Water getting into passenger side floor !

richie9mt

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Cowl Drains are a huge issue. Especially on the passenger side. If it is clogged the water then goes through the Cabin Air FIlter into the Evaporator housing. Just remove the drains on both sides. Simple with a pliers to just pull them out.

100691d1328239740-cowl-leak-easier-way-clean-driv.jpg

Thank you for posting the pic! I was able to locate and identify both cowl drain bladders on my 2006 V6 Mustang. They were easily reached by hand and both pulled off easily. For those who haven't found them, they are 2 3/4" long and 2" high, black rubber, and they are removed by pulling down. Mine were not clogged, nothing except a bit of grime in each one, but the 'lips' on the bladder were together in such a way that any leaves or even dirt buildup would have clogged them.
 

Juice

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Change your cabin filter at least once a year. While at it, pull both cowl cover sections and check the very bottom of the cowls for debris as there are two more drain plugs down there. Pro tip: remove and replace the driver side cowl cover first and last and you'll have a much easier time wrestling with them.
Ummm, NO. Not pulling that cowl cover over and over yearly.
Changed it at ~12 years when it got soaked. That was 4 years ago. lmao
 

blackjack07

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Ummm, NO. Not pulling that cowl cover over and over yearly.
Changed it at ~12 years when it got soaked. That was 4 years ago. lmao

Suit yourself. It literally takes 15 minutes and costs like what...11 bucks? Clean cabin air and an empty cowl.
 

jlmotox

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Just had water leaking on my sons car, the flapper below the cabin filter was missing and whole area was dry…
he had water getting in from where the push pins for the cowl cover go through the firewall below the windshield, I pulled and cleaned them and resealed them with silicone.
He was also getting some water in on the passenger side door trim. Between the plastic side window trim and the body the foam seal was destroyed but I was able to find some weather striping foam from Home Depot and now everything is dry. Now to deal with the SJB as he has some gremlins in the electrical system because water got in…
 

DieHarder

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Just had water leaking on my sons car, the flapper below the cabin filter was missing and whole area was dry…
he had water getting in from where the push pins for the cowl cover go through the firewall below the windshield, I pulled and cleaned them and resealed them with silicone.
He was also getting some water in on the passenger side door trim. Between the plastic side window trim and the body the foam seal was destroyed but I was able to find some weather striping foam from Home Depot and now everything is dry. Now to deal with the SJB as he has some gremlins in the electrical system because water got in…

Got a pic of the seal you picked up? Thinking of doing the same on my son's car. I went thru and sealed up everything I could find but would like to add new seals for extra insurance. Have had water problems in the past.
 

Pentalab

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Stopped raining, semi nice day. Issue is my car is black, so everything under the hood is black on black..which makes it sorta a bitch to find these rectangular soft rubber flaps. Got in with a small xeon flashlight..and found the one on drivers side. Reached down with left arm and felt around, lifted the lower leading edge...and a TON of water came out. Got in wih one finger and then pulled out a ton of gak outa there. Ok, good. Had a helluva time finding the flap on Pass side. It's a lot lower on pass side. It's just to the right of the battery..and way down.... it's actually recessed a bit, where the fake firewall meets the real firewall. IE: tucked under and outa site. Lifted the flap and a ton of more water came out. Plus more gak came out when I got my finer in there and managed to pull a load of black crap.

The soft rubber....rectangular flaps don't come out easily, so left em in there, but bent the flaps out a bit.
That entire top vented portion (parallel to cowl) but on the inside of the hood, comes right out with the removal of what looks like push pins, but they are the type that uses a small Phillip's screwdriver. With that off, access to the cabin filter is gained.

Lesson learned. That was one helluva lotta water that came flooding out both flaps. It's all clear now. Carpet on pass side is now dry, plus below it. No garage here, so car sits outside 12 months of the year.
Pulled the rubber flap out by hand on drivers side quire some time ago. Yesterday, I managed to get the rubber flap out on the pass side. Could just get my skinny arm down there. They are soft rubber flaps...and come out fairly easily. They have a small lip around their rectangular circumference. That lip is on the inside of the sheep metal rectangular hole. Just squeeze it at the top and bottom (center), then pull by hand. They pop right out.
 

