Jeep JK - Water On Floor Mat

[Qball]

@trcubed @Burt Gummer @BurnedOutGeek

and @ anyone else who has a JK Wrangler.

I discovered about a week or so ago that my 2016 Wrangler Rubicon has a strange leak on the front passenger side. After a rain while the Jeep is parked, I would get in it and see water all over the passenger side rubber mat. Under and over the dash was dry. The hardtop was dry. No evidence at all of a leak coming from above.

So while at lunch today, I decided to Google the problem and see if the Jeep forums had any threads on it. I found a crap ton of threads about this problem. Some go back several years. Most of the responses were, "It's a Jeep, what do you expect?" or something similar. I read several horror stories and came across a few who got Chrysler to buy back their vehicle under the Lemon Law. No one that I saw in these forum threads offered a solution to the problem.

So this evening, I decided to pull mine in the garage and take a closer look at what could be going on. I took some pictures and I'll explain what you're looking at in each one. I have not put a fix in yet to verify that I'm correct on this, but I'm quite certain this is the cause. Any of you body guys that are pros feel free to chime in. I have no ego to bruise when I'm online.

First picture:


You're looking at the passenger side door and windshield joint where the door meets the windshield frame just in front of the side view mirror. You can see where the rubber seal is displaced by something. Although water is getting past the seal at this location, that is not directly causing the water to enter the vehicle past the inner door seal.

Second picture:


This shows the door open. The rubber seal you see here is the seal on the inside of the windshield frame. The rubber part at the right top side is the piece of rubber causing the door seal to deform when the door is closed.

Third picture:



Door is open. If you look closely, you'll notice the door seal in the center of the photo is deformed a little. Now if you can zoom in, you can see a piece of foam just to the right and underneath the door seal. That piece of foam is wide enough to stick out from both sides of the door seal. In other words, it's outside the seal and also to the inside of the door seal.

Fourth picture:



Again, if you can zoom in to get a closer look, you can see a notch on the lower door frame pillar. This is on both sides of the Jeep. It may be a crumple zone notch. However, this is near where the water is entering the Jeep. If it's not a crumple zone notch, then I think the notch was put there as an attempted fix by Chrysler, to allow water to escape past the lower door seal and exit back out. However, I may be wrong there.

Based on watching the leak, I noticed that you can't see the water leaking in until it gets to the bottom of the door near that notch. What is happening is when some rain water enters the door channel where the outer seal is deformed, it hits and saturates the foam in picture #3. It is soaking wet on both sides of the door seal as I'm typing this. Once the foam is saturated with water all the way to the inner side of the door seal, the water drips down the door under the seal until it gets to the bottom and as soon as it reaches the curve of the door at the bottom, gravity causes it to drip down onto the plastic trim and onto and under the rubber mat.

This doesn't occur while driving in the rain. It only happens when the Jeep is sitting in the rain.

My plan is to trim that piece of rubber on the inside of the windshield frame to match the drivers side seal so it no longer deforms the outer door seal. I also plan to trim that piece of foam and maybe reinforce the door seal in that area. But I'm going to take it a step at a time to see if the first step solves the problem.

Based on my reading today, this has been a widespread problem happening to many JK owners and not happening to many JK owners. Just thought I'd post this for you guys since I know y'all have JKs like me. I'll keep you posted on my luck at stopping this leak. Take care.............. Dave

 

[RockRiver]

Thanks for sharing this. I have not had any issues like this with my '16 JKUR, but will watch out for it. I have had my hard top leak once, but I removed the panels and reset them, making sure I tightened it down well, and it stopped. I'm guessing I had either not tightened it down enough, or had it a bit crooked or something.

 

[trcubed]

Thanks for sharing this. I have not had any issues like this with my '16 JKUR, but will watch out for it. I have had my hard top leak once, but I removed the panels and reset them, making sure I tightened it down well, and it stopped. I'm guessing I had either not tightened it down enough, or had it a bit crooked or something.

Same here. No leaks in the floor, but water collected in the joint between the tops and dumped on top of my dash mounted 2M radio.

