Water in Cab-what I found

[tmills213]

One day I removed my seat to fix the recline mechanism and noticed my carpet insulation was sopping wet from rain two days before. Since there is little rust on my new to me truck i wanted to do things right to prevent the sitting water rusting out the floor. Today, I pulled all the seats and peeled the carpet out. I traced the firewall sound mat moisture to the driver corner foot area. I noticed I could see my flashlight from the interior inside the corner edge of the wheel wheel where the hood latch cable passes through. It appears the water runs off the cowl/hood and flows straight down the firewall to this corner where the fender meets the wall and ran straight into the cab. This seeped all the way to the rear seats down along the drivers door. I siliconed the mess out of that grommet through wheel well and sprayed the floor and inside grommet in plastidip. Hope this fixes it.

Anyone else see a leak here or have any fixes in mind? I have read about the windshield and cowl seals? My windshield looks like it was replaced with large amounts of sealant so I dont see it leaking there. we shall see if my fix works

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[david85]

Hopefully it isn't from higher up. My truck is older, but all fords (even rangers) seem to suffer from the upper firewall rotting out where it joins to the rain cutter below the windshield.

 

[franklin2]

Water of course enters the cowl around the wipers. It's supposed to run down either side and out some drains in the bottom cavity on each side. But these drains can get clogged with dirt and leaves, so make sure the drains are open.

Also look on the outside over top of each door at the rain gutters over the doors. Follow the rain gutters toward the rear of the truck, and you will see a seam to the rear upper cab corner, and then around to the back window on each side. Make sure the gutter and the seam sealer in the outside seam are still good, this is a common area for water to get in, run down the inside rear wall of the cab, and rust your lower cab corners out.

 

[tmills213]

This is an old thread but I smelled some weird funk in my truck lately and we had a good rain today. for whatever reason I looked under the carpet and it was wet again and smelled like the worst nut smell you can imagine. This time is doesnt seem like it is running down from anywhere higher. Imagine a half circle centered on the door opening . not wet up be the feet and not be the back but the cable tray was wet. I am not sure and didnt get to look into it. just trying to dry it out since it probably had capillary and spread.

 

[franklin2]

This is an old thread but I smelled some weird funk in my truck lately and we had a good rain today. for whatever reason I looked under the carpet and it was wet again and smelled like the worst nut smell you can imagine. This time is doesnt seem like it is running down from anywhere higher. Imagine a half circle centered on the door opening . not wet up be the feet and not be the back but the cable tray was wet. I am not sure and didnt get to look into it. just trying to dry it out since it probably had capillary and spread.

I had that problem in the same area on a ranger pickup I have. I ended up pulling the carpet up and rolling it back and leaving it to figure it out. I thought it was the door seal, but it turned out to be the seam where the kickpanel metal meets the floor metal that angles up. The water would run down from that seam and gather under the door area at the sill and get the carpet wet. All I could do was smear some black roof cement/tar in the corner seam after it dried, and it did fix the leak.

 

[tmills213]

Well yesterday he had a rain and I saw water dripping when I got in. its from up above, behind the e brake release. It looks like it is rusting the computer mount bracket. I cant see it so i have to dig into it. There use to be a cop light. I siliconed it but maybe not well enough. find out shortly.

 

[franklin2]

Well yesterday he had a rain and I saw water dripping when I got in. its from up above, behind the e brake release. It looks like it is rusting the computer mount bracket. I cant see it so i have to dig into it. There use to be a cop light. I siliconed it but maybe not well enough. find out shortly.

It's best now to get a water hose. Direct the water first into the grille at the wipers. Try not to get the water anywhere else. Run it slowly and wait and see if your leak appears. Make sure to direct the water toward the driver's side where the leak is.

After awhile if you get no water, you know it's not a leak in the plenum. You can then direct the water hose to the bottom of the windshield. Then work your way around the windshield. Problem is sometimes it takes awhile for the water to make it's way down to where you saw it leaking.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

What do you do if the cowl tub is already rotted at the firewall joint and have water coming in?

 

[franklin2]

What do you do if the cowl tub is already rotted at the firewall joint and have water coming in?

Like I said before, my Ranger had a rusted seam that was leaking, all I could do was smear some roofing tar/patch over it, and it stopped it. I would have liked to patch it/seal it from the plenum side, but after taking the blower motor and the some of the ducting loose, I could not get in there to reach the inside plenum to patch it. I was skeptical that putting sealer on the interior side would work but it did. Rust never sleeps, so I guess some years down the road I will have to deal with it again.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

There's no way to at least cut the rust out?

 

[Cruiseomatic]

On second thought, I have to pull the cab off to do some repairs and the dash is coming out as well. Since holes in the cowl cause leaks, When the dash is out, Can't I fix the rust then?