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Another Lake Cherokee Thread - Leaks Return

EMSJEEP

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Long Island
Ok so after driving around in torrential downpours last week, through 2 feet of water or so a few times etc. etc. the passenger side leak that I thought I had fixed returned with a vengeance. Sitting in my car after a water rescue I turned on the dome light and saw a good sized stream of water flowing over the fuse panel cover on the passenger side and collecting in the same little pool that it always had, until I went and tried to seal everything. Being very frustrated one day I went nuts for about 2 hours with aquarium sealant. I sealed everything on the firewall, sealed the screws on the grates under the wipers, even the gap between the fender and the firewall. Then nothing for a while, until yesterday. It almost seems like maybe the door is leaking somewhere but the weather-stripping looks good so I don't know anymore. I am getting new carpet in a month, this has to stop. :tears:
 
:looser: smartass...anyway the water was coming from up higher than what I was driving in...

Some thoughts:
Heater Core
Door seals
AM/FM coax entry
holes under the plastic things at the base of the windshield

All of these places have now been sealed.

When I looked under the black grates there were holes, big ones, covered with tape that was falling off. That has been fixed. Also, the AM/FM radio coax entry is in a perfect place to cause that leak, it has been sealed too.
 
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On the door itself (not a gasket) there's a plastic shield....

I was just washing my XJ today and noticed water on my rubber mats.

Water gets through the plastic shield on the very bottom of the door and comes in.

So I suppose the same thing can happen from a puddle too if it comes in the right angle and you are driving fairly quickly through the puddle and such.
 
Late last year we had a lot of heavy, heavy rains here and I was suddenly chasing down my own lake cherokee and lake wagoneer. One of the leaks about drove me nuts. Turned out to a slightly not closed rear passanger side window I never look at. It was about a 1/4" from being fully closed. I never saw it leak, only found the 1-2" puddle in the mornings after the big rains. Since the water was always on the front seat floor and not the back seat floor, I never looked at the back window, until I washed the jeep one day and noticed water running down the wrong side of one window:cheers:. You get one guess as to which window it was! That fixed the Wagoneer.

The Cherokee turned out to be the radio antenna seal. The rubber seal had come out of the hole. Sealed it up with 35 year siliconized acrylic latex caulk (residential window stuff, works great on cars, waterproof, UV & Mildew proof, non shrinking......!!!! and costs about 1/3 of what the automotive caulks cost).

Anyway, I wish you luck finding that (those?, shiver) leaks, seems this is an all too common, multi source problem with our jeeps. I dread the day I find new leak.:(

By the way, PornstaR forgot to mention moving to antarctica, I hear it never rains there (not yet anyway), but then again with global warming that may not last long either.

So have you tried opening the hood and flooding the firewall with a garden hose. I assume you have a tried a garden hose on the windshield, roof, etc., already? How about the plastic (?) fender well covers behind the tires, not that they seal but they do ak as spash guards when going through water.


EMSJEEP said:
:looser: smartass...anyway the water was coming from up higher than what I was driving in...

Some thoughts:
Heater Core
Door seals
AM/FM coax entry
holes under the plastic things at the base of the windshield

All of these places have now been sealed.

When I looked under the black grates there were holes, big ones, covered with tape that was falling off. That has been fixed. Also, the AM/FM radio coax entry is in a perfect place to cause that leak, it has been sealed too.
 
The garden hose has been done, many, many times, both by me and the dealer, and nothing. The fender well guards are falling off and are soon to be gone. I bent the pass. side one back today to take a look up in there and sealed, over and in, the coax grommet. The foam stuff that was placed in there at the factory fell out, wasn't doing much. I do not suspect the flooding or splashing of that area however because it happens when the Jeep is parked and not moving. My theory is that the water is running down the coax from the top, not necessarily from puddle splashes, or that water was leaking into those gigantic holes under the black plastic grates that were covered by now decaying duct tape. There simply aren't any other holes on the side, its just the door hinges and the coax, so its either the coax or something on the firewall. Now to the newly developed drivers side leak....
 
You mean on the A-pillar?
 
I know what he's talking about, it sticks out.

I think my windhsiled gasket used to leak....once I noticed 2 or 3 small lines coming down from the top of the windshield, on the inside. Added some cauk underneath the top windshield gasket and that solved that problem. Wasn't really a problem though.
 
Its not coming from the windshield, so far as I can tell, nothing except the carpet is actually wet. On the passenger side, like I said the water trickles down over the fuse panel, which I'm 95% sure has been resolved by either the holes under the windshield or the AM/FM antenna wire. The drivers side however is a mystery. The drivers side has a wet spot right in the middle and nothing around it is really wet so...umm...we're still working on that...haha
 
EMSJEEP said:
Its not coming from the windshield, so far as I can tell, nothing except the carpet is actually wet. On the passenger side, like I said the water trickles down over the fuse panel, which I'm 95% sure has been resolved by either the holes under the windshield or the AM/FM antenna wire. The drivers side however is a mystery. The drivers side has a wet spot right in the middle and nothing around it is really wet so...umm...we're still working on that...haha

Perhaps the water that was collecting at pont A and that was leaking through hole or path B is now moving to leak in through path C since you sealed off path B?
 
EMSJEEP said:
Some thoughts:
Heater Core
Door seals
AM/FM coax entry
holes under the plastic things at the base of the windshield

are you asking if water is ingressing through the heater core opening in the firewall? or if the heater core is leaking coolant? there would be the unmistakable smell of coolant if the core were leaking coolant. You may consider sprinkling talcum powder around the suspicious areas and see what the water does to the powder. if it's unmolested, you can rest assured there's no water going there. You might even remove all your carpet and powder the floor pans to see where it's coming from. with the carpet gone, you will eliminate the "soaking" possiblity, that usually causes us to search in the wrong place
 
Though I am indeed leaking coolant as well, I was worried that the seal around the heater core in the firewall was leaking, however unless the path is as complex as the one described above it doesn't seem to even be coming from the firewall but somewhere forward of the door and rear of the firewall on the passenger side. The driver side is just a puddle in the middle of the carpet with nothing wet around it, almost as if it were seeping through the floor....I'm going to get under there again a little later and see if there might actually be a hole int he floor, though I doubt it...
 
Hi! Couldn't help but notice this thread, as I have leaking coolant in my Newer Jeep, but that's another thread in itself.

My Older Jeep had it's windshield replaced, and ever since when it rained, my Driver side Carpet would get wet! I tracked it down to a loose glass seal to that sealant stuff. the water would flow down the a pillar, and behind that panels and eventually the floor.

To find the leak, I setup a water sprinkler on the hood, and pressed from the glass from the inside.

I found flowable silicon sealant and used it to fix my problem. Pushing from the inside helped flow it deep into the break.

Hope this helps! And sorry if the message was long and rambling, I know when to stop, you don't hafta tell me twice or three times.... ;)


Really, I do know when to stop!
 
Check the heater-AC blower housing seal. Rain water will run down the cowl rail and fall right on the housing and trickle into the Jeep via a crappy seal. Inside the Jeep, the water will run down the blower housing plastic and fall onto the passenger floor. Hope this helps.
 
Turns out the sunroof seals went bad and the drains in it were clogged, it overflowed and instead of wetting the headliner dripped down the A-pillar and onto the floor. Factory Sunroof as per the dealer when I bought it.
 
in light of all the rains here in TX lately, can anyone guess what I've discovered on my pax floorboard this morning? GD it! during a particularly heavy downpour, i noticed water coming in at the top of the driver's side A pillar and door, as if the door weren't closed tightly enough
 
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