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Water leak in cab

20K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Dr.Dan 
#1 ·
04 Regular cab, getting water (NOT coolant) on the passenger side of the cab. NOT coming from the grab handle. Already checked the drain for the AC and appears to be clear, stuck a cable tie in there and water was already draining from it. (was using defrost as it was cold in the NE)

Had the leak in the past but was minor and didn't try to track it down. This past Saturday I washed it and purposely flooded the areas around the door and windshield and no evidence of leaks in the interior afterward.

Wednesday night into Thursday lots of rain and no evidence of leaks on Thursday morning. Heavy rain again overnight Thursday and Friday morning sure enough, water all over the floormat on passenger side. Saw some water drips on the carpet high up on the floor board where it meets the HVAC box, some evidence of water around the back of the box along the firewall as well as around the fan motor area. What to look for???????
 
#2 ·
How are your door seals?
 
#3 ·
Pull the cowl and wipers off, Thier may be a seem opened up in that area. Your going to need to flood the area. What I usually do is take the nozzle off the garden hose and put the hose on the roof so it floods the entire area and watch inside...maybe pull the glove box out and stay inside with a flash light and watch. This way it floods everything, could even be the windshield.
 
#4 ·
This is kinda more of a trick for finding leaks in houses but if you are desperate enough I don't see why it wouldn't work on a truck. If you have a rear slider window it would would probably work best but any window would do. You have to make kind of a boot or shroud to the inside of the window with thick plastic with the window down of coarse.The other end of the plastic you would attach around a heavy duty fan the more suction the better.Make sure everything is taped up air tight. Point the fan so it is sucking air out of the truck. You sit inside and have some one outside with a water hose slowly going over anything that could possibly be the culprit. Usually it will suck a stream of water in that is really easy to see where it is coming from.
I have never heard of anyone doing it on a vehicle but i do not see why it would not work.
 
#6 ·
Look at the pictures on this link on page 6. This is what you would be trying to do except on a truck.
What link? I was thinking you would need a wicked fan to pull enough CFM'S to get that to work...
 
#7 ·
yeah pretty much a barn fan for a room in a house but the area is much smaller in a truck. If you make sure and have everything sealed off so no air can enter the truck except where the leak is I dont think it would take that large of a fan for an area that small. Im sure there is a easier way to find one in a truck but this should work.
 
#8 ·
Was looking up under the dash yesterday and had some water drips around the blower fan but no evidence of it leaking down from anywhere. Going to drop the fan motor and take a look inside.
 
#9 ·
Latest update on this! Took off the door seals and sealed the screw holes with silicone. Rained a couple days later, still got the puddle on the floor mat.

Pulled off the wiper arms and the cowl panel and see there is some sort of thin metal access panel that is just sealed along the edges. Seemed to be some gaps though so sealed the crap out of the edges and put back together. Have had about 24 hours of straight rain here in CT and knock on wood, no water in the cab! Hopefully I found the problem. Supposed to get a lot more rain tonite so the morning should tell the story. What is that access panel for anyway?? Almost seems like a heavy duty aluminum foil for lack of a better description.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Latest update on this! Took off the door seals and sealed the screw holes with silicone. Rained a couple days later, still got the puddle on the floor mat.

Pulled off the wiper arms and the cowl panel and see there is some sort of thin metal access panel that is just sealed along the edges.
Sounds like exactly the problem I have with my new-to-me 2004 RCSB, just this AM I narrowed it down to the windshield/cowl area. Previous owner mentioned he "fixed" a HVAC blend door problem so he may have mucked with it or maybe the leak caused it to go bad.

Any tips/tricks for pulling off the cowl? I took a quick look and to me it looked like the cowl was divided in 2 underneath the wiper arm - you really have to take the wiper arms off? (and both of them?)
 
#10 ·
OK, next morning and everything is dry as a bone! Looks like that was the problem!:D
 
#12 ·
And he didn't even need a fan!
 
#13 ·
Yup! You pointed me in the right direction. Thanks. What the hell in that chincy plate for anyway?
 
