Bad Leak!

So, I get in my car today (it's been raining a lot here lately) and I go to put a bag on the passenger's foot-well only to find this!

Holy crap!

Where is it leaking from, roof?

Holy Crap is right!

I hope your going to demand a complete interior shampoo and detail in order to get that smell and moisture out.

Since you have the sunroof/moonroof, I'm going to say the drain tubes are either clogged or disconnected. Same thing happened to my Saturn Outlook. The tubes (run down the A-pillar) were not installed correctly at the factory resulting in a soaked passenger compartment.

Wow

I stopped by the dealer yesterday for an update. They have the whole front passenger side disassembled. My adviser said that they've had the car under water for four hours at a time twice and no signs of a leak.

I took this photo that I wanted to share with you guys. My questions are:

- Is that rust normal? (according to the SA, it is)
- What could be the reason for those "channels" of rust coming down from the screws? (I asked the SA and he had no explanation. If you ask me, I say that's water drippings)

wow that rust is definitely not normal, that is just ridiculous if they told you that was normal!!! my guess on the rust would be that water is some how flowing through that area, like someone above said maybe it's the drains from the sunroof not being connected properly??

That is DEFINITELY NOT normal. It is inside of the weather stripping, that stuff in cars that keeps water out: dry inside of it, wet outside of it. The SA should know that, and it is amazing that the SA would tell you it's normal. It looks to me that the trails of rust indicate how the water has been running down the interior of the car.

The funny thing is, the piece of metal that is rusting has no paint or even primer on it. Obviously, Ford never intended it to get wet!

It is definately water coming in causing syrface rust.

scotted73 said:

Since you have the sunroof/moonroof, I'm going to say the drain tubes are either clogged or disconnected. Same thing happened to my Saturn Outlook. The tubes (run down the A-pillar) were not installed correctly at the factory resulting in a soaked passenger compartment.

Click to expand...

Exact same thing that happened to my wife's Saab. They finally fixed it and put in all new carpets, front and back to match lot colors.

For sure there should not be rust inside the Explorer that is less than 1 year old or at any age for that matter. Sad to hear they said that....sigh.

Baxter - perhaps you should get Corey involved. Seems as if you sa is either clueless or lying to you to avoid more repair work. At the very least they need to remove the surface rust and perhaps prime and paint(?) to make sure.....

New carpets too...

baxterdown said:

I stopped by the dealer yesterday for an update. They have the whole front passenger side disassembled. My adviser said that they've had the car under water for four hours at a time twice and no signs of a leak.

I took this photo that I wanted to share with you guys. My questions are:

- Is that rust normal? (according to the SA, it is)
- What could be the reason for those "channels" of rust coming down from the screws? (I asked the SA and he had no explanation. If you ask me, I say that's water drippings)

Click to expand...

There is no way in hell that rust is "normal" you can clearly see the rust cause by the water trickling down. New carpet a must and some kind of guarantee over future electrical issues that could have been caused by this corrosion

The fact that the rust is DRIPPING speaks volumes. I wish there was an exam dealerships needed to take before they become one. I dont know if the SA thinks you're stupid and will fall for that or if he is just an idiot for disregarding that as an issue.

Well, meet the perpetrator!



After nearly a week of testing under water and taking half the car apart, they found what was causing the leak. The part above is a sunroof drain line that was kinked (most likely got like that during factory assembly) and preventing water from draining properly.

I must mention that I had misunderstood my SA. He never said that the rust was normal and clarified it when we spoke later in the week. Pompano Ford Lincoln was outstanding in handling this issue. They kept the vehicle for nearly a week and never gave up until they found the cause of the problem.

Case closed!

I'm definitely glad to hear that your SA didn't actually think the rust was normal lol and I'm glad your problem is solved

I was about to say that is definitely a sunroof leak. Glad they finally found it. So what are they gong to do about the carpet, mold, and rust?