I have a 1993 Dakota Sport extended cab 5.2 litre 2WD.

In heavy rain, water pools in the footwells on the driver and passenger side:

PICTURE 1

The floor mats are dry but the carpet is soaked

It's coming in from the cab strips above the extended cab windows as described by this existing thread:
https://dodgeforum.com
/forum/2306726-post3.html

I found this out by covering first the front then the second half of the cab with a polythene sheet as in this picture:

PICTURE 2

When I covered the front of the cab, the windshield and the cowl, the water pools as demonstrated by the first picture.
When I cover the rear of the cab, there's no water ingress.

Due to time constraints, I haven't applied the fix mentioned in the above thread.
Instead, I filled in the grooves of the cab strips using clear silicone:







Since I did this, there has been no further leaking into the cab.
Apart from the fact that it looks terrible, do you see any issues with this approach?
I appreciate any input and advice.

 

My 1996 Dakota is not extended cab, but I have seen the carpet underneath the drivers side floor mat damp from time to time. It does not have any odor at all. Must be water from outside working its way inside. I am glad to find this timely thread, I will know where to start looking. There is some rust bubbling at the top of the windshield, but I don't see water visibly dripping down from there. If it were, the drops would have landed directly on me or a passenger.

 

The only issue I can think of is "why did it start leaking?" Something sealing the attachment of that strip failed and may need attention.

 

I have needed to do the same on my 91 ext cab. Has held up for years so far.

 

My truck is older, 94, and there had been water in the back and footwells and it wasn't a consequence of the trim strip, I pulled my headliner and discovered zero leaks there, but there had been at one time a lot of water on the front floor.

My recommendations for anyone who has a problem is this:

Check door clearances along the windshield and the roof.
Check for leaks at the round grommets (both sides) in the cowl. (look below booster and opposite side at same)
Check for leaks at the rear window gasket (if you have a gasket) but not glued rear glasses.
Check for leaks at quarter glass seals (if you have extended cab).

The quarter glass seals seem to be insufficient, when I pulled the interior panels out there were clear trails down the body metal where water had been running. I tried to replace them with later style seals from a Ram but that didn't work so I went back to gen 1 Dak type seals.

So far I haven't seen any evidence of water infiltration in the back but I also need to drill some weep holes in the underbody beneath the cargo / jack container so that anything back there will drain off.

I also had to adjust the upper door window frames, they were not tight enough to the body at the windshield and the roof. There was actually a gap in the right side door between the seal and the door. The doors aren't hard to adjust, you just put window down and put your knee near the beltline and horse on the frame a little. Be gentle until you know how much force it takes, they move pretty easily.

Steve

EDIT: that is a lot of water in your cab, I would be surprised if the trim strips were the only source if that's how much you're getting inside.