Driver Side Wet Footwell

Its been raining here for a few days and i have noticed that my driver side carpet is a bit damp and was wodering where its liekly to have come from. I plled it up and the pad under the carpet is diffenatelt damp.. I have read previous posts about the passnger side but unfortunately its the driver side- i am thinking about tom spilling water with the hose intentianlly to see if i can trace it , but any ideas would be appreciated.

THX
pete

Have the same problem with my 98. I have been told to check the Windshild, and the cowle where the Wipers come out... But being that it has been COLD here i have not gotten to it. But that is what i think it would be..

Ravenxj

My 87 is constantly wet there. Part of it comes from where my vent side windows don't properly seal. If you have those, check them too.

Copperhead

The son has a 89 that has a rusted out floor from that on the driver's side. A couple of places to check are: There's a round metal plug in the floor at the driver's feet. Make sure it's sealed good. Then under the hood below the master cylinder where the fender well slops down in the rear and meets the firewall there's a joint, make sure it's sealed well, his had hardened and cracked. Then underneath in the same area of the firewall there's a seam in the floor pan that was not properly sealed. As another reply said it could be a windshield seal, expecially if it's been replaced and was not done correctly, it's glued in. Also under the master cylinder where the wiring harness plug comes through the firewall. It's a plug type thing with a small bolt in the center of the outside part holding it on to the fuse panel. Also there's a couple or things, like wipers, under the grill at the base of the windshield that could be leaking. I use a fiberized roofing patch, about $5 for a gallon at HD or Lowes, because it stays flexable.

JoBo

I suspect it may be coming from around the seal on the blower motor against the fire wall. That's where my 98 leaked from. Reach from inside the engine bay and seal the foam area where the blower mates with the fire wall with some silicone.

Also, check the big wire loom (above the blower) that runs along the firewall the down the passenger side top fender. About at the hood hinge area, it splits off into another run. Water was wicking on that lower wire loom and dripping into the back of the blower. That was the source of my leak. Simply pull that loom back, and zip tie away from the blower so it doesn't drip into the blower area.

Ivan

There is another probable cause. If you search you will find more about it. The problem is that the drain on the AC gets clogged. When you run your defrosters the AC also runs to pull the humidity out of the air to clear the windows. If the drain is clogged, the water has no where to go and you end up with flooded floors on the passenger side.

I had the same prob and found it was the windshield seal in the upper corner. The water coming off the roof would flow along the top of the windshield and then through a crack in the windshield seal in the corner. It would then go down the upper upright, and onto the floor.

I took of the metal molding around the windshield and discovered the crack. Then applied the free flowing windshield sealant and it solved the prob.

Another would be the door seal. If the door seal isn't sealing, water from the roof slows into the gutter and onto the door frame, migrating along the body and onto the floor. Check that as well. Especially if the driver's side door is used more ofton than the others.

Hope this helps.

Well its on the Driver side so it isnt the AC problem many of you mention and i dont have a vent window on my 94.

So i guess i need to check the windshield, the door seal and the firewall area for leaks ..

pete

You probably don't have a sunroof, or you'd have mentioned it, but my '87 fills up on the driver's side every time it rains really hard. It doesn't get wet on the P side, probably because the lift has sagged more on the driver side, as that's where myself, my sub/amp & 6x9"s all sit. I'm about to duct tape the outside seam.

jeepsrock said:

Its been raining here for a few days and i have noticed that my driver side carpet is a bit damp and was wodering where its liekly to have come from. I plled it up and the pad under the carpet is diffenatelt damp.. I have read previous posts about the passnger side but unfortunately its the driver side- i am thinking about tom spilling water with the hose intentianlly to see if i can trace it , but any ideas would be appreciated.

THX
pete

Click to expand...

