056er

I live in new mexico where we rarely get heavy rain or any rain at all for that matter, but recently we had a couple of days of hard rain which was fine till i realized i had "the leak" i am out of warranty so i decided to try and tackle this issue myself till i have the funds for someone else to have a more in depth look at it.

The day i realized i had the leak me and my girlfriend were at a get together at one of my friends, i had a few drinks so my girlfriend was going to drive, i got in the passenger side and noticed a puddle, i have rubber floor mats which have a lip making it kind of like a bowl so all the water had collected in there. The actual carpet was wet as well but the mats took most of the damage luckily. As soon as my girlfriend started to take off more water just started pouring out from under the dash, it was like it was coming out of a faucet! luckily i had a bucket in the trunk which i placed under the dash while she drove the rest of the way. While she was driving water would come out only when she made turns, stopped or pressed on the gas, i could also hear water sloshing back in forth behind the dash.

When we got to my house i immediately began drying out the lake from the passenger side. When i finished doing as much as i could i got on here and began looking at other incidents, a lot of people were talking about the grommets and such so i decided to have a look the next day.

I am going to post some steps to help others who might want to do this

Step 1-Remove the cap from the wiper blade arms, they reveal a nut that you need to remove which will allow the arm to come off, once the nut is off the arm should come off with a good pull up, mine came off easily but others might have trouble, a gear puller is what others recommended to get them off.

Step 2-Once the wipers are off you can then take off the little circular pieces which hold the cowl on (see image below). To remove these just push up the little screw till it pops out, you can then take out the whole assembly.



Step 3-Once the circular pieces are removed you can then pull the cowl pieces off, start with driver side, be careful when pulling up on the pieces as to not break any of the pieces holding it on, once both pieces are off it will reveal something like this



Once i got the cowl off i began looking over things and everything seemed normal, but then i took a look into the little pocket where the air filter is located and noticed that there was a bunch of leaves and water in there and began pulling them out. I then looked on the other side where the battery and everything is located to find where the water was supposed to drain, i located the piece that the water drains from and it was CLOGGED! i began pulling stuff from the little piece and all the water just came rushing out. The piece is located to the right of the battery, its a little rubber piece that looks like the one below.



There is one on the driver side as well so make sure to clear that one. When its clear and your looking down into the firewall area it should look like this



This is about a third of what was in that little piece



What was happening was that when it rained enough or for long periods of time the water that was collecting in this area would have no place to drain so it would just fill up until it reached the level of the air filter and began draining there into the car, this is why when my girlfriend was driving the water sloshing back and forth would get high enough to come out and when she was at a complete stop it was to low so it would just sit in there. My air filter was wet and filthy!



I bought a new filter and put everything back together praying this was the only leak i had, it ended up raining the next day and i had no leak so hopefully this is the end of this, i have spent that past few days drying out the car and doing my best to prevent any rust, smell etc. Unfortunately i have a gremlin from the SJB getting wet, my caution flashers have been coming on by themselves so if anyone has any solutions to this problem or input is greatly appreciated.

What pist me off the most is that i believe ford knows this clogging/leaking is a possibility so they put their engineering heads together and came up with the best defense known to water, i give you exhibit A



Ya this will protect the SJB!

Good luck to anyone else who faces this issue and hope this info helps

2005Redfire6

Very good write up, sticky it mods!

incorrigible

Good write up. I check the grommets for debris frequently as my car sits outside. There are two: one on the passenger side by the battery and one on the drivers side also. They can be checked from under the hood.

Hopefully you electrical gremlins will cease when the SJB dries out. If it continues after a week or two, you may want to investigate further. Good luck.

TPony

TSB addressing such issue? I'll sure will take a look a mine now that I see your pic and the TSB. Thanks.

http://www.francescos.de/documents/M...B/08-26-07.pdf

2005Redfire6

I'm pretty sure it was only a problem in the 05-09 but maybe not...

doode

To me, and maybe only me, those 2 grommets serve no function.

Before, after every car wash i would pull them out and at least 2 cups of water would come dumping out

I have since pulled and tossed the grommets and all seems fine for me

NJ3

I thought about doing that to. Maybe they're there to keep critters out.

bloodybobber

I would think they keep out engine bay heat, fumes, and noise. I'm not to keen on them either but at least they are easily acessible from underhood. Ford should have made them a maintaince item or did they? Has anyone referenced this in the owners manual? Catch you later, Bob.

2005Redfire6

I tried cleaning them the other day after seeing this and I took the nut off that holes the wipers on but I couldn't get the wipers off the posts... how?

NJ3

I used a OTC 4676. Available at most auto parts stores.
==>http://www.tooldiscounter.com/ItemDi...gle&kw=OTC4676