86GT351

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Pulled the rubber flap out by hand on drivers side quire some time ago. Yesterday, I managed to get the rubber flap out on the pass side. Could just get my skinny arm down there. They are soft rubber flaps...and come out fairly easily. They have a small lip around their rectangular circumference. That lip is on the inside of the sheep metal rectangular hole. Just squeeze it at the top and bottom (center), then pull by hand. They pop right out.
Exactly. I know Ford puts them there for a reason. However most people don't check them. Whenever there is a water issue due to them change the cabin air filter also. It gets saturated.
 

Pentalab

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Exactly. I know Ford puts them there for a reason. However most people don't check them. Whenever there is a water issue due to them change the cabin air filter also. It gets saturated.
I will swap out the cabin filter, and clean out that entire compartment. On a similar note, are those rubber flap thingies used on other Ford vehicles ? Like my 2011 Fusion, or an old Ranger ?
 

richie9mt

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I found a couple YouTube videos -



Before these videos, I didn't know where the filter was located, how to extract/install it, or even how big it was. Excellent videos.

The longer video also showed exactly how water got into the passenger footwell, as well as leaves and twigs trapped in the filter enclosure bottom, and the watermark on the filter itself.
 
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Juice

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I found removing the cowl cover a bit tricky. Its cake to swap the filter after panel is removed.
 

Pentalab

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Ok, with the cowl cover removed, and filter out.... I see there is 2 x holes, one per side at the bottom of the trough..facing downwards. Where does water go, after it goes down those 2 x holes ? Is their another, hidden cavity below that, or does it come out the bottom...or does it come out at 90 degs through those 2 x rubber thingys that I just removed from the eng bay ?
 

86GT351

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Ok, with the cowl cover removed, and filter out.... I see there is 2 x holes, one per side at the bottom of the trough..facing downwards. Where does water go, after it goes down those 2 x holes ? Is their another, hidden cavity below that, or does it come out the bottom...or does it come out at 90 degs through those 2 x rubber thingys that I just removed from the eng bay ?
It drains out of the car in front of the firewall.
 

Jim RN

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Got the constant break light problem sorted out..it was a bad switch on the brake pedal. While messing with the fuse box in the SJB ( fuse #2 had to be temp pulled out)... I noticed the footwell area, like where a passengers toes would be..was very slightly, and I mean slightly...damp in 2 x spots.

I went through it all and couldn't find a damned thing. Have not used the car for 2+ weeks lately...and a LOT of rain. Yesterday, the entire inside of the windshield was damp with condensation. Cleaned that up..then noticed soaking wet napkins on the floor on passenger side. The passenger side floor was soaking wet..and then some. I had GT floor mats (rubber backed) on both driver + pass sides. Pass side floor mat was also soaked through. Water was collecting at the bottom right corner of the floor... WTF? Its all down the right side, starting at front end of sjb.....and all the way back along the edge.

Ok, what's the trick here ? Where the hell is the water getting in ? It's not coming through where the power cable from eng bay comes in....to the sjb box. The entire width, way up, is bone dry. Without tearing up the oem carpet on pass side, I can't fine it. That insualtion beneath the oem carpet on pass side is also soaked.

This is on my 2010 GT automatic.

I got all the water out with my 4 gal shop vac, then had the heat cranked to max for a while, but I have not solved the root cause. The drains on the outside, at base of windshield are good. It's not only baffling, it's really pissing me off now. And yes, the windows were up, and rubber door seals are in good shape.
 

Jim RN

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Had the same problem, ford had a design flaw. They wouldn't recall, passenger side windshield cowling no drain . It will come in through your passenger side kick panel right on to your ECU! It completely corroded the ECU. $2000.00 later drilled a small hole in right side of the windshield cowling. Make it big enough to get something to poke down to prevent clogging. This was almost always a problem with convertibles. BTW mine is a 2011. Good luck!
 

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