Help! - Damp Passenger Floorboard (1 Viewer)

[Will Van]

My passenger side front floorboard seems constantly damp. When I washed the truck last week, I realized the sunroof is leaking (drains probably need to be cleaned). But the truck has been in the garage over the weekend. It hasn't seen any more exterior moisture since Friday.

Does the A/C condensation line drain near the front PS floorboard? Maybe a leaking heater valve line (although, it doesn't smell like radiator fluid)? Anybody else experienced this before?

Also, the carpet itself looks like it has been previously damp for a long time. You can see the texture of the floorboards projecting through the carpet.

I got the carpet pretty wet last week using carpet cleaner soap, but I think that would have dried by now.

Any ideas?

 

[Jgrauman]

interior will take a long time to dry out in a closed car. over the weekend is not long enough for wet carpet to dry itself out with no help

 

[jfz80]

LOTS of posts on wet floorboards to peruse
I would inspect in this order

sunroof drains
windshield gasket
A/C condensate drain that 'should' protrude through firewall into engine bay but sometimes gets shoved out of place
sunroof front corner trim piece

 

[slow95z]

could also be heater core. does it smell like coolant? i just did one in my 93 and it was possibly the worst thing i have ever had to do on a cruiser. worse than axle swaps, worse than engine install... just terrible to do with the early dash

 

[Malleus]

You definitely have a sunroof leak. You may also have another somewhere else.

In my experience, the drain hoses rarely become clogged. What does happen is that the rocker panel drains get clogged, and the air pressure builds up in the drain hose when the pan is full of water. The first step is to verify that your pinch drains are clear.

Then move to the hose. Check your pan (you'll need to remove the wind deflector; it's a couple of screws) and make sure it's very clean. If it's not, help yourself out.

Pull the first three (from the front) rocker panel plugs.

These plugs are below the pinch drains.

If there's water in there, it'll drain out. You may also need to remove one or two large plugs, to allow air to escape.

I've removed my running board, to make access easier for me.

The system is designed to exclude dust and allow water intrusion. It has two primary components: the sunroof seal and the drains. The sunroof seal is not removable (unlike the 100 and 200 series; Mr. T did learn something) and requires a couple of parts which aren't obvious.

The strips are wedges which are inserted into grooves in the corners of the sunroof seal. The other parts are mounted in the pan and serve to deflect water into the drains. If all these parts aren't in good order, the system fails and the sunroof leaks.

The rear drains, which are used only when the front if the truck is pitched upwards, discharge through the inner fender, behind the wheels. The front drains discharge into the pocket, behind the kickpanel trim. From there, once the pocket, or well, fills up sufficiently to escape, the water flows into the rocker panel. If the system works properly, the water then discharges through the pinch drains. When it doesn't the wells fill and discharge onto the floorboard.

The long term solution is to remove one of the two outer fender body screws and enlarge that hole. (You could argue that two screws are necessary, but this is the only corner with two screws) The choice was made for me. When I attempted to remove that screw, the weldnut (on the reverse side) broke free, due to corrosion resulting from lack of adequate drainage over time.

Replace the existing front drain hose with a rear hose (the front one is too short for this fix), and route it through the new hole, using the grommet for the rear hose. This is the rear drain design. This way the water has safe exit and will never fail to drain. It also ensures your rocker panels won't rust out.

I'm close to completing this project and will post the results soon.

 

[Malleus]

This is what your heating system looks like:

The heater core is on the right side of the white box. If it leaks, it'll leak coolant onto the passenger floorboard. It may leak onto the driver's side, but the primary mess will be on the right.

 

[gummycarbs]

I've noticed that my sunroof doesn't seal as well after using the tilt function as it does after opening it normally.

If I were you, I'd pull the front carpet. That passenger side jute has to be rotten, and might be contributing to rust.

 

[amgraham]

Search.. There's a ton of info here on wet floorboards. From your pics it looks like you definitely have a sunroof drain issue. Don't blow through them with compressed air.. Use a wire or weedeater string and run it from top to bottom in the front drains then test by pouring a bottle of water down them to make sure they flow.

FWIW mine had clogged sunroof drains and soaked carpets when I bought it and it took a couple weeks of it sitting inside with all the windows open before the carpet felt fully dry. Run a fan inside to help circulate air and dry it out.

