Need help figuring out a water leak issue (1 Viewer)

[CharltonWard]

I have searched, but have not seen any threads pertaining to this specifically.
I've always wanted a 100 series, after searching for quite some time I located one a few hours away, and picked it up. It had 225k miles, with really clean interior. I have gradually been fixing issues I continue to find in hopes of making it a bit nicer..
There are 2 Leaking issues I need some help diagnosing.
When it rains, the edges of the carpet at the bottom of all 4 doors gets pretty damp. Is this a door seal issue? Is it possibly that all 4 of my seals are bad? That all seem to be in place, and tight to the doors. Mine do not have any adhesive holding them in place, only plastic grommets (or pegs?) spaced out every so often that all seem to be in place. None of the seals look dry rotted or faulty from what I can tell.
The other issue is rear hatch is leaking. This was the first leak I noticed. I got on ih8mud and did some research. I purchased butyl tape, and resealed the 3rd brake light, but the issue still persists. I even took duck tape, went all the way around all of the edges of the 3 brake light one day when we were expecting rain, only to find the edges of the rear carpet soaked again. Could this also be a seal issue, or are there other areas that water can leak in besides the 3rd brake light? The rear washer nozzle? Roof rack mounting points?

I have spent quite a bit of money in repairs over these past few months, and noisey axles are about to hit me for another chunk of money that I can't really afford. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

If the leak is that prevalent on all doors, I'd sit inside while someone hits the truck with a hose and see where it's coming from.

 

[CharltonWard]

I will have to do that tomorrow when I have help.
I just got done checking the sunroof drains. They are clear. I pulled the kick panels on both driver and passenger side and noticed neither of the hoses run completely out of the vehicle, rather dumping into the cavity towards the rear of the fender. Is this normal? What does the vent look like up under the vehicle? Maybe that opening is clogged?

 

[2001LC]

Pictures and list mod, is helpful.

If OEM roof rack removed or replaced. We very often get leaks, at mounting bolts.
Third brake light, is common leak.
Also note any rust holes.
Open holes around perimeter of hatch, seen when open. We seen where some of the rubber plugs, like that for wires or washer hose, missing.
Windshield replace often results in leaks, info front foot wells.
Door seals, aren't much of issue. Provided good condition, keep clean and doors aligned.

 

[CharltonWard]

Pictures and list mod, is helpful.

If OEM roof rack removed or replaced. We very often get leaks, at mounting bolts.
Third brake light, is common leak.
Also note any rust holes.
Open holes around perimeter of hatch, seen when open. We seen where some of the rubber plugs, like that for wires or washer hose, missing.
Windshield replace often results in leaks, info front foot wells.
Door seals, aren't much of issue. Provided good condition, keep clean and doors aligned.

Not really modified besides a 2" lift in the rear (30mm spacers from slee installed by PO) torsion bars turned up in the front on 18" tundra wheels wrapped in 33s. The side step running boards have also been removed. I will take some pictures in just a moment as I am about to reseal the 3rd brake light again, just in case my 1st attempt was poorly done.
A couple of my plastic covers that fo over the mounting points of the roof rack are cracked/broken though. I'll get pics of those also. There are no signs of water stains on the headliner though.

I do know that the windshield has been replaced, and was supposedly done correctly with rivets instead of screws. The weatherstrip molding on the edges does look a little stiff and distressed though.

 

[CharltonWard]

The carpet it wet around the edges of the door, notice the carpet is darker/discolored and the underside of the floormat is wet.

Notice the door seals have small gaps, but all are still soft and not dry rotted. Some seem to be slightly squished flat though.

 

[CharltonWard]

Door alignment drivers side (above)
Door alignment passenger side (below)

Rear hatch rubber for wiring

 

[2001LC]

A couple of my plastic covers that fo over the mounting points of the roof rack are cracked/broken though. I'll get pics of those also.

?

 

[CharltonWard]

?

Several of the plastic mounting points covers are cracked/broken and secured with tape (didn't notice this issue until after I purchased the vehicle) the one pictured above doesn't go as far down as it should and there is a clear gap.

