HUGE RAIN WATER LEAK. Need help ASAP :(

[Cranmaro99]

(UPDATED) HUGE RAIN WATER LEAK. Need help ASAP

So to start this off, my 2001 Explorer 5.0 AWD Limited has a roof rack and moonroof.

It's been dumping rain here in Seattle the last few days, even more than normal.

I open the rear hatch to find this:

I see water all over the rear fender interior panel as you can see. "***" I said. I feel the hatch floor carpet and it's all wet. Dammit. I open the drivers rear cargo panel/door (where the air ride switch/floor jack is located) to look inside there and I also see water in there.

I try to feel where else the car is wet to see where the leak is coming from, and I notice the entire headliner where my hand is is SOAKED.

Under where my hand is, it's very wet and waterlogged, and its spreading through the headrest through soaking. So much so that it just now started dripping everywhere. So this is probably has been going on for a while but the large amounts of rain showed its true colors.

I notice that the area (where my hand is tucked in photo number 2) is soaked in water all the way up the rear passenger door on drivers side.

My front drivers door area seems to be dry under the same area. So the water starts to soak from the rear door all the way back to the hatch. Obviously coming from the top/roof of the car somewhere but I have no idea where to start or what to look for.

HELP?! I'm low on money and I'm pretty depressed about this and this is the last thing I needed.

Where should I start and what should I look for/narrow down? It's still pouring rain with no covered parking so I can't really dig deep til it stops.

 

[MonsterTruck460]

My X is doin this too. Only mine doesn't drip that I noticed. My headliner is damp from the windshield to the rear hatch on the driver's side. I read a thread about the moonroof water drain passages being plugged/clogged within the roof. Haven't checked mine yet though. Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Cranmaro99]

My X is doin this too. Only mine doesn't drip that I noticed. My headliner is damp from the windshield to the rear hatch on the driver's side. I read a thread about the moonroof water drain passages being plugged/clogged within the roof. Haven't checked mine yet though. Anyone else have any ideas?

I have a "gut feeling" it has to do with my sunroof too. I do notice that when I first start to drive my car after it has been sitting in the rain I hear water draining on the drivers side of the sunroof by my head... Kind of sounds like water getting sucked into a small hole. A gurgling.

Where do the drain plugs for the sunroof lead/travel???

I looked at the sunroof from the inside itself and dont see leaks of any water dripping from the sunroof itself that I can SEE. No drips on my head or anything either.

 

[section525]

It's coming from the top of the rear side window(s). You'll need to pull them out and re seal them. I did the ones in my '96 last March. Very easy. There should be a thread or two with more info on this site.

 

[section525]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314674

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289318

 

[Cranmaro99]

Double post. Edited.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Could this be a moonroof issue? Just wondering as the headliner is wet all the way up to the drivers door, which doesnt make sense if its the rear side cargo window leaking.

Could the window leak be so bad that the headliner has soaked that much?

 

[racer_x_one]

Yours might be leaking from both being that it is wet along the whole drivers side front to back. Mine is currently leaking. The headliner is wet across the front from pass side to drivers side. When I took the headliner out I found that my moonroof was leaking from both front corners were it seals to the roof (right above the were the drain tubes attach). Im just going to silicone mine on the outside for now to get me through winter until spring when I can properly address it. Unfortunatly I dont have a garage and am subject to the weather when it comes to working on the ex.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Yours might be leaking from both being that it is wet along the whole drivers side front to back. Mine is currently leaking. The headliner is wet across the front from pass side to drivers side. When I took the headliner out I found that my moonroof was leaking from both front corners were it seals to the roof (right above the were the drain tubes attach). Im just going to silicone mine on the outside for now to get me through winter until spring when I can properly address it. Unfortunatly I dont have a garage and am subject to the weather when it comes to working on the ex.

Well what I meant to say is that the headliner is wet only on the drivers side. The passenger side is dry.

It's just the drivers side that is wet, but its wet from front to back.

 

[racer_x_one]

Well what I meant to say is that the headliner is wet only on the drivers side. The passenger side is dry.

It's just the drivers side that is wet, but its wet from front to back.

It still might be leaking from the left (drivers side) of the moonroof contributing to the headliner being wet towards the front. Even though my moonroof is leaking its not wet right around the roof only on the edges of the headliner and a couple inches in. The headliner is curved and the water runs down to the edges and then soaks in.

 

[Cranmaro99]

It still might be leaking from the left (drivers side) of the moonroof contributing to the headliner being wet towards the front. Even though my moonroof is leaking its not wet right around the roof only on the edges of the headliner and a couple inches in. The headliner is curved and the water runs down to the edges and then soaks in.

K good to know I'll look into it.

 

[Cranmaro99]

UPDATE:

My friend and I were updating some electrical wiring under the floor of the car, and I reached under the PASSENGER side floor carpet where the rear passenger seat is located and the floor is SOAKED.

