Sloshing sound in 97 Series 80 Drivers side sill

[South Texas 97]

Driving during some heavy rain over the last few days, kept hearing a sloshing sound as I pulled to a stop or accelerated from a stop ( if you can call it accelerate). Thought perhaps the doors as the window seals are not good. Checked the drain holes and all doors dry as a bone. It was the drivers side sill pulled the rubber plugs on the bottom of the sill and about a quart of clear water ran out.
Any ideas as to where it comes in from?

 

[baldilocks]

Probably draining down from the sunroof tray. Clear the small, built in drain slits in the rockers. Look up and toward the forward end of the rocker.

 

[South Texas 97]

Will do, and report back tomorrow, thanks

 

[77mustard40]

Had the slosh on the PS a couple years ago, had the clear the sunroof drains with weed eater wire from the roof and from the slits baldilocks mentioned

 

[Malleus]

Driving during some heavy rain over the last few days, kept hearing a sloshing sound as I pulled to a stop or accelerated from a stop ( if you can call it accelerate). Thought perhaps the doors as the window seals are not good. Checked the drain holes and all doors dry as a bone. It was the drivers side sill pulled the rubber plugs on the bottom of the sill and about a quart of clear water ran out.
Any ideas as to where it comes in from?View attachment 3449852View attachment 3449854

It's absolutely coming front sunroof drains; that's where they drain in to. Make sure the pinch weld drains are clear. If they're not, you have to remove the plugs to drain the rockers. You can use a zip tie to clean them.

I'd recommend taking both sets of rocker pugs out for a couple of days, or a week, to allow the rockers (both of them) to dry out.

 

[greentruck]

I'd recommend taking both sets of rocker pugs out for a couple of days, or a week, to allow the rockers (both of them) to dry out.

I was going to say that you may only be hearing the driver's side because you're close to it. The passenger side could very well be sloshing some, too, so definitely worth checking it.

My favorite tool for this is a light stainless steel cable like that used on garage door lifts. Works great on the front drains from the top down, but is stiff enough to work from the bottom up on the rear drains, which vent out directly just aft of the rear axle after going down through the C pillar IIRC.

 

[Malleus]

IME, the rear drains don't clog, unless you routinely park nose up, because the rear nipples on the pan are higher than the fronts. Having said that, it has bee observed that the rear tubing was pinched during installation on the assembly line, near the rear grab handle, where it turns down. I haven't see it on any of mine, but something to look in to anyway.

I have had less luck "clearing" the drain tubes with a wire/fishing line/weed eater line/etc, than I originally thought, when I removed my OEM tubes and replaced them with OEM rears. They were filthy. The only way I found to clean those tubes is to remove them and soak them, completely, in warm soapy water, and then run a bottle brush through them. Not exactly something you can do with them in the truck.

I can't stress enough how important, for the life of the rockers, it is to extend the front drains through the floor. It also helps the sunroof pan drain action measurably.

 

[Dissent]

Driving during some heavy rain over the last few days, kept hearing a sloshing sound as I pulled to a stop or accelerated from a stop ( if you can call it accelerate). Thought perhaps the doors as the window seals are not good. Checked the drain holes and all doors dry as a bone. It was the drivers side sill pulled the rubber plugs on the bottom of the sill and about a quart of clear water ran out.
Any ideas as to where it comes in from?View attachment 3449852View attachment 3449854

What is the 2nd pic a pic of??

 

[Kernal]

@Malleus : I remember the photos showing the front sunroof drain tubes stuck into the floorpan hole (after removing the rubber plug), what I don't recall is if the kickpanel goes back in place without difficulty? Hose not pinched or put into a kink when pulling it out from it's usual location?

So I (we) don't have to reinvent the wheel; was any specific grommet used to seal the floor (hole) or just something like Butyl rubber tape stuffed in the hole around the drain hose??

FWIW I've used 3M Window-Weld Ribbon Sealer 1/8" # 08625 (butyl rubber) to reseal things like the taillight pockets (original sealant appears to be a similar product). It works well IME.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/dc/v000192146/

I've considered doing this mod (maybe we all should have done it 20 years ago??).

 

[Malleus]

You only have to remove one (I removed the forward one) of the body panel screws in the lower rear fender edge. If you look under the fender, behind the wheel, you'll see them, they're obvious. There are two weldnuts on the inner face of the inner fender; one of those must be drilled out to accept the drain tubing.

The OEM short front tubing sits directly above the front body bolt. I just extended it straight down.

The replacement tubing goes into the pocket, just as the OEM short front tubing did, and out the new hole you created. I didn't seal mine; thanks to Toyota, that pocket has been filled with water every time the truck gets wet, for 28 years. I didn't think it much mattered; it's painted and it drains to the outside, just like the rocker panel pinch weld drains do. It just doesn't drain into the rocker panel anymore.

I tried for an hour to pull the tubing up into the A-pillar. I gave up and pulled it down it 5 minutes. I used a plug in the OEM short front tubing, drilled and threaded with a string, about 5-feet long. I threaded a plug on the opposite end, put that into the replacement rear tubing I installed, and used that to pull the tubing down. Some genius put a sheetmetal trap, angled down, behind the grab bar. You can't push the tubing past it; it has to be pulled. That trap is what I couldn't get the tubing past, when I tried to push it up into the A-pillar.