Is this gap where the arrow is pointing normal? The black seal doesn't meet the weather strip

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Do you park on level ground or an incline?
If on an incline it could be a leaky windshield dripping into the channel by the door sills.
The rear cargo leak needs to be determined if dripping through the hatch or from the body/roof.

Does your LC have the factory SAT radio antenna run under the hatch seal? If so, that could be a source of water intrusion. I had this in mine. The lazy port workers ran it this way verses down the hatch channel and up through the dedicated grommet for it. Just pull and run it the correct way.

I'd start by pulling the rack trim and clean out the channels. There will be a lot of debris in there.

Pull all the bolts and reseal the wafers. Some may break. You can use Hillman brand nylon and fender washers from Lowes to replace the broken ones. I had the rear most bolt missing and water would pool in the channel due to debris blocking it from draining. The water would drip down through the bolt hole.

Use green low strength thread sealant on the bolt threads.

Gumi Pflege on the rubber door, hatch and sunroof seals can rejuvenate them and add some life to them, helping them seal better.

The German car nuts use this stuff. After using on my 1987 FJ60 I can see why. It really brings the rubber back to life.
Make sure to clean the door and body where the seals make contact.
It worked well on my LX470 too. After a few treatments there is a lot less wind noise when driving on the highway.

 

[CharltonWard]

Do you park on level ground or an incline?
If on an incline it could be a leaky windshield dripping into the channel by the door sills.
The rear cargo leak needs to be determined if dripping through the hatch or from the body/roof.

Does your LC have the factory SAT radio antenna run under the hatch seal? If so, that could be a source of water intrusion. I had this in mine. The lazy port workers ran it this way verses down the hatch channel and up through the dedicated grommet for it. Just pull and run it the correct way.

I'd start by pulling the rack trim and clean out the channels. There will be a lot of debris in there.

Pull all the bolts and reseal the wafers. Some may break. You can use Hillman brand nylon and fender washers from Lowes to replace the broken ones. I had the rear most bolt missing and water would pool in the channel due to debris blocking it from draining. The water would drip down through the bolt hole.View attachment 3522350
View attachment 3522348View attachment 3522347View attachment 3522349

Use green low strength thread sealant on the bolt threads.

Gumi Pflege on the rubber door, hatch and sunroof seals can rejuvenate them and add some life to them, helping them seal better.

The German car nuts use this stuff. After using on my 1987 FJ60 I can see why. It really brings the rubber back to life.
Make sure to clean the door and body where the seals make contact.
It worked well on my LX470 too. After a few treatments there is a lot less wind noise when driving on the highway.
View attachment 3522363

What is the best method to clean out those tracks? Can I pull the black covers out, or is that a bad idea?

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

The channel covers snap in but you need to unbolt the rack feet to get them out. The channel covers are held in by these clips.
Just gently pry up on the covers with some plastic pry tools.
Those points on the clips press into the bottom of the cover. If you gently press on those then pry up it will unsnap.

 

[CharltonWard]

The channel covers snap in but you need to unbolt the rack feet to get them out. The channel covers are held in by these clips.
Just gently pry up on the covers with some plastic pry tools.
Those points on the clips press into the bottom of the cover. If you gently press on those then pry up it will unsnap.
View attachment 3522735View attachment 3522733View attachment 3522734

Awesome. Thank you for the insight.
Is there anyway to seal up the edges of the windshield? I feel confident it is leaking to some degree.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

The a-pillar trim that goes around the window is riveted on from the factory but if your windshield has been replaced it's likely that they used sheet metal screws instead of rivets.

There is a rubber trim strip that you can slide out to see if you have screws. If so you can remove the trim pieces and have a look under neath. It's possible that a screw or two is missing and that could also be a water intrusion point.

As far as sealing around the window, I am not sure about that one. Older 80 and 60 series have a rubber lip on the windshield gasket that you can run a bead of urethane sealer under and that sometimes works. Not sure about the 100 though. Luckily I didn't have any windshield leaks so I never looked into sealing around the windshield.
There are a lot of of water leak threads and most of them don't have an ending so it's hard to piecemeal all of the info together.

