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Help Sourcing Water Leak...With Pictures

GreenMachine1

NAXJA Forum User
Location
CT
I recently picked up a 1997 Jeep Cherokee Country with a blown motor for the right price (free) that is in need of some work. Although there is some body damage on the vehicle, the Jeep started its life in Florida so there is very little rust. The other day when I started stripping the interior, I noticed the front passenger carpeting was extremely wet. I pulled out all the carpet and found really the only rust damage on the vehicle, located on the front passenger floor pan. I ordered a new floor plan to replace the damaged one, however, I would like to tackle the water leak before I weld in the new floor pan.

I initially thought the leak was coming from the foam seal around the blower motor so I tore out the entire to get to the heater box. Before I could remove the heater box, the old lady started nagging me so I wasnt able to finish the job. While I was cleaning up the tools from the day, I noticed a foam seal on top of the heater box that was soaking wet. This leads me to believe the blower motor seal is not the source of my leak.

I have endlessly searched the forum looking for clues and hints as to what may cause this leak but I have not pin-pointed that cause. I know to check the cowl drains, door seals, blower motor seals, and the antenna drain at the firewall. I was wondering if anyone has experienced a leak like this before and knows where to begin my search for the source. I have attached two pictures of the wet gasket. The first picture shows the location of the foam seal (on top of the heater box) and the second pictures shows water trickling down the heater box after I pressed on the foam gasket.

If anyone has any insight into what may be causing this issue, please let me know. Thanks in advance for the help.

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Easiest way to track down a leak (that's probably the windshield seal) would be spray some baby powder on the firewall on the passenger side. Then have someone inside and someone outside with garden hose to just hold at the top of the windshield and let it soak the whole side of the jeep to see where it goes.
 
As the Gen III XJs age the seal between the HVAC and the body fails allowing water to run into the Heep. Only solution I know is to pull it all out and replace the seal. Seal kits are found at the Dealer...

And yes, my 98 was leaking when I got it not quite 2 years ago. Just one of the reasons I had it for as cheap as I did...
 
agree with ^^^

the only addition I've got is to start spraying toward the bottom of the firewall and slowly work your way upward until it starts leaking. The HVAC assembly or the firewall drip rail can also be the source of the leak and you might miss them if you start flooding everything from the top.

O-gauge-- you type faster than I do, I guess:)
 
The leak is not the foam gasket you see on the heater box. What is leaking is the seal between the cowl and splash shield/ baffle(55037128AB BAFFLE, Air Inlet).

Pull the heater box and seal up the shield. When I did mine I went with a new shield that came with a gasket. I also put Plenty of RTV on the seal.

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Thanks everyone for the help!

Talyn, that's just the information I was looking for. I did see something on cherokeeforum about a leak around the air inlet but there wasn't any solution to the problem listed. Is that part number u listed for a new baffle with seal? Where exactly did you put the RTV?

While we're on the topic, does anyone have the part number for the gasket set the seals around the heater core and evaperstor core tubes that stick out from the heater box into the engine compartment??
 
Given it came from Florida where it is hot and humid, my bet is that the drain on the plenum box for the A/C is plugged with mold/mildew. It causes the condensation to build up. Funny thing is that the A/C runs with the defroster to keep things from fogging up, so it happens in the winter as well.
 
old_man, you hit the nail on the head with excessive mold and mildew. I had to strip the whole interior because it was covered in mold/mildew. Right now, the motor/trans/tcase are out of the vehicle so I'm leaning towards the air-inlet being the source of the leak as opposed to a clogged condensation drain in the heater box. I did have a clogged drain on the heater box of my WJ so I'll be sure to look into that if the air inlet is not the cause.
 
Is that part number u listed for a new baffle with seal? Where exactly did you put the RTV?
Yes, the PN is for the part number with the seal. I put a heavy layer of RTV around the seal, let it setup for a few minutes then installed it. It hasn't leaked again.
While we're on the topic, does anyone have the part number for the gasket set the seals around the heater core and evaperstor core tubes that stick out from the heater box into the engine compartment??
4874069AB Comes with the gasket for the blower motor, ac lines and heater core lines, and drain.
Given it came from Florida where it is hot and humid, my bet is that the drain on the plenum box for the A/C is plugged with mold/mildew.
While that may be clogged as well, he indicated that the seal to the baffle is wet. Which is where his leak is.
 
