'05 Trac leaking water from driver front?

[Spas]

I seem to have purchased a very odd Sport Trac... Opened my driver door after two days of rain and had a river run out from my door sill :fire: Traced the leak origin to someplace under the dash (roughly straight back from the top of the dash fuse box to give you an idea of location). It's been coming down behind the kick panel for at least 4+ years, running along the parking brake bracket to the floor, where it promptly soaks everything all the way to the rear seat on the driverside (do you have any idea how hard it is not to punch the previous owner in the face for this every time he comes in for service on his new truck?!?!). The body harness was completely submerged Removed the cowl, wiper mount/wiper transmission arm, left front fender and parking brake assembly, used 3m urethane windo-weld and seam sealer spray everywhere I could reach...... and water still pours in. I tried smoking the interior with our Halloween fog maker (that was a disaster. Warn your fire dept before attempting this at home, kiddies). Although the smoke crept out, I can't determine its origin because of the way it snakes around the wiper trans tunnel and door jamb. No, I don't have a sunroof and no my rear window/ 3rd brake light don't leak.


Anyone have any ideas??

 

[Dolbs4082]

I know of alot of newer mustangs that have the same problem. They pop the wiper cowl off and under there, there are some rubber grommets that are full of debris and junk... might be worth a look there??

 

[Spas]

On my model the wiper trans tunnel is boxed in by metal that can't be removed without a sawzall. I'll take some pictures and post them when I get a chance. There wasn't any debris under the cowl when I popped it off, nor was there any under the wiper arm mount.

 

[essendon22]

If you pull off the plastic kick panel to the left of the parking break and look behind the rubber seal. Move the big bundle of wires, and toward the top there is a rubber drain grommet that goes to the outside. It can come loose and cause that problem. Here's a pic.

 

[Spas]

Hmm! Did not see that in there, I'll check it out in the daylight tomorrow, thank you!

 

[Spas]

Do you have a shot of that from further back perchance?

 

[essendon22]

Here ya go.
First, this is where it drains to the outside. Look between the door jam and you will see a grommet with a hole.

View from straight on between door jam

Pull out the rubber cover

Ignore the extra wires to the ground in my pic. I have some extra stuff hooked up you won't see. The drain is toward the top of the bundle of wires

It's really tight to fit your hand in. I drew an arrow to where the drain line meets the grommet where it would come apart. It's a pain to get back together.

 

[Spas]

Ahhh, thank you for the extra pictures! I think mine is coming in from a higher point than that since I can follow the rust line up but I'll check out that grommet anyway.

This is the view looking up from the driverside floor with the parking brake bracket removed (the circle indicates where the topmost bolt for the bracket goes).

Once it comes down from wherever, it dribbles along the factory body filler caulk and hits the top of the bracket where it runs down both sides.

 

[essendon22]

Hmm, not sure. The drain line that feeds into the grommet does run further up, so I guess it's possible it's broken higher up. Your pics look a little further out from where it is though so who knows.. Good luck in tracing it down!

 

[Spas]

Hrm. I has no drain!

That can't be right... where does that drain pull water from, btw? I found that the leak is definitely bubbling out from the area where the firewall meets the wiper trans tunnel, but the source is still eluding me Pulled the left front inner fender liner and used our trusty boroscope to peek at the backside of the area where inner fender/tunnel/firewall meet and saw some rusty seams there. Hard to seal them without dropping the fender liner and tire, though!

 

[essendon22]

Oh that's definitely got to be it. I don't think rusty areas could produce the amount of water you are describing. I can't get in there to get any pics, but the drain runs parallel along the sidewall up past the fuse box and into what looks like the wiper tunnel. I have no idea why someone would pull that out unless they thought removing it would stop the water. I don't even know how you will get up in there to seal it off, it looks very involved. Pulling the dash off might help though.

 

[Spas]

I wonder if that's the one that goes to a sunroof? If it is, it would make sense since I don't have one...

 

[600remguy]

Spas has NO drain tube as he has NO sunroof, therefor no need for a drain. Great pics though. Looked at my '04 and can't really come up with a reason for water where you describe either. Now that its open to see, did you fill the cowl with water?

 

[essendon22]

Ahh.. well that explains it cause I do have a sunroof haha. Sorry I didn't know