spray paint on the inside. Keep it from becoming an issue. Since the jack was off the hood, went ahead and hit it with a lot of WD40 to keep it loose, and checked its function.

The cat watched the entire process, so he gets a nod...



Good luck if you are doing this. Takes a rough hour if you go slow and sip a beer or whatever.....

 

[Oldguy]

Thank you

 

[JTrigg]

Thank you

You bet. Hopefully your fix is in here. Mine, too.

 

[OHFIVETJ]

I fixed my issue a few mo ago / I had the same problem, same result, same fix. Vent drain in cowl area was clogged with pine needles.

 

[JTrigg]

Post results, chasing the same issue.Already cleaned everything underneath and was thing it was a seal also but to cold here to tear it apart

See continuation of this thread.....

 

[JTrigg]

Ok, so the cowl vent was NOT the issue. Glad I took care of it, due to the leaves and trash accumulated in it, and so it would not become the problem. But, light rain came and a little bit of water puddling up in the floorboards again.

So..., got to looking around on the forums and google. Lots of odd suggestions, some good, some I already tried. Found a posting on this forum, via google, and showed this location. I ran a hose over the area (not spray, just a hose) and it immediately poured small trickles of water straight into the passenger floor pan. It is absolutely NOT intuitive. Will figure a fix for it, some sort of caulking, foam, or cover for it.


One reason it is not intuitive is you would think it would take some sort of road splash or whatever to get it to leak here. Apparently, whatever water is "draining" along the firewall in this area is enough. When the jeep is parked in light rain, it gets light puddling. Driven, or parked in a heavy rain, it gets a lot of puddling.

I will fix, and then post it as a solution or another fail.

 

[Ericict]

I had the same issue. No drain line and plugged. Unplugged the drain and added a hose. No more wet floor mat.

 

[Oldguy]

I`ll check it out also

 

[JTrigg]

Quick fix, no idea on the duration of the fix or if it will work short or long term. But , I had a can of Flex-Seal "liquid rubber in a can" laying around. It did seal the gaps where the lines ran in. I coated the entire foam piece and so on...

when it dries and sets, will go back and clean up the overspray.

 

[JTrigg]

I had the same issue. No drain line and plugged. Unplugged the drain and added a hose. No more wet floor mat.

first fix tried, no good in this case. But, likely a necessary add on anyway.

 

[Oldguy]

Is there supposed to be a cover over the hvac fan?

 

[JTrigg]

we are going to call this one a fix.

From this... to this...

Been driving around in, and having Jeep parked in, rain all day. No water intrusion, post Flex Seal. I will continue to monitor, and if it blows up in my face, will report back here....

 

[Imapepper]

Silicone this foam thru firewall ac drain also,rain water runs all the way down there and into pass floorboard if hood to cowl seal is faulty.

 

[TDB55]

While driving in a heavy rain on the interstate I felt water dripping on my ankles. Where do you think that came from? Steering column?