What are these and where's the water coming from?

2838 Views 23 Replies 15 Participants Last post by pghsteel, Jun 11, 2011

Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · Oct 3, 2010

Found these in the cowl drain whilst trying to determine why driver's side carpet was soaking wet under floor mat:

Found carpet soaked near gas pedal while vacuuming. Just washed the softtop for winter removal & storage (garden house well pump pressure), prior to that we had nearly 7" of rain Wed thru Thurs, and, I was using the A/C during that time. Removed cowl (first time ever) and found the broken rubber items in pic. I'm sure they're not related to the water issue, just wondering what they are and how important they are. (Wiper linkage seals?) Any suggestions on where to look, or what might be causing the water infiltration? Jeep is/was parked facing slightly downhill during rain and washing. Doors and all the top seals appeared to be tight.
Thanks.

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1 - 20 of 24 Posts

Eric

· #2 · Oct 3, 2010

wiper cowl seals, is my best guess. and check your A/C drain for the water problem

JimmyB

· #3 · Oct 4, 2010

yep part of the wiper pivot posts....they fall off all the time. lots of places for the leak to be coming from....one thing alot of people don't think of is if you lower your windsheild from time to time the seal might not be up to par any more.

Elwarpo

· #4 · Oct 4, 2010

Not the AC drain, it is on the passengers side. Check the seal between the soft top and window frame.

Minjin

· #5 · Oct 4, 2010

Every time it rains I have water behind my rear passenger as well. Can't seem to find where its leaking from. Next time it rains I will have to go outside and sit in the jeep.

Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 5, 2010

OK, wiper cowl seals...check...don't remember ever seeing them in place, hence, didn't miss them.

On to the water...It's raining again, no where near as hard as last wek, and driver's foot well is dry. However, hartop is now on.
Dash was filthy from summer w/o windows, doors and top, so I'd have seen water trails in the grime from a top seal leak above windshield. Windshield has never been down, but that doesn't mean the seal is still good. This thing is still a pavement pounding daily driver keep in mind.

I thought of the A/C drain right away, but it's on pass side. Still will need to check it...water has a nasty habit of ending up in strange places relevant to the source. I'm thinking that's likely where it's coming from somehow. I had it on both days and it was extremely humid when all that rain was coming down last week. And there was a lot of water under there, took two breezy days to fully dry it out. (did I mention I loath plmbing?

)

All good ideas as usual....thanks very much folks! If / when I definintively find the source, I'll post up.

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Filthy-Beast

· #7 · Oct 5, 2010

Look on the firewall. PO had pushed out the boot around the wire harness and for some reason during a down pour it would get in there. There was also a hole on the passenger side for a radio power cable that would let water in.

Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 5, 2010

Filthy-Beast said:
Look on the firewall. PO had pushed out the boot around the wire harness and for some reason during a down pour it would get in there. There was also a hole on the passenger side for a radio power cable that would let water in.

That sparks a thought...the plastic drain tube from the cowl isn't exactly what you would call sealed to the tub. That would mean a bunch of water could run down the engine compartment side of the firewall. I'll need to check what's below that area and see if it can get in that way. When it stops raining......

Thanks

3rivers

· #9 · Oct 5, 2010

Try searching "passenger floor wet" or some combination relating to this.

This is a common problem with a specific fix - I don't remember the details but you had the right idea
when you pulled the cowl panel - I think it has to do with the cowl drain being plugged with leaves and
junk.

The fix might be to dig down in there and make the cowl drain hole bigger, but again, I don't remember
all the details. I HAVE seen this problem come up often.

I'll try searching for it later if I have more time...

P.S. Of course, you could have some completely unrelated, different type of leak, but it sure sounds like
the one I've read about many times in the past.
I have, on one or two occasions, found slight dampness on the passenger floor so I suppose one of these
days I'll have to find those threads that explain how to fix it.

Let us know if you make definitive progress - thanks, and good luck!

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Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · #10 · Oct 6, 2010

3rivers, in my case, it's the driver's side floor pan that was soaked. Which is odd because, as you've said, lots of posts on the passenger side wetness.

My cowl has the screen under the grill so there was no debris in there to clog anything up.

Still raining here, this weekend it's suposed to dry up outside and I'm going to get investigating some more (buckets and garden hose will be involved).

SweetPee

· #11 · Oct 6, 2010

I had a similar issue, but on the passenger side and it was NOT from the AC or any other common issue. Putting your hard top on MAY have solved it.

