Liberty sprung a leak!

Tiarnon · **Posted:** Tue May 01, 2012 9:22 am

When it rains, my liberty appears to have a leak of some kind in the passenger foot well. My girlfriend complained that she felt water on her foot last week when we were driving. I put it off, but just this last weekend I found that my passenger foot well was soaked. I could see the water coming down the outside of the plastic. I'm wondering if anybody has experienced this before and can point me in a particular direction for sealing up somewhere. I'll be digging into it tomorrow on my day off, so any help would be appreciated. Wish it wasn't going to be raining every day this week here, though! Thanks!

DynoPax · **Posted:** Tue May 01, 2012 10:31 am

Do you have the moonroof? I read somewhere there might be issues with a blocked gutter, and overflow would trickle down along the inner walls all the way down to the passenger side floor. Just a thought...

papaindigo · **Posted:** Tue May 01, 2012 1:44 pm

It would help to be a bit more descriptive than "water coming down the outside of the plastic" given that all the interior panels are plastic. That said the single most common cause of water on the front passenger floor is a clogged HVAC drain, been there and done that several times over the years. The drain is is in the engine compartment on the firewall fairly far down below the coolant tank and should have a rubbery spout coming off of it and facing down. Commonly that spout can be popped off and flushed clean of general goop that builds up, often just mold although I have seen the tip of that spout fused shut from engine heat back in the olden days.

If the drain is not working properly water backs up the the heat/AC box and drips down from there or out of the lower vents.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Tue May 01, 2012 8:38 pm

FYI

air vent is on the passenger side - if you've parked under trees - the leaves will get in and clog the drain - so the next rain comes inside.

and of course the AC condensation drain is passenger side - if the drain line comes off or is clogged - it'll drain inside..

Tiarnon · **Posted:** Wed May 02, 2012 12:42 am

The plastic it comes in over top of is the grey plastic of the passenger footwell, along the outside (right side) in front of the door, going up under the dash. It's sort of triangular in shape, and the trickle is coming from the "tip" part of the triangle, way up where it is semi-difficult to see. I have only seen it coming in when it is raining, and it was a visible trickle during a solid downpour.

I don't believe it is anything to do with the AC, it will finally be back up into the 80's starting tomorrow, been colder then at the end of the winter lately. I will check on the things mentioned so far for sure, though. Thank you for the replies so far, please if there are any more for more places to check or thoughts on it. If there is one thing my F150(s) taught me, it is that somebody has ALWAYS experienced when you're going through, no matter how far fetched.

I hope I can find it tomorrow with my time on the day off, it's supposed to storm every single day this week, lots of thunderstorms, so I really don't want it raining and soaking the carpet...and then 80 degrees, etc. >.<

papaindigo · **Posted:** Wed May 02, 2012 8:58 am

That high up it doesn't sound like the HVAC drain although that's still worth checking. Door seal is possible but seems unlikely. Windshield seal would seem more likely. I don't have a clue how the sunroof drains if you have one. I did on one occasion notice a bit of water running down the inside of the windshield from under the roof liner on the driver's side but since it never happened again I don't have a clue where it came from.

You might consider supplying a rainshower from your garden hose starting low down and VERY slowly working up until you see water coming in. I stress slowly to give time for water to flow from the leak point to where you see it.

Tiarnon · **Posted:** Wed May 02, 2012 4:23 pm

I've been digging into it for about an hour now, had my neighbor come over and we misted water starting on the right side quarter and moving slowly up. I never saw a trickle, as we went all the way up to the top. I DO have a sun roof, I should have mentioned that. I felt a touch of water under the sunroof shoving my fingers back past the cloth pull cover underneath it, but it was an insignificant amount, and upon reseating it I have not gotten any more. I've pulled up my carpet and removed the kick panel from the passenger foot well, and it was a swimming pool down there. Good thing the wire bundle running through there is good and sealed. I've gotten all that pulled, and am going back out to resume the sprinkler. Also going to try to find that hvac vent. If I can't get any water to go inside from hosing the outside down, then it'll be interesting when I do find the problem. Any more ideas and help would be most appreciated.

Is there some sort of drainage gutter or something similar from the sun roof THROUGH the A pillar that exits at the base of the Jeep? Somebody mentioned it following a path through there, but I'm assuming that is just water + gravity and not a designed gutter.

Thank you for your comments, please let me have any more you have. Not looking forward to having to pull the seat and pull my carpet up all the way to the passenger compartment to get that under-carpet pad wet-vac'd. Any comment on anything to apply to prevent possible mold/mildew growth? Some sort of spray?

EDIT: I pulled off the foam tip of the inlet under the coolant tank, and it was completely clean, and with the AC engaged it had clear suction of air. I have the vehicle idling with the AC on at the moment just to see if it has anything to do with dehumidifying humid air. I've been looking through the KJ Service Manual trying to find things to check, but to be honest the diagrams are sometimes hard to follow, not knowing where my orientation is coming from.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 10:46 am

Go to Sir Sam's NOOB guide and download a copy of the 2005 Parts manual (if you have an 06 I doubt things are different but I know where to find the info you need in the 05 parts manual). Go to Figure SKJ-1210 for the left and right sunroof drains. Don't know if they are your problem but there are drains.

Liberty sprung a leak!

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