Not the sharpest when it comes to vehicle service but i do have a few things i'd like to repair as cheap as possible on my 97 Ram SLT 5.9 V8 Mark III conversion.

1. almost every time it rains, I get water on the passenger floor between the seat and door. It's been going on for some time but doesn't do it all the time. Is it just the weather seal around the top of the door do you think? I do have rain guards on the doors/windows as well and I wonder if that would have anything to do with it. If i need to replace the weather strips, which looks simple to accomplish, where do i find the part numbers for those?

2. I have a problem most of the time when i first start my truck on a rainy day, it runs VERY rough (a sputtering kind of thing) and continues for the first 5 - 10 minutes or so....if i gun it when it runs like this, the check engine light will start to flash for 10 -15 seconds or so. It only does this when it's raining or has been raining. Any suggestions?

my truck doesn't like the rain....

any suggestions or advice would be most welcome. i've got 70,000 miles on this truck and want to keep it for a couple more years.

 

Not sure what is going on there, but I had a problem with water getting into my cab when it rained right after I bought the thing. Apparently it was a leaky firewall. They did some re-sealing and it was fixed. This may or may not be a cowl or firewall problem...just a thought.

 

#1- Weatherstripping probably would need to either be replaced or built up for proper spacing. Take a long strip of paper and close it in the door. Work it from one end of the weatherstripping to the other. Where it moves the easiest needs to be built up. Mark each of these places. Open the door, and build up the back of the weatherstripping (NOT the mating surface) with electrical tape. I need to do this on my '97 also.

#2- Do a tuneup. Sounds like there's some moisture trapped in your distributor cap. Change the cap, rotor, plugs, and plug wires and it should clear up.

 

It could be several things. You could check the weather stripping and if it checks out good you might want to check the back behind the the seat. If you still feel dampness then it may be your cargo lamp housing seal that went bad. It happened to me. Normally if it's been happening over a period of time it will become apparent by the water stain left on the headliner. Well goodluck.

 

Mine drips right past the door seal onto my leg when it's raining hard...