Apparently the carpet on top isnt wet so I never knew, but underneath all my carpet is drenched. So literally from the top down my car is waterlogged.

Does any of this make any sense? I'm flat out broke at the moment due to earlier life issues and now this and winter just begun. God dammit.

 

[Omnilux]

I just did this fix on mine last month, driverside rear cargo window is (according to these forums) notorius for leaking...very easy fix only took like half hour. 3M butyl rubber tape works wonders. Polyurethyne is not so good for this job, I tried that my first time around, not only did it not fix the leak but it took me forever to get the window back out with a heat gun and a scraper.

 

[firepop5]

As much of a pain as it will be, I would pull out the entire headliner. You can put it someplace to dry and you won't have to guess where your leak is coming from. From what you describe, you probaly have more than one leak anyway. Once you pinpoint the leaks, sealing them up will be easier.

 

[Cranmaro99]

I just did this fix on mine last month, driverside rear cargo window is (according to these forums) notorius for leaking...very easy fix only took like half hour. 3M butyl rubber tape works wonders. Polyurethyne is not so good for this job, I tried that my first time around, not only did it not fix the leak but it took me forever to get the window back out with a heat gun and a scraper.

I'm really hoping that this window is the cause of all of this... Thanks for the tips.

As much of a pain as it will be, I would pull out the entire headliner. You can put it someplace to dry and you won't have to guess where your leak is coming from. From what you describe, you probaly have more than one leak anyway. Once you pinpoint the leaks, sealing them up will be easier.

True. Looks like I have some work to do. Too bad I work 6 days a week and it's always raining out :/

Catch twenty-two right there.

 

[drbenz]

I would check the drains for the sunroof, it's cheap and fairly easy and since your headliner is wet a likely source of the water. When it happened on my truck it was because I had parked in a different spot than usual. There are four drains, one at each corner of the sunroof assy tray and on the hill I parked on kept the water from getting to the rear drains that were still open, the front ones were stopped up and water was dripping from the overhead console. I was able to get them unstopped with an old length of speedo cable (be careful if you use compressed air to blow them out, you can blow the drain hose off, don't ask me how I know that!) I used a section of plastic vacuum line as a guide tube to be able to position the speedo cable (home made roto rooter). Although the top of the carpet wasn't wet I could hear water sloshing when I drove off so I know where the water ended up.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Thanks I'll really look into the sunroof. Thanks for letting me know how to take care of it and where the drainage hoses are.

------

Separate Question:

I noticed that part of my roof-rack is cracked and is missing a small piece where it connects to the roof of the Explorer. The roof rack isn't bolted on the roof in any manner in which water can leak from it, is it? I can take a picture tomorrow after work if it helps.

Thanks.

 

[italianbigsky]

I also had a leak inside the cargo area, and it came from the cargo window. I didn't notice it, even if the carpet was always wet and had a bad smell. I tought it came from the bicycle I carried several times and it wasn't dry.
Then when I washed the car I noticed a drop of water coming from the plastic near the window, right under the roof. I didnt' remove the whole panel (I should do it) but just dried the carpet outside the car for a few days. And put silicone on the window, because it seemed a little pushed out of its normal position. There was a thin distance between the glass and the car. The window on the other side of the car has no space at all.
Silicone is working fine till now, but we just had a couple of light rain in the apst few weeks.
I guess I'll find the time to follow the instructions you expert posted in the other threads to remove the window and fix the problem in a better way.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm still wondering if the crack in the roof-rack could cause any leaks. Or if I'm barking up the wrong tree in that aspect...

 

[Cranmaro99]

UPDATE:

My good friend and I dove into the issue today. We pulled the back interior panels apart and then lowered the headliner to test things out.

We poured water from a hose all over the side cargo window and there were zero leaks. So we then checked the moonroof.

We kept the moonroof closed and put a hose on the top of the car to see how the drains worked on the moonroof. Both front drains worked fine, and the passenger rear one worked fine too. But of course, 30 seconds into turning on the hose the moonroof started leaking BADLY above the rear drivers side seat. So that drain was plugged badly and it was overflowing towards the very back of the moonroof.

Obviously that is the one drain you cannot access from the top of the sunroof, so we took the side interior panels off to gain access of the bottom of the drain hose and we blew compressed air UP from the bottom of the hose (the only way we could). It took forever! It must have really been plugged for a long time. Eventually it seemed to work. We then turned on the same hose with the headliner off and it seemed to stop the leaking!

So for now there are no leaks. It has yet to start to rain and I hope this fixes the problem for a while, but my friend still thinks the hose is partially plugged as it was so hard to get it flowing in the first place.

I'll keep this thread open for the future to add updates if this fixes the problem long term.

-------

Now I have to deal with drying out the entire freaking interior of my car. It leaked so badly that the water would flood the entire top of the headliner (hence why it leaked all the way back to my cargo space!) as well as the entire floor of the car as well as the cargo floor.

This is my daily commuter car so I'm not sure how I'm going to set time aside to dry everything.