Sigh Electrical

[CoolAcid]

I should have identified - I found where the smell and gremlins were hiding.. However - not the water. Thats part two of my weekend quest..

 

[jnaut]

I should have identified - I found where the smell and gremlins were hiding.. However - not the water.

Do tell.

 

[CoolAcid]

I spent the past hour in the rain pulling everything I could think of (almost) out to trace everything that could cause water, and found nothing. I haven't looked underneath, not near the center console yet.

I found two hard plastic lines in the front pillars - and a softer rubber line on the passenger side front pillar. No indication of problems there, plus when I looked in the drain area of the sun roof, it's bone dry after rain - I'll look again after a harder rain, but I don't see it coming from there.

I did a hand check for any wetness under the dash, and visually behind most of the panels on the side, ie: beside back seat, and in the side pillar - notta. Not a lick of water, and I know some must be getting in because it's wet again over the past week.

Any thoughts? It's ONLY on the driver side - it's wet in the back and front sides. Not just damp, but water pools in the wire channels and soaks the foam in the carpet. Seats are not wet, so It much be something near the floor or in the floor. When I had the carpet up to dry in the front, I didn't see any obvious places either.

 

[jnaut]

Any thoughts? It's ONLY on the driver side - it's wet in the back and front sides. Not just damp, but water pools in the wire channels and soaks the foam in the carpet. Seats are not wet, so It much be something near the floor or in the floor. When I had the carpet up to dry in the front, I didn't see any obvious places either.

Well, water runs down so it has to be running from above the floorboards and gathering there. Even if you had a hole in the floor 4" wide, you wouldn't get water pooling up on the floor. So it's coming down the door panel with a bad seal.

Are you saying that you got in the car during the rain while it was dry and watched it slowly get wet?

Also pics would be nice.

The only thing I can think of is that you wait for a sunny day when the inside of your jeep is dry, and turn on a sprinkler that you can control to 'rain' on precise areas of the vehicle. Like have the sprinkler wet the drivers side. Then check for dampness. If nothing then you can move the sprinkler and have it 'rain' on the passenger side... wait for dampness... and so on. That way you might be able to at least isolate the leak to the left/right side.

Water can be a b*tch because often it'll pool up exactly where the leak isn't. It may be trickling from some entirely other location and then pooling up on the drivers side.

There have been rare cases where a window was leaking-- like the rear glass panels-- the ones in the cargo area that aren't even designed to open... where they have bad seals. It could be weeping inside there, running down the inside of the panels and finally gathering on the drivers side carpet. Water has an amazing way of taking extremely indirect routes. Believe me my garage flooded and took some pretty tricky routes to get into my basement once.

 

[ptsb5a]

Hey, just curious. Did you ever have the windshield replaced? If the seal is not sealing, water may be coming in around the lower driver's side of the windshield and getting into the wiring. I had a problem very similar to this with an old Volks Sirocco, the windshield seal let go and water came in and dropped right onto the fuse block. Caused all kinds of wierdo problems.

Just a thought.

 

[CoolAcid]

I guess a final note for anyone with the same issues

Turned out that there was a ton of water in the back and under the carpet. Pulled it all up and dried it all out, doesn't seem to be having any new water issues.

There is a block connector under the rear driver side seat. This was cooked. I had to go to a wreckers and buy a new block with a few feet of wiring. Did a manual splice, some of the colours didn't match, so I faked it on both sides. After that, haven't had a new issue yet.