I've had two XJ's so far and they both had the same issue with water on the floor boards and that musty stank! It seems to be a factory flaw. I did fix the problems completely though! The easiest way to find the leaks is to yank the carpet out for a week and then observe where it's geting in. Then fix them as you find them. The leaks that I have found are: blower motor seal (engine compartment/ pass. side right under or near the windshield washer reservoir), main wiring harness plug (d.side), and the clutch master cylinder. I found that the wiring harness plug had leaks around it and also through plug on the wires! Osmosis? There are also some possible leaks where the wires for the rear defrost and wiper pass from the liftgate to the body. The water gets on the wires and flows right through the grommet. The worst were in the front though. A good way to check is to have someone with water in a spray bottle on bullet/stream setting and douse the suspected areas on the firewall while you look for leakers. Water runs off the cowl/windshield to that lil seam at both ends of the cowl then runs directly into the engine compartment. It should flow downward to the bottom of the fenderwell, but gets sidetracked! It ends up flowing to the body seam/flange under the hood (which is the one right above the motor where the big wire loom is) and runs all the way across the engine bay. The water seems to like to drip off that seam on both sides; right on the blower motor, and right on or near the wiring harness/clutch cylinder. This is where the two biggest leaks usually are! I have alleviated the problem by making gutters out of urethane seamseal/caulking that direct the water away from that seam, therefore denying the main firewall leaks. Another good thing to do is to yank the rearward hood seal out. There is a bunch of small holes where the clips hold the seal in place and a few 4? big holes, they too leak onto that pesky seam and the wire loom. I plugged them all with urethane. Removing the seal will actually help the motor vent hot air anyways! My XJ has been mildew and musty stank free for two years here in the rainy NW. The bottom line is if you can keep the water away from that seam in the engine bay you be all good as far as leaks in the front are concerned! If y'all need some pics I can post them if they'd help Good Luck

FUNKYTEE5

My '97 was almost returned to Chrysler under Maryland's lemon law because of this problem. It only leaked during a deluge so the dealer could not recreate the problem. The dealer we bought it from had it for a month and put three windshields in it and it still leaked in hard rain. We went to a different dealer and they replaced the windshield and got it right.
It was weird, it only leaked in a really hard rain.

Grreatdog said:

My '97 was almost returned to Chrysler under Maryland's lemon law because of this problem. It only leaked during a deluge so the dealer could not recreate the problem. The dealer we bought it from had it for a month and put three windshields in it and it still leaked in hard rain. We went to a different dealer and they replaced the windshield and got it right.
It was weird, it only leaked in a really hard rain.

Click to expand...

90% of water leaks I've had to repair are from exactly that. Most slight leaks won't be evident until it's saturated completely. Car washes, light rain etc won't do it...it has to be sitting in a hard rain for days sometimes, or have some sort of water source supplying it for quite awhile.

The glass company that I worked for repaired just about all it's competitors problems becuase those companies refused to accept that very issue and wouldn't spend the time neccessary to hunt that leak down. I've replaced urethane in windshields that looked 100% until you trim a little out and have it start to rain on you when you do it...Everyone just assumes that replacing a windshield is a walk in the part...but it's not anymore...the last 10 years have changed the way they're installed and adheared and not many companies are progressive enough to keep up with the changes.

Also I've seen windshields from the factory leak like a SOB...don't assume that since it's a factory installed windshield that it means it's going to be perfect.

Any time I find water inside a vehicle the windshield is the first place I check.

Matt

mdwatkins said:

90% of water leaks I've had to repair are from exactly that. Most slight leaks won't be evident until it's saturated completely. Car washes, light rain etc won't do it...it has to be sitting in a hard rain for days sometimes, or have some sort of water source supplying it for quite awhile.

The glass company that I worked for repaired just about all it's competitors problems becuase those companies refused to accept that very issue and wouldn't spend the time neccessary to hunt that leak down. I've replaced urethane in windshields that looked 100% until you trim a little out and have it start to rain on you when you do it...Everyone just assumes that replacing a windshield is a walk in the part...but it's not anymore...the last 10 years have changed the way they're installed and adheared and not many companies are progressive enough to keep up with the changes.

Also I've seen windshields from the factory leak like a SOB...don't assume that since it's a factory installed windshield that it means it's going to be perfect.

Any time I find water inside a vehicle the windshield is the first place I check.

Matt

Click to expand...

For sure! My XJ's were both 93's so maybe the firewall leak issue was possibly more specific to 94-95's and older? I do know that from the two that I had it wasn't a windshield leak. It was definitely the firewall. DC must have built these things without doing any water/weather testing on them at all! It seems like they are almost designed to leak.

FUNKYTEE5

The second Jeep dealer did finally have an outside company reinstall our windshield after we got "lucky" enough to have a biblical deluge drench the carpet while it was sitting on their lot. Once that finally happened and they had to admit to the build flaw, they also replaced the carpet and cleaned up the musty interior.

But that leak cost us eight weeks in several loaners, at least 15 trips to two different dealers and finally getting the state attorney generals office to start the ball rolling on a lemon law recall. I have no idea why Chrysler (or the first dealer) was so stupid about not sending it out to a windshield shop and getting the windshield installed correctly. Instead they kept denying that it even had a leak despite the soaked carpet and water stains running down the firewall.