#15 ·
I took both wiper arms off when I did mine and just moved the cowl enough to get access to that flimsy panel. Siliconed the crap out of the edges and no leaks since. Should have took pics when I did it.
 
#16 ·
Hmm that is a bit odd.

I was able to just take out the 1 screw on the passenger side, remove the 2-3 plastic round clips, and then lift the wiper cowl up 4-5 inches to see what was going on in there.

As you said - there's a piece of 4"x6" foil-backed rubbery stuff in there - actually looks a lot like dynamat - that is sealing a 3x5 access hole - I guess to get to the fresh air intake vent?

My piece of foil looked like it was doing an okay job but probably not a great job of keeping that hole sealed up. So I peeled it off, cleaned with windex, and then applied silicone around the perimeter of the hole and a little to the back of the rubber patch, and then re-applied it. Hopefully I did a better job, will let it dry overnight and report back if it stopped my leak.
 
#17 ·
If your leak was dripping from the blower motor area on to the floor mat you probably got it. Not saying my was the right way, just the way I did it.:)
 
#18 ·
I never saw the leak drip into the front of the passenger floor, but when I flooded the windshield/cowl area with a hose, a minute or two later the back corner of my floor would be soaking wet - so mine was going underneath the carpet/padding which makes it a little tougher to diagnose.

This was as good a place to start as any, I'll know tomorrow! First I thought it was the 3rd brake light or door seal, but nope, flooding those areas the inside stayed dry.
 
#19 ·
Did you ever sort this out? I have the same problem with my 04 . When it rains the carpet in the passenger side area gets soaked and I can see drips from behind the blower housing and directly from the blower housing.

I've pulled off the wiper cowl and completely resealed around the edges of that tinfoil patch. I've tested it with the hose and the leak only occurs when water is directed to that tinfoil patch area. The ac drain tube doesn't look plugged - besides, the leak occurs when the truck isn't even running. I've also put a right angle tube over the ac drain as some have suggested wind can blow rain into the tube.

It's not the brake light and it's not the grab handle.

Could the water be getting into the dash from the area just in front of the upper most passenger side door hinge? Are there openings to the dash area there? It would seem like a bad idea to have holes there as water seems to run from beneath the wiper cowl down past that area.

I've looked for drain tubes, as some have suggested there are drains that get plugged with crud from the windshield, but I can't find them.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
#20 ·
Lo and behold my 04 had a leak again today after nothing for quite a while after redoing that patch. Will pull apart and see what is going on.
 
#21 ·
I have the same problem on the passenger side, use to live in calgary, had no issue, as it was dry all the time, I moved to a rainy city 6 months ago and noticed I was taking on water on the passenger side. had to pull all front seats out and carpet to dry it out. must have been 3 gallons of water in the carpet.
Could not figure out where the water was coming from untill today, ran water over the front window the passenger side, took off the plastic cover but could not see anything wrong. Then on the passenger side, took off the bottom of plastic the door sorounding (just pops up) , off the rubber seal just on the bottom of the door to half way up the front and noticed water coming in between the metal seams.
If you have a flash light you can look through 2 small slits on the front side of the passenger door frame near the bottom (hard to see) As you run water over the passenger side of the front window, you may notice water coming in through the side panel, running down the seam (inside).

Not sure how it is getting in or how to fix yet.
 
#22 ·
Our situations may be a bit different. I can see water drip down from the blower housing. The other day I went through a car wash and had the blower on "recirculate". It didn't leak (which is unusual). I usually get some water dripping down from the blower (and just behind the blower). I read somewhere that the recirculate setting closes the fresh air intake. Apparently a small servo-motor shuts a "door" to the "outside" air and the blower draws air from inside the cab. I'm not totally sure the leak is through the recirc door, but I will do some more testing.

Putting the blower on recirculate when it rains isn't ideal because it seems to make the windows fog up. Still, if that's where the water is getting in maybe it narrows down the origins of the leak? (anybody?).
 
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