Cabin Water Leak 08 Town Car Right Side

[jaywish]

I had a water leak same as Scott's apparently. The RF floor gets wet but the RR floor became a regulation mouse size hockey rink in the cold. It got deep. After doing the repair I have been wet-vacuuming it 2-3 times per day for 5 days. The front is now just slightly damp but the rear is still wicking up wet. Finally seems to be slowing down.

Before doing the repair you might want to clean the drain as shown in a pic below.

The right side cowl cover comes off with 2 (#1 size Phillips) long plastic screws. When installing you can just push them in. Make sure you caught the hole. The plastic part beneath this, I will call it the "Catch Basin" comes out with iirc 4 nuts and 3 hex head bolts. I previously added a cabin filter to this which seems to be working well BTW.

The foam gasket on the bottom of the Catch Basin ages out. Mine looked perfectly fine when I 1st removed the catch basin some months ago to clean the intake screen and fab up the filter. . With the cowl off I pored water down the windshield and saw now leaks into the cabin air intake. However after some time I noticed the foam was saturating and leaked slowly on the second bucket of water on the windshield. I guess a good long rain and a slow leak really accumulates water. The foam still looked good but it was porous when wet.

I used a Frost-King weatherstrip, Scott used 3m weatherstrip. In retrospect I might have just used the 3M Strip Calk which I keep on hand but I had already picked up the Frost-King stuff. I use the 3M Strip Calk to re-seal the Catch Basin hex screws. As someone else suggested I put the weatherstrip seam on what is the forward part of the Catch Basin (near the drain) when it is installed to reduce the chance of a leak there as water pours into the basin from the rear, windshield side.

An easy & Quick fix which appears to work well. Might as well add the cabin filter while you are in there. http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...ighlight=cabin

Thanks Scott.

Jay

The Catch Basin Drain

Cowl & plastic screw Catch basin With & Without Cabin Filter

Bottom of Catch Basin with new Gasket

[94Magna_Tom]

When this happened to me, I removed the seats, took the carpet and padding out, and reinstalled the drivers seat so I could still use the car. After it dried out, a few days later, I removed the drivers seat again and reinstalled the padding, carpet, and both seats. What a PITA, but I didn't want to risk it getting moldy.

[jaywish]

I was thinking that but it would be hard alone in my garage and the weather is cold. For now I am leaving the mats up. removed the door opening molding and am doing the wetvac thing. Also passenger side floor heat set at 90 when I drive it.

[sly]

I used my spotbot (wet vac - shopvacs work too) to suck out the excess water... then stomped out the carpet with some "for dirty jobs" old towels. Then I dropped one of these in my car to help dehumidify it... Got it all dried out in a few days without having to remove anything.

https://www.amazon.com/Arm-Hammer-FGAH14-Moisture-Eliminator/dp/B01KYZ13TM/

[jaywish]

Not a bad idea. Placed the dehumidifier in my empty Amazon cart.

I have a Dewalt 18V/AC 2.5gal wet/shop vac. I keep it in the trunk and every time I am going to use the car I give the carpet what it needs before I head out. Volume of water sucked out each time is getting less and less.

Looking forward to a nice long soaking rain to be sure it is all sealed up.

[sly]

Just a note... the "dehumidifier" is prone to tipping over in turns. Best bet is to just wedge it somewhere or pile stuff around it in the passenger seat (like a blanket).

[jaywish]

Thanks for the tip.