Water Leak - Stumped in Cincy

[Tobias76]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm the second owner of a 2013 LC200. Picked it up in October 2024 with 102k miles on it. Spent it's first 5-6 years in Columbus, OH, then went to what I suspect was summer home duty in Hilton Head, SC where (if I can trust Toyota VIN-based records) it only had about 7k miles on it in 4+ years. I put another 15k on it this year and it's my soulmate. If anyone knows what I mean, it's this crowd - I love this thing.

I park it in my driveway, nose down, in a typical residential neigborhood. Probably 1-2 feet of slope from house to street. The first week of October, we had 3-4 inches of rain overnight. I went to lunch the next day and noticed that there was water on top of the rubber mat on the passenger side. Checked my sunroof to be sure it was all the way closed, made sure I hadn't forgotten that I opened the passenger side door, etc. Everything was closed up. Got it home and started looking around. Water along both sides of the interior carpet. Headed over to Ih8mud, figured out that there are a few typical culprets:

• Clogged A/C drain
• clogged sunroof drains
• cowl seals are bad and water gets into the cabin air intake

I tried running it in the driveway with the A/C running and I wasn't getting a lot of water on the pavement like I would expect, but I couldn't get to the A/C drain. Inside, I pulled back a few panels and found that the panel under the glove box that runs parallel to the floor, had wet insulation on the left end of it. Like I could squish water out of it so I figured it was closer to the cowl. Got an appt scheduled at the dealer and they basically cleaned out the A/C the sunroof drains. Fast forward 3 weeks and it happened again last Wednesday night. Long day of heavy rain. Drove it all day in the rain and as I was waiting on a kid to get done at an activity around 8:00pm, I thought i'd take a look and the floor carpet was wet again. Got it home and managed to catch video of water dripping off a metal piece next to the cabin air intake (attached). Showed it to dealer and they're going to take it again this week, but they're asking me if I can reproduce the issue. I've tried to use the hose for 30 minutes running off the top of the windshield down into various sections of the cowl, over the sunroof, not over the sunroof, etc. and I can't reproduce it - but I know it happens when it rains hard for hours. The padding on the panel gets wet, I get water on the cabin air filter and the inner part of the carpet gets wet.

Super long explanation for a short question: has anyone with these infamous passenger floor water leaks been able to reliably replicate the behavior? Any tips and tricks to make it happen on demand so i don't just have to wait for a rain storm? The dealer seems a little stumped and when I look here and other forums it seems to be a pretty common problem.

Appreciate all the wisdom on these forums. I've saved myself a lot of time and heartache.

 

[bloc]

This is the plastic cover over the cowl leaking water into the fresh air intake under the passenger side of that cover. Well-documented in this forum section. Whether the nose of the vehicle is pointed up or down seems to have an impact on the behavior.

There are a few fixes for it, some home-brew, some involving springing for a new cowl cover.. though that big chunk of plastic isn't cheap.

Here's one thread to get you started

Thread 'Water in Passenger Footwell'

May 4, 2022

It is raining here, not a huge storm or anything, just a regular rain. I went out to pick my son up and found a puddle in the footwell. I usually park in the garage so have never noticed this (my bay is filled with camping gear that I need to put away). I tried to see where it is coming from and didn't have any luck. I tried to search, but don't have the right terms. Can anyone share typical sources that I can run down? I seem to recall the windshield cowl being one point of entry...

• CharlieS
• Replies: 100
• Forum: 200-Series Cruisers

 

[Tobias76]

This is the plastic cover over the cowl leaking water into the fresh air intake under the passenger side of that cover. Well-documented in this forum section. Whether the nose of the vehicle is pointed up or down seems to have an impact on the behavior.

There are a few fixes for it, some home-brew, some involving springing for a new cowl cover.. though that big chunk of plastic isn't cheap.

Here's one thread to get you started

Thread 'Water in Passenger Footwell'

May 4, 2022

It is raining here, not a huge storm or anything, just a regular rain. I went out to pick my son up and found a puddle in the footwell. I usually park in the garage so have never noticed this (my bay is filled with camping gear that I need to put away). I tried to see where it is coming from and didn't have any luck. I tried to search, but don't have the right terms. Can anyone share typical sources that I can run down? I seem to recall the windshield cowl being one point of entry...

• CharlieS
• Replies: 100
• Forum: 200-Series Cruisers

Thx for replying so quickly. I agree that it's probably the cowl, but i'm trying to figure out if anyone knows how to reproduce it on demand. For example, are there places in the cowl to run a hose over that make it more likely to leak than others? I'm trying to reproduce it so we can be sure that if/when we replace the cowl, we can be confident that it's fixed. I don't want to just wait for the next rainstorm and cross my fingers.

Also forgot to mention - I can't guarantee that it's the original windshield, but it is Toyota glass. I know that's been the source of a number of seal issues.

 

[stonepa]

The good thing is it is difficult to reproduce on demand because it just doesn't happen much. Maybe put a garden hose on the roof and run a steady stream of water down the windshield. I had a Land Rover with these kinds of issues during very heavy rain events and just decided to live with it and move on. It was rare enough that it wasn't worth my time.

 

[Tobias76]

Ran the garden hose last weekend - no luck. Started low (right over the cowl) and moved up every 15-20 minutes to mid windshield and then over the sunroof and down - again, no luck. I think it's just not generating the volume of water caused by driving or sitting in heavy rain. It's a daily driver and there's at least 1 (maybe 2) huge wiring harnesses coming through the firewall right next to it so I don't feel good about ignoring it. Gonna pull the trigger and get the cowl replaced based on some other threads I found since last week.