Let’s talk about water leaks.

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Fri May 04, 2018 9:36 am

Pathfindork wrote:Other suggestions:


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There's a drain in wiper motor void area on the side may be clogged and on heavy rain fills up and comes through an opening
I pulled the cowl panel off (expecting to find it wet and full of leaves or something). It was clean and dry. That threw me off. I completely forgot to look for drains to try to clear. I will have to do it again.

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:50 pm

So I removed the A-pillar trim piece on the driver's side to see if I could get a better idea of where the leak was coming in. What I had been seeing was water coming in at bottom of dash and dripping on driver's door speaker and floor.

I got in and my son sprayed water. After a few seconds of him moving it around a little, it started pouring in from the top corner, and dripping/pouring in my lap. At this point I assumed it was coming in from the top corner of the wind shield. I suspected that area anyway. I bought a tube of black silicon. I peeled back the long weatherstripping along side the windshield, and I removed the side windshield trim. The screws were not tight. When you remove the screw, you can see into the inside of the car through the hole. BINGO. That HAS to be it. I siliconed around the plastic grommets (screw holes) and in the holes themselves. I replaced the windshield side trim, and I added silicon to the top of the side trim piece where there is a rectangular "hole" naturally there by design for some reason. I let it cure for 24 hours.

Excited, I got someone to spray the garden hose today at that top corner of the windshield, and it was holding! Then he moved it to the back of the roof wind deflector, aiming back toward that corner. The water POURED in again at the same spot.

Sigh.

So, it seems to be related to the roof seam, or the roof rack mounting.

Am I the only one to ever have this issue?

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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:08 pm

Do you have a sunroof? Maybe it's coming from the drain tube that goes through the driver's A pillar?

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:39 pm

smj999smj wrote:Do you have a sunroof? Maybe it's coming from the drain tube that goes through the driver's A pillar?
No sunroof.

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Tue Oct 02, 2018 5:19 am

This past Saturday, I removed half the interior to get to the headliner. I removed the headliner. I then removed the roof rack (suspecting it could be involved. ) There was no rust under the roof rack. The holes are designed not to let water in (raised walls around holes.) I reinstalled roof rack and poured water. It was dripping in from several spots at the top of the windshield. When the headliner was installed it was running it to each corner. AND, with everything installed, the A-pillar trim was diverting it to come out beside the dash, dripping on the floor and a little on the door speaker.

So, I took it to Safelite. They inspected it and saw signs of rust and told me they couldn't touch it because of their nationwide lifetime warranty. But they recommended me to another local company that would. They called ahead and explained the situation.

Company "B" pulled windshield, and there was a lot of rust. But it was surface rust. No metal damage really. At the top part of the windshield, the old bead they run was sticking to glass, but not Pathfinder. So that explains the leak.

Company B sanded the windshield frame area, primed and sealed it, and installed a new windshield. HOPEFULLY problems is solved. I will leak test it Wednesday.

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Tue Oct 02, 2018 5:26 am

https://imgur.com/yVJuAhG

https://imgur.com/TVgLWlp

(Now I can't get images to work here-just a link)
Last edited by Micallen on Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:40 am, edited 4 times in total.

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palmerwmd
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Postby palmerwmd » Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:00 pm

I been following this Detective story with interest :)

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:48 am

I did about a 10 minute leak test last night. NO LEAKS! Tonight I will run it through a car wash for more testing.

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Micallen
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Postby Micallen » Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:10 am

No leaks at the car wash either. Feeling good. :D

Pathfindork
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Postby Pathfindork » Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:49 am

That’s great. My understanding is that most leaks are related to either the sunroof drain wor windshield.

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palmerwmd
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Postby palmerwmd » Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:58 pm

I am happy for the good news!!

:D


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