Water Leak! (please help)

Edbert

Founding Member
Jul 13, 2002
3,548
32
109
Austin TX
We've been in a very serous drought here in Central Texas for the last year or more, but this weekend we just got dumped on, like 7+ inches in three days. My Stang was parked in the driveway from around 5:00PM on Friday until about 6:00AM on Monday with it's nose a little higher than the tail.

As i drove to work down my street i hear water running, sounded like someone slowly pouring out of a glass. I slowed down and turned the radio off and heard nothing. I accelerated again and heard it again. Pulled over and turned on the lights and could see a little water on the passenger's floor mat. It seems that some water built up somewhere within the unibody and was dumping into the passenger compartment (passenger side only) when I accelerated.

I put a small bath-towel/large-rag that I always keep handy down there and went to work. Upon arrival it was pretty well soaked, I figure a quart or more of water came in during my commute. It seemed to have stopped pretty much by the time I got here though.

So, is there any known issue with a weep-hole that can be plugged by road debris or leaves? Any TSB on this? I cannot abide with this situation and if there's nothing known that I can do I'll have to take her in to the dealership. Last weekend I put the agent-47 mirrors on and thought for a minute that the water was coming in through there, but I saw a couple of drips coming from up behind the glove box. The glove box itself was dry inside. On the old Stang this was a known defect, but those problems only showed after many years of corrosion.
 
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I found the TSB (07-14-06) but I do not think that is my problem, my car is an early 2005, so it is almost 5 years old and never leaked before. If there was a bad weld, missing sealant or some grommet not fitted properly it would have done this before. I'm pretty sure there's a plugged drain up in the cowl area.

Is anyone familiar enough with these cars to tell me where to look?
 
I’m in the same boat or sinking boat as you. I also have 2005 GT and out of the blue this weekend my car started leaking water to. I check my car after every good rain storm and never had water issue until this time. There is a TSB for the issue but starts out with (difficult to diagnose water leak in the front floor).

To check cowl it comes off pretty easy on the passenger side for access to the fresh air hepa filter. The key of getting cowl off is turn on windshield wipers and stop them when they all way across the windshield and take the four plastic screws out. You can also see one of the drains plugs in there it’s the same on the driver’s side as well. If your filter is soaking wet most likely it’s a clog plug.
I checked mine yesterday and wasn’t coming from cowl I think the leak I have is coming from the pillar. After I pull up part of the carpet up and dry it with the wet vac I when through the touch less car wash to see where it might be coming from. I saw water coming in just after the smart junction box closest to front seat.

I’m having ford look at it tomorrow for me. I should point to the sticker on my car that said ford quality is job one. I know the dealership is going to stick it to me even know I have an ESP plan it does cover leaks it’s in the fine print.

You think after 106 years they could make a car that stays dry inside.

I hope this helps
 
If the intrusion source is in the A-pillar then I would not expect it to drip from the middle of the glove-box area (but further up beneath the dash), I'd expect it to come through the kick panel or just soak into the carpet. I'm going to try to pull the cowl using your instructions, thanks for the reply. I'm assuming you mean the black plastic bit by the wipers right?
 
yes but I only took off the passenger side. you can also see the water plugs down in the engine bay. I first stuck my finger in there to see if any was in them.
 
OK, got her fixed, the water was coming in through the HEPA filter, and judging by the water line that was clearly visible it was about 4-5 inches underneath the water level. Here's the deal...

Hardest part of this was getting the wipers straight up. I had to jiggle the ignition through it's positions to get them to stop in the right spot.

With the wipers up I only took out the two plastic screws holding the passenger's side of the plastic cowl cover on. Easiest way for me was to pinch the bottom part with one hand and unscrew them.

The well in the body underneath the cover by the HVAC intake is very deep, I'd guess 10 inches or more. There's a small oval rubber grommet towards the center line of the car that is designed to allow water to drain out while preventing water from working it's way upward. Because of that function is is easily clogged by leaves, mine had several handfuls of black rotten leaves in there. It was pretty nasty but I scooped them out by hand. I was pushing the clog through the grommet and found it a little difficult, best way (for me) was to push the grommet through the sheet metal. it came out pretty easily, and it was tempting to leave it out to prevent another (inevitable) clog down the road, but I put it back in. I'd say do not press it through to the bottom with a hot exhaust to prevent the rubber from landing on something that might melt it, mine did not hit the headers but it was close.

Anyway, excluding the time spent going to the store to buy a new filter, the total repair was about 20 minutes. I plan on putting a piece of screen underneath the vent openings in the plastic cowl since they are clearly not able to prevent leaves from falling through the slits.
 
Nice job on solving your leakage problem.
Also, I'm sure that you eventually realized that it's much easier to pull them out from the bottom of the firewall inside the engine compartment, instead of accessing them by removing the windshield wiper cowl.
And for everyone's reference, there is another rubber grommet drain located on the driver's side that can clog up with debris.
 
Yes, that would be easier for routine maintenance, I'd suggest everyone who reads this to do it today just to check.

The accumulation in mine over 4.75 years was too much for that to have worked well. I removed several handfuls of gunk. While it was apart I flushed the whole area too. I'm considering adding some sort of corrosion inhibitor to the area now, when I add the screens to the underside of the cowl-covers.
 
Totally agree that accessing the interior of the firewall from the upper side is the recommended method if an 05-09 GT had been subjected to debris accumulation for almost 5 years, and it had not been routinely cleaned out during that time.