Talyn-

Thanks again for all the help and for the part numbers. Definitely makes things easier to have a part number when getting stuff from the local dealer. If you don't mind me asking, where do you get the PNs from? It would be nice to have a site listing factory PNs similar to realoem used for BMWs.

Noah
 
Talyn-

I called the local Jeep dealer to order the air inlet baffle and the heater box gasket set but ran into a snag. The gasket set will be in tomorrow, however, the air inlet baffle was a bit of a challenge. A message popped up that said something along the lines of "contact vintage warehouse" so they are unsure if they can still get the part. They are going to place some calls and get back to me later today. Do you happen to have the part number for just the gasket that goes around the air inlet baffle if I cannot get my hands on a new baffle with gasket? Thanks again for the help.
 
I stumbled onto something interesting when I needed gaskets for the taillights on my old CJ a while back.
Ya know those little styrofoam trays that the grocery stores sell meat in?
Some of the larger ones, the size a large roast will be in, make great gaskets for many things. Some have some pattern molded in, but many are still plain. An added bonus is that when you need a thicker gasket, they stack well and still don't leak.

HTH
Bob
 
In the end, I was unable to get the baffle with gasket from the dealer. I did pull out the stock baffle to find a deteriorated gasket, which was almost non-existent. Should I buy some foam gasket and line the edge of the baffle before I apply RTV or should I just RTV to hell out of the baffle and call it good?
 
I would put some foam in there just to be safe. a roll of foam tape is cheap at the parts store and is cheap insurance to make sure it doesn't still leak after you put it all back together.
 
I, too have a '97 "Country" edition. have owned 2 years.
To the OP great score on the "free" Jeep! Why can't I ever get anything like that for free??? Blown motor or not....

anyway though it appears that you have your water leak situation under control since I have the same yr/make/model and had a (small) water leak I'll share what mine wound up being; I have consulted a couple body shops and a couple glass shops and the consensus was that since the w/s had been replaced (no doubt about that seemed fairly recently done when I got my Jeep) whoever did it scuffed the w/s channel and the scratched up channel was enough for water to set there and start the rusting process; when I got mine there was a quarter-sized bubbling of the paint on the roof in each top corner right along the edge of the wndshield and bordered by the rain gutter on each side.
Fast forward to this past summer/fall while I was chasing an electrical gremlin; I swapped out the elect. harness part of which goes to the wiper motor so I had to pull the cowl panel; man was that lower channel uggly with rust! I wound up masking the glass with duct tape and cardboard and teh front clip, front doors and roof beyond the bubbling and sandblasted the channel. 3 hours of masking and covering to do 20 min of blasting. Once I blew the sand out of the track I saw 2 areas of pinholes; both in the "vertical" leg of the track; one at the top pass side of the glass and one along the A pillar down low on the driver side.
I wound up putting 2 coats of POR 15 on the freshly blasted metal and then used 2 tubes of windshield urethane to fill in the rest of the w/s channel in place of the gasket that is "stock" to these jeeps since it was obvious that water was gettin between the gasket and the track. Being sealed with urethane now it should never leak again. plus the loose crap having been blasted away and coated in POR 15 besides. The jeep is in very good shape body and interior other than this area'
when it warms up I gotta sand down that edge of the roofline and coat it with somethin else atop the POR 15, since as we all know POR don't like UV rays after a while.
 
Great thread. Subscribing.........
 
Hey guys i found a cheap way to fix this. I'm having the same problem with the baffle. I didn't feel like pullin the dash and i hate hacking up the body. I took a can of rubberized undercoating that dries. I pulled the nozzle out of a can of b-12 and got a long straw from a can of seafoam. I put the can together and using the straw you can coat all the way around the duct and so far not a single drop in side.
 
There was a TSB back in the day about this issue with a set of revised foam seals that were a lot denser foam and substantially taller than the originals. We used to install them and then use a bead of silicone sealer to insure it wouldn't happen again.
 
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