I have a '04 Dakota SXT 4x4 standard cab that is leaking rain water all over. First the passenger floorboard, then the HVAC box started filling with water which destroyed the blower motor when it filled up, froze and busted. Now the back window has started leaking as well. The only evidence of water leakage is on the rear edge of the headliner, otherwise everything from the instrument panel on up looks dry. I opened the cowl up to make sure the drains were clear and the air intake area shows a little dust, but nothing else. The drains appeared to be open and clean, so I'm at a loss. What gives?

 

A little clarification: the truck is parked facing downhill on a slight incline. It's not necessarily running when the water appears, but aside from the middle of the rear edge of the headliner and the puddle in the passenger floorboard, there's no other indication of water coming in anywhere.

 

Your windshield can be leaking too.

On mine, the seal between the glass and the body failed. Eventually it rusted out the windshield frame. Had to take the glass out to fix.

 

3rd brake light seal was bad on mine and I got the same leak.

 

Id seal up the 3rd brake light. Water can travel further than you think. Only way to trace it is pull the interior/head liner and then have some one spray down the outside while you sit inside and watch.

 

An easy way to test your glass seals is to take foaming glass cleaner (Sprayway or similar) and spray around the edge of the glass on the outside of the car.. Then take compressed air and blow around the edges of the glass from inside the truck. if you have a leak, it will blow off the foam in that area.

To test the bottom edge of the windshield, you will have to take off the cowl.

I was a glass installer for 10 yrs, this is how we did it.

 

Hey man.. feel your pain! Been having water standing like a damn pond in the passenger side for a while myself.. even the jack area had water in it..

Rip all the pannels off and get someoen outside with a hose and soak her down.. while your inside and look for leaks. use a flash light to see the sparkles lol

Found - Mirror assembly leaking - no gaskets availilbe either make one your self; get new mirror assembly that comes with the crappy gasket or like i did use silicone and seal it up really good..

- Outer seal on door window rusted corner/leaking.. - replaced with factory.
-Half windows leaking (alot)
-3rd brake light..

-rear sliding glass had some dirt and crap that was not allowing a good seal.. clean and close- no more leak..

HOpe this helps..

 

Did you have any glass replaced lately? I had my rear window done once and the installer botched the rubber surrounding the glass. After the third replacement (Insurance) my friend who works for the company came out and did it himself and found the gasket was cut, probably on the first removal. A new gasket and the problem was solved.

 

Thanks y'all for your input. A friend of a friend is a glass installer and I suppose that's my next move. I really don't want to pull the HVAC box, but if it's not the glass, there's a seal around the plenum intake that's a common source as well. It's not been a year since I put a new headliner in it and needless to say I had lots of fun finding replacements for all those old, brittle plastic parts that are no longer in production and pretty much vaporized on contact. The truck has been in the family since it was purchased as a program vehicle in '04 with 5,000 miles on it. It's an all original, 81,000 mile truck that's sadly starting to show its age.

 

Yupp.. they used a cheap *** foam typical... mine's long gone.. i sealed mine up with some gap filler that worked for a while but I'm starting to get air back in though now..

There is a shroud that comes up in there on the outside of that supposed to stop water.. i thought about sealing that off and making it harder for water and air to get in there.. I have an idea.. but its hard to get too.. i dont like having outside air enter anyways.. I'd rather be on circulate.