 

[South Texas 97]

What is the 2nd pic a pic of??

It’s a view of the drivers side step, and the space between where you can see the vent.

 

[thatcabledude]

Leave those rubber plugs in the rocker pulled out is my advice.

 

[South Texas 97]

Flushed some water from the sunroof and it did dribble out the sill, although slowly. I found the vents on the bottom of the sill and used some soft wire to poke around. A bit of dirt came out. So I pulled a small rubber plug on the underside of the sill, removed the plugs and used a garden hose to rinse out the sill. Some dirt came out, and water flowed much better. replaced all the plugs after squirting some fluid film around inside the sill. Thanks for all the feedback. The sill has three of these vents along it’s length.

 

[Malleus]

Flushed some water from the sunroof and it did dribble out the sill, although slowly. I found the vents on the bottom of the sill and used some soft wire to poke around. A bit of dirt came out. So I pulled a small rubber plug on the underside of the sill, removed the plugs and used a garden hose to rinse out the sill. Some dirt came out, and water flowed much better. replaced all the plugs after squirting some fluid film around inside the sill. Thanks for all the feedback. The sill has three of these vents along it’s length.View attachment 3452508

The water should not dribble out, it should run out. If it doesn't, the rocker drains are plugged. Whatever you do, don't put those plugs back in for at least a week, even if the drains are clear. Do not use any metal to clean those drains; you'll scrape more paint off than is already missing. Use a zip tie.

FWIW, mine were out for a year until I rerouted the front drains.

 

[South Texas 97]

Got it. I used a plastic covered wire so it should be ok. Plugs out and will blow some air into the sill. Pax side is good, water flows freely.

 

[Kernal]

FWIW removed the front and rear inner-facing rubber plugs and cleaned out the rocker panel cavities with car wash soap, then rinsed with water and let them dry.

IMO there appears to have been a very thin layer of some type of cavity wax (anti-corrosion) sprayed into the doors, inner body panels, rocker panels, tail-gate, etc when these vehicles were original manufactured. If you look (or take photos and feel) closely some internal areas that have never been touched you'll find traces of that wax IME.

I've posted this up before but for those who don't know about this product, I use 3M Cavity Wax for rust-proofing inside body cavities. Same stuff body shops use on new vehicles to put them back to manufacturers specs.

Once the body cavity is fully dried out (I've sometimes poured in 91% isopropyl alcohol to speed up the process) I then spray in the Cavity wax being careful not to plug any of the slit drains. The wand kit works well.

Scroll down and watch the video in this link:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/collision-repair-us/featured-products/cavity-wax-plus/

Application tips: the video shows the area being flooded with spray. I've found if you apply too much product at the same time it may slump and leave a bare area on a vertical surface.

So what I've done is spray it maybe twice withdrawing the wand quickly then let the solvent flash off overnight, then go back the next day and repeat that process. I've also noticed that the wand tip does not spray equally 360' as it appears in the video so IMO it helps to rotate the wand a few degrees (ballpark 20-40) between applications so you get more even coverage with multiple light coats.

I'll do a test spray in the air before I start to check out the spray pattern. If the nozzle appears clogged it can be cleaned with something like TCE (Trichloroethyene) brake cleaner.

After spraying I go back with plastic zip ties to make sure I haven't blocked any slit drains.

There are also drain holes located at the bottom of the doors, easy to see, but there are a few slit drains in the bottom of the quarter panel cavities that are about impossible to see without a bright light and taking some photos.

FWIW one method I use to find those drains, often plugged with dirt, is to pour Isopropyl alcohol into the cavity then get under the vehicle and look for where it's wet or dripping. If extremely dirty it takes some patience to find the drains as some of them are just very small open spaces between body panels. Different size plastic zip ties can be used to help open up any plugged drain holes/slits. If anyone's curious, the reason I use the rubbing alcohol is so if it gets trapped anywhere it will just evaporate.

FWIW

 

[Malleus]

You are correct:

This is from the collision repair manual. It's in the 80 series Resources section.

 

[Kernal]

Thanks for that reference, looks like it's recently been added to the Resource Section.

FSM - 80 series body repair manual (BR050)

Comprehensive body repair manual, 80 series, all years 76 pages, 7.0MB

forum.ih8mud.com

Here's another page from the Body Repair Manual for future searches:

 

[callmeDW]

Just chiming in a HUGE thank you! This was driving me bonkers and was thinking it was the gas tank - and chased some stray rabbits until a different search led me here. YES - all day, I found a multi-gallon supply of fresh drinking water in my driver side panels.

Sadly, the slits were impossible for me to find / flush out even with a very thin metal zip tie - I'm impatient, so I drilled a tiny hole (as the rubber grommet relieving gallons of water was still a good 1.5" above the sill line).

For anybody dealing with the sloshing sound of some liquid gurgling / sloshing at every stop sign or change in hill ascent / descent - and new to the LC ownership scene... I pray you find this thread!

 

[South Texas 97]

@callmeDW glad it was useful for you.

Sometimes the search on the forum itself is not that responsive, use your favorite search engine and it will usually bring up some Mud results near the top. I believe you can also add a ":Ih8mud" or similar to your search and it will specifically look at Mud. (check the formatting of your favorite search engine on how to include specific sites)