On mine... I would get water in the floor board and it appeared to be comming in from the foor, almost where the sheet metal made a bend to go up towards the A pillar & hindges. It was actually leaking from the top of the door seal, about where the door surrounds, the doors, and windshield and the top all meet together. The issue was that my cage bars that the door surrounds mount to were too far inward. Hence the seal wasn't as tight as it should have been. Moving the roll cage bar out, towards to door, maybe 1/8" solved it.

The water was comming in slightly, at the top of the door in that corner where everything comes together. Then the watter was running down the door seal just past that bend in the sheet metal and then inside. Kind of hard to explain, but hopefully you get the idea. If it can happen on my passenger side I see no reason why it could not happen on the driver's side. Anyway, just an idea for you.

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Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · #12 · Oct 6, 2010

SweetPee, I understand what you have explained, and that sounds very plausible to me. It's 6 years old and, as one can tell from the wiper grommets/seals, the rubber ain't what it used to be. The garden hose will be directed in the area you speak of and we'll see what happens. As you say, the hardtop may temorarily have 'fixed' the problem. If that's the case it'll wait until next spring. Thanks very much for your input

SweetPee

· #13 · Oct 6, 2010

Rubizuk said:
SweetPee, I understand what you have explained, and that sounds very plausible to me. It's 6 years old and, as one can tell from the wiper grommets/seals, the rubber ain't what it used to be. The garden hose will be directed in the area you speak of and we'll see what happens. As you say, the hardtop may temorarily have 'fixed' the problem. If that's the case it'll wait until next spring. Thanks very much for your input

The garden hose idea you have... like you already said, IF that is the issue the hard top may have fixed it. But on another note, I tried the garden hose idea in my trial and error tests. I DID NOT get any huge amount of rushing water or anything like that. Course I didn't hit it right on the spot with a powerful blast either. What I noticed was some droppletts on the window as I did this and noticed the spot it was at. That gave me the clue. To confirm it, I waited till it rained again and the jeep had been sitting out in it and before I drove off in it I looked read hard at it and followed the water trail that way. Toilet paper helps track/trace it since it shows when it has absorbed water really easily.

Rubizuk

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 10, 2010

Well I've hosed and dumped buckets full of water all over the windshield doors and cowl. Nothing...bone dry. So therefore, it's either A/C or soft top related. Neither of which I'm really going to be able to do anything with at this point in the lunar cycle. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, stay tuned next spring....(any chance it won't ever happen again?

)

Garden-Spyder

· #15 · Jun 5, 2011

the last two weeks, I have found about an inch of water sitting in my passenger floor overnight. I even had a small plant growing in the floormat of some kind, I vaccuumed it up once, and that was the last of it until the next rain, but the second time, I searched here and found this info. I pulled the cowl off and found it had about an inch of water in it. to see if my theory was correct about this water making it into the passenger side, I had my daughter garden hose the inside of the cowl, it filled up, and started raining in my jeep onto the floor. I removed the antenna and shoved it down the cowl drain, suddenly all the water disappeared, and was going away as fast as the garden hose could fill it. YAY!!! (of course I removed the antenna from the drain and reinstalled it back on the side)

Red Dog Leader

· #16 · Jun 6, 2011

You know...sometimes while wheeling a RUBICON, it'll take you to places that'll make you feel like you are going to pee your pants. It's OK if you admit this as we've all felt this urge....but...it's quite alright if you jump out and simply pee on the trail. Standing in front of your jeep is a good place to do that plus it'll save on trying to come up with another reason as to why your carpet is wet beneath your foot. Just Pee outside!

katswuy

· #17 · Jun 6, 2011

Red Dog Leader, not sure how
:worthless:

Red Dog Leader

· #18 · Jun 6, 2011

katswuy said:
Red Dog Leader, not sure how
:worthless:

All I can say is that I have been hit with the urge, but have mutlitasked to fight this urge and driven through it only to stop at a less risky spot on the trail to finally relieve this urge. If the water or now agreed on pee issue in the floor board of the Jeep is not dealt with in a manner suitable for the driver and those around him...i.e. peeing on the ground, then the wet floor issue will continue. It could be a more serious, deeper issue we are dealing with as far as the OP is concerned.....maybe it is just that the OP doesn't want the possibility of being "seen." This could be very deep rooted.

Wow. :lildevil:

ron993

· #19 · Jun 6, 2011

Sounds like what you need is the gotta go personal care device

Make sure you look at the pictures
http://tweetys.com/gota-go-personal-care-device.aspx

kind of sad I knew about this

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Big Wiz

· #20 · Jun 9, 2011

ron993 said:
Sounds like what you need is the gotta go personal care device

Make sure you look at the pictures
http://tweetys.com/gota-go-personal-care-device.aspx

kind of sad I knew about this

OMG!!! That is freeking hilarious!!!!!!!!!! :appl:

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