These trucks are old and if they haven't been well taken care of there is likely several water entry points.

I had many; the SAT radio antenna under the rear hatch, the 3rd brake light panel on the hatch, a missing bolt on the back left roof rack mount, several roof rack bolts that were seeping water, a screw missing in the a-pillar windshield trim and a cracked seam sealer in the roof rack channel.

Hopefully you don't have all those but

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

You need to follow @trunkmonkey's advice and get in there with someone spraying a hose to see where the water is coming in.
Once you find an area of interest you could soak some yellow highlighters in a jug of water, pour in that area and use a backlight to see exactly where it is coming in from.
You'll need to carpet clean the carpet anyway after you fix the leak(s) so a grocery rented Rug Doctor with some OxiClean carpet cleaner will clean it all up.

 

[shouldibuyit]

I have searched, but have not seen any threads pertaining to this specifically.
I've always wanted a 100 series, after searching for quite some time I located one a few hours away, and picked it up. It had 225k miles, with really clean interior. I have gradually been fixing issues I continue to find in hopes of making it a bit nicer..
There are 2 Leaking issues I need some help diagnosing.
When it rains, the edges of the carpet at the bottom of all 4 doors gets pretty damp. Is this a door seal issue? Is it possibly that all 4 of my seals are bad? That all seem to be in place, and tight to the doors. Mine do not have any adhesive holding them in place, only plastic grommets (or pegs?) spaced out every so often that all seem to be in place. None of the seals look dry rotted or faulty from what I can tell.
The other issue is rear hatch is leaking. This was the first leak I noticed. I got on ih8mud and did some research. I purchased butyl tape, and resealed the 3rd brake light, but the issue still persists. I even took duck tape, went all the way around all of the edges of the 3 brake light one day when we were expecting rain, only to find the edges of the rear carpet soaked again. Could this also be a seal issue, or are there other areas that water can leak in besides the 3rd brake light? The rear washer nozzle? Roof rack mounting points?

I have spent quite a bit of money in repairs over these past few months, and noisey axles are about to hit me for another chunk of money that I can't really afford. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I see you have 6 mounting locations for your roof rack (some have 4). Those center mounting locations are bad about the bolt rusting out (ive seen a thread or two here about that) and probably getting some water intrusion there. I bought a cruiser a couple of months ago that sat in someones yard for years and I have those same spots on my carpet. When I removed my roof rack the bolts in the center mounting spots were pretty much disintegrated.

 

[shouldibuyit]

Factory roof rack removal

pictures are in no particular order. i was able to take the rails off with a torx t40. i thought it was a t35 for a second, but it was a t40. was really very easy. hardest part was lifting off the covers to get to the bolts. my bolts were not rusted or nasty at all. i bought new bolts from ace...

forum.ih8mud.com

Page 10 of this thread talks about that center mounting location for the roof rack.

 

[CharltonWard]

I’ve seen a thread or two about

I see you have 6 mounting locations for your roof rack (some have 4). Those center mounting locations are bad about the bolt rusting out (ive seen a thread or two here about that) and probably getting some water intrusion there. I bought a cruiser a couple of months ago that sat in someones yard for years and I have those same spots on my carpet. When I removed my roof rack the bolts in the center mounting spots were pretty much disintegrated.

I actually just sealed all of them up today (hopefully) one of mine was completely rusted out. I ended up sealing that one up completely. I only had silicone and butyl tape to work with, so I might have to redo them.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

You need to replace the rusted out bolt with a new bolt or it will likely leak again.

Also, check you tail gate with a straight edge. If it's bowed down from too much weight on it, the upper hatch won't seal tight and let water in.
You can put a solid bar on top of it and use c-clamps to straighten it back up if it's bent.

There is a thread in the 80 series section about bowed tailgates for reference.

 

[dace voit]

Check the sunroof drains in addition to the roof rack.