Do yourself a favor

[stang99x]

And check the drains under you wiper cowling! All the years I've spent working on cars, and as many times as I have fixed this for others I have rarely ever checked my own. We had a hella thunderstorm last night and this morning when I left for work, I noticed my radio wasn't working on the passenger side. Well I had added the Kicker Shelby amp a while back and went through hell and creation getting it all to work so it was the first thing I had in my mind as the fault. When I got up under the dash to look it over, the amp was wet........yes wet like with water. I thought the door harness pass through had come loose (and it had) so I got it back in and thought little else about it. Then one of my employees said he noticed twice when I moved my car there were water puddles under, and sure enough further inspection revealed it to have a constant drip. I looked under it and the water was seeping between to pressed and welded body panels above the cats. Further inspection found the drains on both driver and passenger fully clogged and about 2 quarts of water sitting in each one. The drain is little more than a rubber grommet with a "one way" flappy end about 2 inches long. But it's solid enough to clog with minimal debris. I park outside, but there were no leaves from anything around my house in there, just some leaves and dirt from parking in a parking lot at work. Do yourself a favor and go check yours out now before you get undesired water in your electrical system!!!

 

[slow306stang]

Thank you!

I was having the same issues but on the drivers side. I just pulled off the wiper arms, cowl panel, and wiper motor assembly. Sure enough my drivers side drain was plugged.

Its a simple fix and took me all of 45 minutes start to finish. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[nate714]

My car is always outside, I'll have to check this out. Could either of you provide pictures or videos of the process or what to look for?

 

[califsp]

No need to take off a bunch of parts. The drains are directly behind each head, on the firewall. Easy to clear the drains with your fingers. Make sure the engine in cold.

 

[stang99x]

While the above poster is partially correct, without removing the cowls you can't get your hand or a small vacuumm in there to get all the other crud out that will block it up again in no time if left unattended.
You can remove the passenger side cowl pretty easy, two little phillips trim hold down clips. Once that is off you can shine a light down int here and see if the water is built up or if the drain is clogged. You could actually pull the drain out from underneath them on the firewall to get them cleared. But you want to clean down in there to get out any future clogs before you get a bad situation like I did. I didn't take a video or even a picture as at the time i was royally pissed off thinking my Kicker amp was toasted for this reason. FOrtunately I was able to take it apart and save it. Just a heads up to everyone though, save your self the hassle of some random electrical systems failure. Also, if the water was deep enough it has likely contaminated your cabin air filter with water and decompossing dirt/debris. Good time for a new one there.

 

[Famine]

Pic of the drains behind the head?

 

[stang99x]

Pic of the drains behind the head?

Passenger side drain is located just above the AC lines. It's tucked back underneath in the curl.

Driver's side. The drain is under the circle plug in the middle. Next picture shows a closer shot

Here you see the driver side close up. Between the grey hose in the middle and under the circle plug for the harness.

Yes you can clean them from the bottom, but that doesn't solve the issue of the rest of the gunk in the compartment that will float right back into the drain the next time you get a decent rainfall. Just do yourself a favor and clean those before you have wet electronics.

 

[Famine]

Maybe with attachments you could vaccuum that stuff out. Just may have to adapt a small flexible hose to go in there from your vaccuum.

 

[KushBandit]

Ya'll live where there's a lot of trees to drop stuff? I live in SoCal and have absolutely nothing trapped in there, and my drains are clear.

I didn't know that's where the drains were though, so I definitely appreciate this post

 

[noldevin]

I parky my daily A4 under a pine tree and the cowl drains got clogged up with pine needles. Flooded into the footwells and made the carpet stink.
Good call, these should definitely be checked periodically on any car that is parked around trees.

 

[03cobra#694]

Good thread guys.

 

[nate714]

Thanks for all the details and pictures, soon as it stops raining for a day I want to check this out, I'm always parked either within 40 feet or giant palm trees or giant pine trees, both drop seeds and pollen every time the wind blows.

 

[F.D.Sako]

Might as well check these when I replace the cabin air filter.