Hoping someone can give some guidance. I have a 2000 cruiser and I have been getting a great deal of water on both front floors when it rains. I removed the black louvered cowl trim and stuck the garden hose in there and confirmed the leak right away. By doingthis below the windshield I ruled out rust in the windshield pillars and any windshield issues. We then (working from inside the truck, pulled back the black firewall pad an stuck a boroscope (camera on a long skinny bendable wire) up into the corner where the water comes from. We found a rust hole in the corner of the firewall/cowl area. You can't see it from under the dash with your eyes because it is up so far. The only acess looks like having to pull the dash out ofthe truck. The cowl itself offers no acess to that corner an pulling the inner fender liner offers no acess. It appears driver and passenger corners are rotted because of leaking in the same spots. (the rust appears to be a few inches wide by maybe 1/2 inch tall.), has anyone been through this before? I am thinking of selling it and getting something newer but I don't really want to sell it to someone like this (of course I will disclose this issue). The rest of the truck is 100 percent in the mechanical end of things but now this combined with the hatch rust and a lower fender extension rot out (right front) has me rethinking the long term ownership of this truck. I hate to get rid of it and could live with the other rust but I can't ignore the cowl/firewall rust. Someone offer some info please!!!
SOMEBODY HELP, COWL IS RUSTED! WATER POURING IN TO FLOORS!
- Thread starter TTO5
- Start date
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Ouch, sounds like a lot of work to get that fixed. Where was the truck originally? I would say that your best bet is to fix it. I would think an issue like that would absolutely hammer the value of the vehicle. Once fixed, you should be able to get the going amount for your market. That is a tough call...and tough luck. Do you have the Toyota full service manuals? I would think it would be doable by a single person...
This is why I Krown my truck. Ugh. Can you get some body filler in there? Depending on how much you love the truck, you could pull the dash completely out and fix this and maybe fix any other spots that you find while you're back there. Three or four days of drama for many years of enjoyment??
- Thread starter
- #5
ok, so after some more investigation it turns out the cowl is not rusted (at least as far as I can tell) I pulled the passenger side fender liner back and look what I found. The other side of this hole empties into the kick panel and right down the corner onto my floor. I am going to patch it with some metal and some sealant. I still don't know why I saw water on the driver's side. I pulled back the liner on that side and everything looked fine. oh well,one thing at a time, I will patch the hole and then monitor both sides again. This think may just make it to 300k after all without shedding all of its metal. Thanks, happy wrenching.
