Water leaking on drivers side floor

[whalensdad]

Ok, I'm going to resurrect this thread rather than start a new one. I found my leak is coming from "behind" the parking brake assembly. Not along the firewall, but behind the plate that bolts the assembly to the side wall. I tried to take the plate off, but one of the bolts is behind a junction box. While I can unscrew the plug from the junction box, I can't get the box off to get access to the screw in the upper right hand side of the parking break assembly. Can someone point me to instructions on removing the assembly? Also, what is located behind this area that would allow water to leak into the cabin?

 

[Exproblems]

Ok, I'm going to resurrect this thread rather than start a new one. I found my leak is coming from "behind" the parking brake assembly. Not along the firewall, but behind the plate that bolts the assembly to the side wall. I tried to take the plate off, but one of the bolts is behind a junction box. While I can unscrew the plug from the junction box, I can't get the box off to get access to the screw in the upper right hand side of the parking break assembly. Can someone point me to instructions on removing the assembly? Also, what is located behind this area that would allow water to leak into the cabin?

I've got the same water problem going on in my Ex as well(wet driver side carpet), but I didn't know till now that the water could leak in from behind the parking brake assembly. It rained last night and I just pulled the A-pillar trim panel off this morning, the one that travels from the driver side headliner to the driver side dash and I could see the moon roof drain tubing (looking thru the small cut out holes in the pillar) traveling down through the inside of the A-pillar and noticed no wetness in there. My headliner is dry as well, so I don't believe water is coming in through the roof area. I pulled the defroster vent dash cover off this morning and found no wetness under there as well to rule out the windshield gasket leaking. I've also pulled the windshield cowl off and found no water marks running down the inner portion of that as well. It must be coming in from the area you describe. I guess I'll be on my hands and knees tomorrow trying to source this leak out. I'd hate to have to drill a hole in the floor pan (as a last resort of course) to allow the water to drain out. On what is behind the parking brake assembly, I'm thinking the roof drain tubing runs down behind there. The roof tubing appears to head that way from the A-pillar.

 

[Ted22]

I ended up taking the plastic cover off of the drivers side front wheel... leaves, dirt etc had accumliated in a void there... vac'ed it out and didn't leak again. then I blew up the motor and bout a 2013.

 

[Ted22]

P.S. there was a hole all the way in the back of the wheel well close to the firewall... just feel around back in there for impacted dirt and crud... was not easy to get to, but it would back the water up and cause it to leak in... hope that helps!

 

[Exproblems]

I ended up taking the plastic cover off of the drivers side front wheel... leaves, dirt etc had accumliated in a void there... vac'ed it out and didn't leak again. then I blew up the motor and bout a 2013.

You removed the driver side front wheel, then removed the wheel well shroud cover to access the point of where water was coming in from? Is the wheel well cover easy to remove? What holds it on, plastic push pins or something else?

This morning I removed the driver side foot well rocker panel trim piece , then the trim panel from around the hood release handle and pulled back the carpet as far as I could. It was soaked with water under the center of the carpet and right under the rocker trim panel I removed, is a channel for 2 large wiring harnesses to run through to the rear of the vehicle. This wiring harness channel was full of water, with both wiring harnesses under water. I then took a bucket of water and dumped it over the driver side windshield/cowl area and went to look for water leaking into the foot well area and saw no water coming in. I then decided to drill 3 small (5/32") holes thru the wiring harness floor channel after making sure nothing important under the vehicle was in the way of my drill bit. The flooring metal there is very thin, didn't take much effort to drill through it and as soon as I did, the water in the channel began to drain out of the vehicle. There is another sub floor or compartment under the wiring harness channel, but I didn't drill through that. The water drained through to the sub compartment and ran out of the vehicle to the ground just in front of the front step rail mount. Took about 5 minutes to drain all the of the water out of there. I had to cut away remove some of the sub-carpet matting material because it was so wet it would take forever to dry out. After I drilled out the drain holes, about 15 minutes after I poured the bucket of water over the windshield, I saw a small trickle of water running down from behind the rubber insulation shield to the firewall in the left rear corner of the foot well. It took 15 minutes or so for the water to make it's way into the driver side foot well. The rubber grommet that runs thru the floor for the P-Brake cable was not leaking, it came in from above and behind that and the water trickled past it. I couldn't remove the rubber fire wall insulation to see where it is coming in from, so I gave up today as long as I was able to drain out that water by drilling those 3 small holes. I can always plug up the holes I drilled out with some silicone if I ever find the source of the leak. I'll try and search for the leak once again after the rain stops by removing the driver side tire and wheel well shroud as you said.

