Wow it's still leaking (seam sealer?) Edit: body harness grommet

[s197richie]

I thought I'd narrowed my driver's side leak on the front carpet down to a cowl and/or grommets; not knowing what direction I'm going in for now I just flex-taped the cowl to the windshield lol. Seemed to fix it for now but just this morning after light rain overnight I found a damp dot under the driver's floor mat maybe a silver-dollar in diameter. Top of the mat is dry. Research suggests it could be some seam-sealer gone bad; anyone experience this at all? Man it's hard to get 19 years out of a car that's downgrade engineered to only last five.

Edit: well it looks like the driver's side body harness grommet was damaged by rats and/or the electrical repair shop compromised it while repairing wiring damage so that's likely it.

 

[JC SSP]

Can you post pics?

 

[s197richie]

Can you post pics?

Here's the old grommet the rats chewed up; obviously that's not keeping much out of the cabin. I guess when the electrical shop repaired the wiring they missed it or didn't have the resources to replace/repair it. It looks like they only come with a new body harness; I got one from the salvage yard and slit it in half like a cv axle quick-boot repair which if nothing else should do better than the hula hoop I replaced. Seems to be sealing properly; 11 bucks so we'll see what happens.

The seal on my cowl has several wide splits in it; the salvage yard ones are all trash. CJ wants $950 for a new one; ebay who knows what you'll get. For now I just flex-taped the cowl to the windshield and will do a new cowl and all ten grommets when I figure out what I'm doing with the car.

 

[s197richie]

Might as well update; immediately after I swapped in the new grommet it started raining and continued at various intensities and directions all night; this morning I checked and didn't find any dampness. Considering I could fit my whole hand through the ratty grommet I don't guess that's any surprise. Just gotta pick out a cowl and get a full round of grommets (Amazon has all 10 for $80 iirc), pick up a cordless heat gun and we should be all set.

 

[s197richie]

Update it rained last night and even with the ratty body harness grommet replaced I still got water on the underside of the floor mat. When I get things straightened out I'll order a newer cowl and replace the cowl grommets and take it from there. If that doesn't fix it I suppose it has to be some old seam sealer. Odd stuff man, but at least it keeps me busy.

 

[MADGT]

Not sure this is your problem, but here's an interesting one:

 

[s197richie]

Just wanted to post this for posterity

So anyway tonight I replaced all ten cowl grommets (two five-packs off Amazon from China) and sourced a decent cowl out of the local salvage yard for $23, which isn't bad considering CJ Pony Parts wants $950 for new and top-shelf ebay is $200. $23 was worth not having to try to get the flex tape off the old one which was badly compromising the rubber seal that meets the windshield. I also ordered a cordless heat gun to use as per all the reference info I've gathered.

The old grommets were pretty bad; I could move them with my finger and just pull them out. Most of them had no traces of any sealant around them so either it disintegrated or never had any. The new ones clicked in snugly. Maybe it's a new design or because they're generic, or maybe my heat gun wasn't adequate (it definitely got hot!) but they would not give under even the highest heat setting and the gun went 100%-zero fairly quickly. Compared to the ones in the youtube vid in the above post, there was no seal to heat up on the top or bottom of the grommets; only on each side. I slapped it together with the new cowl and we'll see what happens.

If it still leaks I guess I could see what my dudebroman would charge me if I just tore it back down and he used an industrial grade heat gun to seat them properly.

 

[Miker]

I just cleaned the area super good and the used a sealer that wasn't silicone but it was like silicone. I don't know why this would not work 100% of the time. Those gaskets will fail at some point if you get them to seal at all.

 

[s197richie]

I just cleaned the area super good and the used a sealer that wasn't silicone but it was like silicone. I don't know why this would not work 100% of the time. Those gaskets will fail at some point if you get them to seal at all.

Yeah I figure if it persists I'll pick up a tube of marine urethane and go to town under there. ty.