Rain leak in 2016 ford explorer - could it be windshield??
Posted by bigc_121@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Dear car techs, My wife has A 2016 foot Explorer, a while ago it was parked in a downhill grade and water came in the front of the dash slightly. You could not trace it back to any specific spot. There is a sun roof so I assumed maybe a pine needles or something in the seal… so opened and close and cleaned it all.
Next time e we were parked flat and water came in over the passenger door… which leads me to believe my sun roof theory wasn’t correct . Again you could not trace this water back to an obvious point like an oil leak, differential leak, etc… so it had me scratch my head looking at your dot seals. Then I thought windshield.
I found a small chip right in the upper corner of tire windshield and will attach a photo. EDIT this forum says I cannot add a photo. I wanted to ask here if anyone else has had a similar experience before I just go replace the windshield on my limited troubleshooting guess….
Does anyone have any further thoughts or similar stories that windshield was there answer??
ZimaGotchi@reddit
Leaks like that are almost always due to the sunroof's drain channels getting clogged. Figure out where they are on your particular vehicle and run some wire through them. Try to stop parking under trees or cover the sunroof at least when you do it.
bigc_121@reddit (OP)
I don’t see any drain channels on the sun roof other than the seal around it…. Looks like it should hold water out until I move away
ZimaGotchi@reddit
Water has to drain somewhere, Man. If it doesn't go into the drain channels it'll drain into your headliner which is exactly what's currently happening.
bigc_121@reddit (OP)
Makes sense …. I’ll get up and look again but I didn’t see any drain channels that looked like they could potentially clog, but I also didn’t think to look for a drain channel…. I will get up again and look
ZimaGotchi@reddit
There's probably a video on Youtube of someone showing how to do it on literally your exact sunroof.
bigc_121@reddit (OP)
I did just google and did read about two drain tubes up there…. When I get done with work tonight I will get up there and look again… thank you for sharing these thoughts!!!
TangeloImpossible686@reddit
Most likely the windshield seal, especially with that chip near the edge. Water can sneak in through tiny cracks or bad seals and cause those leaks
bigc_121@reddit (OP)
Yeah I wish I could post a picture…. I don’t want to throw away money at a windshield but the more I think about it the obvious I think this could be the issue…. Ours something I actually see and would make sense