On a side note, while watching the British TV show "Wheeler Dealers", they used a "fogging machine" to find the source of water leaks on a vehicle they were working on. The windows, vents and doors are closed up and the inside of the vehicle is filled with fog and they found the leak by seeing where the fog escaped out of the vehicle from and then they knew which seal was leaking water into the vehicle. Don't know if they have that type of machine for rent in America.

 

[Ted22]

Didn't remove wheel, just the wheel well plastic... Wheel would make easier.

Just look up for round holes that are for water to drain through... Mine had dirt clogging up drain hole.... Shoot me a pm if I'm not making sense... Don't have car anymore.

Forget how I took plastic piece out, but was just push pin things...

 

[Exproblems]

Didn't remove wheel, just the wheel well plastic... Wheel would make easier.

Just look up for round holes that are for water to drain through... Mine had dirt clogging up drain hole.... Shoot me a pm if I'm not making sense... Don't have car anymore.

Forget how I took plastic piece out, but was just push pin things...

OK thanks Ted. Removing the wheel would give me more room to work with and it looks like I will have to remove the factory fender flares as well, to take the inner fender weather shields off.

 

[Ted22]

I just kept taking stuff off till I found it... Hope it is the same problem. My 2013 has a solid piece of plastic under the wipers... Hopefully it won't have the same issues...

 

[Exproblems]

Water Leak Update with Photo's

Didn't remove wheel, just the wheel well plastic... Wheel would make easier.

Just look up for round holes that are for water to drain through... Mine had dirt clogging up drain hole.... Shoot me a pm if I'm not making sense... Don't have car anymore.

Forget how I took plastic piece out, but was just push pin things...

Update: I found a hidden, plugged up solid, windshield cowl/fender drain hole today. I decided to follow "Ted22"s" info on opening up the driver side inner, fender well weather shield and separate it from the fender. To do this, I had to remove the wheel first, then the fender flare along with the plastic push pegs that hold it in place to the fender. Then I had to pry the inner weather shield out from behind the fender edge and only removed half of it from the fender to give me enough of a access space to search for the drain hole up inside the fender area.

I then took a flashlight and laid on the ground looking up (very top) into the space behind the fender and this is what I saw at the top of the picture shown:

I started pulling out this rats nest of old tree twigs, leaves and dirt with a curved windshield gasket tool I have that helped me reach inside this drain hole and start pulling out the debris. This is the driver side cowl drain hole. The next pic shows a pile of the debris laying on the ground after I pulled it out of the hole.

After removing as much debris as I could, I then went and removed the windshield wiper arms and cowl. The wiper arms just pop off after you rotate the small slide tab near the base of the arm, installation is reverse of removal. The cowl itself just pops off, and has tabs that seat into holes under the windshield cowl. I then took a garden hose and placed the spray nozzle of the hose in behind the fender from inside the cowl area, as deep as I could get in there going back towards the inner fender and started spraying water. The water began gushing out of the fender hole that I showed plugged up earlier. I shot water thru there till I was satisfied that water or rain water could drain properly now. I assume there is a fender/cowl drain hole on the passenger side of the vehicle as well, but I have no water under the carpet over there so I didn't go looking for one at this time.

Hopefully, this will stop the rain water from leaking into my driver side foot well and the pics help others with this problem know where to look and what to look for.