Thanks for posting this, Dave.

 

[Burt Gummer]

I left my passenger door cracked once by accident in a rain and for days I had water getting in. It was standing in the plastic around the top of the roll bars. After I figured it out and got it dried up I haven't had any issues

 

[Hammer12b]

I had a 2008 model that leaked, but my 2010 model was dry as a bone. I'm now back to a 1999 model TJ.

 

[BurnedOutGeek]

I had a 2008 model that leaked, but my 2010 model was dry as a bone. I'm now back to a 1999 model TJ.

Same here, the 2010 so far, is pretty leak resistant (so far).

I'm pretty sure @Derek8404 had issues with leaking on his past jeep as well.

 

[Hammer12b]

Same here, the 2010 so far, is pretty leak resistant (so far).

I'm pretty sure @Derek8404 had issues with leaking on his past jeep as well.

The tops were different on these Jeeps. The 08 tucked into a channel over the doors like the TJs did, but the 10 had a cable around those areas. I bought the 08 used and the top wasn't in the greatest shape and the 10 was new. I just put a new top on the TJ and she's a whole lot drier!

 

[Djstorm100]

Dad and I have had 3 JK's between us. Mostly 12+ none leak.

 

[BurnedOutGeek]

The tops were different on these Jeeps. The 08 tucked into a channel over the doors like the TJs did, but the 10 had a cable around those areas. I bought the 08 used and the top wasn't in the greatest shape and the 10 was new. I just put a new top on the TJ and she's a whole lot drier!

Ours is a hard top - she rarely puts the soft top on.

 

[Derek8404]

Same here, the 2010 so far, is pretty leak resistant (so far).

I'm pretty sure @Derek8404 had issues with leaking on his past jeep as well.

Sure did. My 2014 JK would leak pretty bad when it rained. It would leak if the jeep was just parked, but if I was driving and when I press the brakes, water would pour down from where the two freedom tops would meet at windshield.

 

[Qball]

I bought this Jeep new back in Oct. '16. No leaks for me from the tops. What's strange is I've never had a leak until recently. I guess it took some time for that little piece of rubber to distort the door seal enough to allow water in causing that piece of foam to act as a sponge.

I think what I'm going to do is trim that piece of rubber, trim the foam all around, then seal the exposed foam with RTV so it can't get wet. I'll let y'all know the results.

After reading all of those stories of owners having the exact problem as me, and not getting the problem solved at the dealer or manufacturer level, I think it's a dang shame.

 

[Hammer12b]

After reading all of those stories of owners having the exact problem as me, and not getting the problem solved at the dealer or manufacturer level, I think it's a dang shame.

It's basically a Dodge and they don't care!

 

[BowWow]

Have you at least contacted the dealer as this should be a warranty issue since you bought it new recently?

 

[Qball]

Have you at least contacted the dealer as this should be a warranty issue since you bought it new recently?

Not yet. It looks like a very simple fix to me. It would be a huge hassle for me to take it in for something like this. Now if it were an issue such as a door out of alignment from a warped hinge or something, then that's a different story.

 

[Qball]

I forgot to ask this question directed at those of you who own late model Wranglers with a hardtop. Is your Jeep very air tight, i.e. you have to really put some effort into closing the doors when the windows are rolled up? The reason I ask is because my Jeep is very air tight. I have to virtually slam either door to get it to close when the windows are up and the other door is closed.

That further reinforces my assessment with regards to my leak. There's no gap penetrating past the inner part of the door seal. If that was the case, the Jeep wouldn't be so air tight making it hard to close the doors.

 

[trcubed]

Sure did. My 2014 JK would leak pretty bad when it rained. It would leak if the jeep was just parked, but if I was driving and when I press the brakes, water would pour down from where the two freedom tops would meet at windshield.

Derek...this is most likely due to the seals between the tops not meeting correctly. The leak I mentioned upthread was because I got in a hurry reinstalling the tops and got the seals mashed around in places where they didn't belong. Once I straightened that out, I had no more leaks.