2006 mustang - water leak edition

Since it's been raining for the last few days, I thought I should check for water leaks. I know there is a TSB out for it and is a chronic problem for the s197. Well, lo and behold, I found wetness in the passenger footwell!! Prior to this, the car has either mainly been in the garage or inside the body shop. When I got my car back, I did a touch and could not verify. It felt very slightly wet but then it felt like it was just the cold.

My questions are, anyone else have this problem? How and where was it fixed? I am out of warranty now, and I'll probably get reamed with an expensive repair bill, not to mention lots of people do not get the issue resolved. Any input or feedback will be appreciated.

I need to figure out what to do before it gets bad. This is a DD and has to be parked outside. I don't know when the leak started or if the previous owner had this problem. For all I know, it could be all rusted under the carpet. Seems like the water pools away from the SJB and closer to the door and the passenger seat.

Hmmm, Thought TSBS were taken care of no matter if ur cars outawarrenty. Id look into that. As for the water leak IDK. U could get someone with a garden hose soak down the car with you sittin in it and see if you could find that leak

Check the wheather striping on the passenger side.

I had the same problem last year. there are two drain spouts under the hood along the fire wall that allows the water from the windshield to drain. If they are clogged like mine were you will get water in the car. usually on the passanger side. All you have to do is open the hood and look along the fire wall for a little black spout. On the drivers side it will be just above were the exhaust goes under the car. on the passanger side it will be right next to the bottom of the battery tray. This one is a little hard to get to. I used a coat hanger and a flat head screw driver to pull all the junk out. I had leaves and small twigs stuck in there preventing the water to flow thru. After i cleaned as much as I could i flushed the rest by just running the water hose on the windshield. The water should flow down the windshield down tru these holes and then out the bottom of the car. Hope this works, it did for me

chrisverneuil wrote:Hmmm, Thought TSBS were taken care of no matter if ur cars outawarrenty. Id look into that. As for the water leak IDK. U could get someone with a garden hose soak down the car with you sittin in it and see if you could find that leak

Nope. a TSB is different from a recall.

Hmmm, couldn't find the drainage hole today, took a good peek, found leaves and pine needles around the battery tray, so possibly clogged. Got hung on putting on the wheels so I'll take a look again tomorrow. The weather strip seems to be ok. Crossing my finger it's just clogged. BTW, looks like someone took a bite out of the cushion wrap around the battery :s

I've never had that water leak problem...yet! Looks as if something "chewed" my battery cover as well and mainly the reason why I removed it! It's also not that difficult to remove the battery and tray (had mine out during stereo install) to have easier access to the drain hose.

alkemist wrote:Hmmm, couldn't find the drainage hole today, took a good peek, found leaves and pine needles around the battery tray, so possibly clogged. Got hung on putting on the wheels so I'll take a look again tomorrow. The weather strip seems to be ok. Crossing my finger it's just clogged. BTW, looks like someone took a bite out of the cushion wrap around the battery :s

Yeah they are not easy to spot. After work if I get a chance I will take a few pic's and post them for you

I found those drainage pouches. I was able to clean the driver side, but the passenger side was way in there. I can see some leaves sticking out of it. The engine was hot hot hot, so I wasn't going to put in my hand in there lol. I'll have to clean it tomorrow, hopefully in the morning if I'm not too sleepy.

glad you found them hopfully that will solve your problem. Sorry I havn't had a chance to take any pic's but you found them on your own

Ok, I checked this morning and it is confirmed I do have a leak. This time the wetness is right under the SJB and now I am worried as it will cause electrical damage. Not sure where to proceed from here. I'm going to check that drainage tube again.. But I'm thinking this time its more serious.

Time to tear it apart!!!!! Tool time!!

There are a bunch of threads about this problem over on Mustang Forums. Its more common than you might think. You might try reading through those to see where people are finding solutions if its not the drain tubes.

lol yeah. I know there are multiple TSB's out on this issue. Was looking to see if there were anyone else local that had the same problem.

Just trying to put the cruise thread back on topic.. moving down here...

I pulled the passenger side cowl. The air filter was so dirty, you could shake a stick at it! There was hair, leaves.. and whatever unidentifiable objects. So that is definitely going to get replaced.

There were some wet decayed leaves and gunk, but odd enough, I could not find any water trail or pattern. The foam weatherstrip on the cowl itself was wet in some parts.. Seems like I am going to have to pull the fender for further investigation

I don't want to become a mildew mobile. I think this recently happened.. so a part or seam must be failing. From the interior, seems like the water is coming down behind the pillar by the SBJ box. But it's not wet there. The water just flows right along the right side of the footwell.

I *think* and praying my leak cleared up. When I pulled out the air filter, I cleaned out whatever gunk was behind the firewall. There wasn't much at all and I didn't see anything that look clogged, but it seemed to feel dry in the footwell when I checked yesterday and this morning. It didn't rain as hard, but hoping this is a good sign.