Home   Forum   Classifieds   Tech/DIY   News   Articles   Chat   Contact Us

Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Forum rules
Welcome to the Tech/DIY information archive. This area of the board is for reference purposes, please direct general tech discussion to the G Wagen Technical Forum.
donaldstroh
Posts: 11

Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#1 » Mon Feb 09, 2015 8:37 pm

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience finding the dreaded water leak in a G? I have pulled out the floor boards and center console pieces, and found water droplets on the literal metal steering rod under the dash and some pooling on the insulation on the knee area dash cover piece. I replaced the windshield due to some investigation, and that did not help. I am worried that it might be the windshield wiper arm seals, something in the air intake area, or the protective piece that covers all the wire harness hardware that goes through the fire wall. I have no 'gunk' or anything around the hood gutters or anything. I also am taping up the sunroof and little (broken) stubby antenna (2002 G500) and that seemed to help, but would think if it was the roof area, I would have staining on the headliner? Thoughts? Ideas? directions? experience?
Thanks,
Donny
Larkspur, CA

User avatar
vadimivanovich
Posts: 8643

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#2 » Mon Feb 09, 2015 8:48 pm

I had/have similar issues. The first place was my windshield, which had a couple of small rust spots. Cut, grind, weld, paint, done. Next I replaced the windshield wiper arm seals. Not fun, but not too bad either. Great peace of mind once done, and an afternoon of knuckle-scraping fun. Lastly, look under your dash at the left and right extremes of your firewall. You may be surprised to find some rusted out metal that lets water in from the runoff of your roof, windshield, and fenders. The only way to fix this is to pull the fenders and cut, grind, weld, paint, etc. None of these repairs are that bad, but if you sit around thinking about how you really don't want to deal with fixing it, you'll only make things worse. Dive in, and be done in a few days time.

Good luck and happy welding :D

User avatar
AlanMcR
Posts: 7729

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#3 » Mon Feb 09, 2015 8:50 pm

The more likely leak is at the wiper shaft seals.

1) The black plastic wiper seal covers #80 can crack and let water pool up against the shaft. If the water piles up enough it can wick down between the rotating parts. The caps are really cheap at the dealer.

2) The whole mechanism can work loose and let water in between #50 and the body.

The other thing to check is the AC drain holes under the truck. If these plug, then rain entering the fresh air vent can puddle up high enough to spill out on to the floor.
WiperMechanism.jpg
WiperMechanism.jpg (46.06 KiB) Viewed 2277 times

G Nome
Posts: 7766

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#4 » Mon Feb 09, 2015 8:59 pm

Alan,

Where are the AC drain holes?

Thanks.

User avatar
AlanMcR
Posts: 7729

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#5 » Mon Feb 09, 2015 10:05 pm

G Nome wrote:Alan,

Where are the AC drain holes?

Thanks.


It varies a bit between the various eras of G. In general though, lay under the truck looking up in the transmission tunnel nearer to the clutch. The drains I've seen look like a closed tulip bulb with a slit through it. Smooshing around the rubber will usually clear out any crud. Poking around with a zip-tie might help.

For the pre-2001 vehicles with the metal fresh air scoop, you can test the drains by pouring water into the scoop. It should drain pretty freely through the AC drain.

User avatar
vadimivanovich
Posts: 8643

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#6 » Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:35 am

Good call Alan, I forgot about those AC drains. I need to check mine too - from the inside of a W460 they are located under the plastic center console. The hoses are insanely expensive and not very well made so I recommend substituting some silicone hose and a "T". There are two drains and one or two holes.

donaldstroh
Posts: 11

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#7 » Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:27 am

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and thoughts. I put a sprinkler on the roof and taped up the sunroof, the stubby antenna and the wiper mounts and had no leaks, . . . then took off tape at each point every half hour and it ended up being the wiper mounts as Alan suggested. Thanks very much!

wagner
Posts: 20

Re: Help? Water leak causing water pool in driver footwell

Post#8 » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:25 pm

donaldstroh wrote:Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and thoughts. I put a sprinkler on the roof and taped up the sunroof, the stubby antenna and the wiper mounts and had no leaks, . . . then took off tape at each point every half hour and it ended up being the wiper mounts as Alan suggested. Thanks very much!



So the culprit was the wiper mounts? Any tips for a long term solution?

Return to “Tech: Body, Chassis, Trim, Paint, Color Codes”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 143 guests