 

[txgringo]

I'd start with the sunroof drains as mentioned above. You can also take a large zip tie and check the slits under the vehicle where the drain lines dump out to ensure they aren't clogged. They were clogged enough on mine that it was causing my fenders to "back up" with water and then running over into the cab.

 

[LINUS]

Once you fix your sunroof drains , tent up the carpet with whatever scrap wood you have & run a small space heater (be cautious). 18-24hrs will dry it.

The horsehair / jut pad holds water like a sponge, and you prob never pulled your body drain plug by the door jamb / A pillar.

If you really want it bone dry to isolate out the problem & make sure you fix it, tenting the carpet up & space heater is the fix.

 

[Warpigg]

I had wet carpet on my driver's side and found that the wire harness under the kick pannel was putting a crease in the sun roof drain tube and somehow caused it to leak inside. Not sure what's under the passenger side kick pannel but could happen there to. People that have had there drain tubes clog must have some pretty substantial debris in them... Those hoses are a pretty big diameter compared to the acuact drain hole in the sun roof pan.

 

[Malleus]

I had wet carpet on my driver's side and found that the wire harness under the kick pannel was putting a crease in the sun roof drain tube and somehow caused it to leak inside. Not sure what's under the passenger side kick pannel but could happen there to. People that have had there drain tubes clog must have some pretty substantial debris in them... Those hoses are a pretty big diameter compared to the acuact drain hole in the sun roof pan.

Indeed. This was part of the design. It's intended to ensure that entrapped air has room to escape upwards as the water flows down the side of the drain tube. Unfortunately, the drain well design negates all that other good design. Mr. T should have used the same design as was used in the rear drains. It almost seems two different design teams worked on this. It is, without a doubt, the worst design flaw on this truck. One of two, the other, IMHO, is that ridiculous fuel filter placement. Look at the 100 series if you want to be really PO'd.

 

[Will Van]

Thanks for all of the help!

I'll start with the sunroof, because I know it's leaking already. Also, the truck has an aftermarket windshield, so that might be it too.

Luckily, it doesn't smell like coolant, so I don't think it's the heater core.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

Just dealt with a similar issue.

My sun roof drains were clogged
one rear drain was disconnected
the AC condenser tube was routed to drain under the carpet
and the lower right corner of the windshield has a slow leak

So I'd advise to keep checking if find one source of water ingress!

I still don't have this thing dried out, but I also haven't fixed the windshield. That being said damp and moldy are ways of life up here...unfortunately. A weekend with a box fan helped, but I'll take Linus' advice with a small space heater for the next go round.

 

[Malleus]

If you have an aftermarket windshield, you likely also have an aftermarket seal. These are known to fail. Even OEM glass and seal will fail if they're not installed correctly (as per the FSM).

 

[Proven]

I had to use marine sealant to seal my windshield up after it started leaking. so far so good since.

Having use this sealant in the past for bonding outboard motors to transoms...It bonds very tight.

 

[Rifleman]

Even OEM glass and seal will fail if they're not installed correctly (as per the FSM).

This is so important, the factory manual calls out a sealant to be used along with a new rubber gasket. Many aftermarket installers skip using the sealant, and just install the window "dry" in the gasket. Installing the window this way can lead to leaks, along with the possibilty of traping water around your window frame, leading to rust problems.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

This is so important, the factory manual calls out a sealant to be used along with a new rubber gasket. Many aftermarket installers skip using the sealant, and just install the window "dry" in the gasket. Installing the window this way can lead to leaks, along with the possibilty of traping water around your window frame, leading to rust problems.

Look like the window instal will be moving up the list. The prospect of a rusting window frame is absolutely horrifying!

 

[Warpigg]

I dealt with a both front and rear rusted leaking window frames on a 83 Celica I have. the rear window wasnt bad because of the simplistic angles and such that it had but the front window was far worse angle wise and rust wise. The slightly slopped and rounded curve of the valley where the glass sits and the lip the seal hooks into is very hard to recreate. That's actually the reason I gave up on that car. So if your front glass leaks, fix it before it's a problem cus I don't wish that rust repair job upon anyone...

 

[Malleus]

Look like the window instal will be moving up the list. The prospect of a rusting window frame is absolutely horrifying!

From what I've seen so far, the majority of the damage is to the ends of the strut that braces the two sides of the lower A-frame. And the cowl harness.