 

[Ted22]

THANKS!!!!! I tried to do a write up, but my pic's did not come out at all:-( this should help a lot of people out. Sorry my pics didn't work, and thanks again for the write up. Maybe a new thread as a sticky? Should be a common problem with them.

 

[Exproblems]

THANKS!!!!! I tried to do a write up, but my pic's did not come out at all:-( this should help a lot of people out. Sorry my pics didn't work, and thanks again for the write up. Maybe a new thread as a sticky? Should be a common problem with them.

No problem! I hear you on the pic thing, can get confusing when you have multiple pics to post in one message. I wrote up my post in a word document first, going back and forth to Photobucket.com, copying the photo URL's and pasting them in the word document in between the sentences they went with. Then I copied my finished post reply from the word document and pasted it into the forum post.
The job wasn't that bad, but having the proper tool for pulling off those body/fender panel pegs would have come in handy. It's next on my new tool list.

 

[whalensdad]

Thanks, Great Job! I'll take a look on mine as well.

 

[pikez35]

Bringing this post back from the dead. I just did this today as I was having the same problem on my 02 explorer. Looked under the wheel well and there was a ton of debris blocking that hole. Flushed it out with a garden hose while sticking my finger in the hole to remove as much debris as possible. water flows through freely now. I will update next heavy rain we have to see if this solves the problem. Even if you don't have a leak this is an easy 15 min job to do. This would be good to do to prevent moisture and rust from forming as well. I did not have to jack up the truck or remove the wheel to get to it.

 

[faco]

Bleach/Preventive Maintenance

Would pouring some bleach (or another substance) from the windshield cowling area serve as preventive maintenance?

Great work fellows.

 

[pikez35]

I wouldn't pour any bleach in there. If there is any exposed metal or if the bleach leaks on any wiring it can cause corrosion. The main issue causing the clog is dirt, leaves, and debris. I think after you do this it should remain clear for a while depending also where you park the truck. I did wash the area under the cowl with car soap just cause it was really dirty.

 

[Tyleryac]

I recently noticed that my drivers side carpet was wet. I just had the sunroof drains repaired so I'm hoping that it is just a clogged cowl.

 

[DSBlack17]

Water leak.....?

I am new to this forum, having found it while trying to research the possible source(s) of water leaking into the driver's side floorboard of our 2005 Explorer.
The insulation under the carpet is completely saturated.

Pikez35 (or anyone else) - Is it possible to see and access the drainage hole referenced in your 7/7/14 post (or in Exproblems' photos and post of 10/25/13) WITHOUT removing the wheel, the fender well shield/liner, and windshield cowl ?

If that drain hole is clogged, where does the water then enter into the cabin ?

Thx !

 

[Tyleryac]

I am new to this forum, having found it while trying to research the possible source(s) of water leaking into the driver's side floorboard of our 2005 Explorer.
The insulation under the carpet is completely saturated.

Pikez35 (or anyone else) - Is it possible to see and access the drainage hole referenced in your 7/7/14 post (or in Exproblems' photos and post of 10/25/13) WITHOUT removing the wheel, the fender well shield/liner, and windshield cowl ?

If that drain hole is clogged, where does the water then enter into the cabin?

Thx !

In my case, I did not remove the wheel, however, I still removed the fender piece and all additional steps.

 

[Exproblems]

?

If that drain hole is clogged, where does the water then enter into the cabin ?

Thx !

The water works it's way into the cabin thru the corner area of the upper floor board panel of the drivers foot well. Yes, you can access the drain hole without removing the tire and you do not have to remove the windshield cowl. You do have to remove the inner fender well liner to see and access the cleaning out of this drain hole. I removed the tire for extra room to work with and removed the windshield cowl to see if the drain hole could be accessed from above, it couldn't! You have to go thru the fender area. I did pump water from a garden hose down from the top (under the hood) as seen in my pics to help flush out the debris clogging the drain hole. My driver side carpet has been dry since I did this.

 

[DSBlack17]

Tyleryac and Exproblems,

Thanks for the prompt and helpful responses !!!