Looking for leak

[sdoan]

Why take apart a perfectly good Terc? Because it leaks into the driver's footbox.

Before...




After.... what you don't see is that the entire front carpet and the clutch pedal assembly were also removed...


It was the rubber fitting above the kick panel fuse box. A large bundle of wires and the hood release cable come into the interior through this rubber fitting and the seal for the hood release cable was split. No more water so far.

[Petros]

You might consider checking your windsheild too, if it was replaced they often develop leaks. I took the trim off (it is held on with little plastic clips), cleaned the gap good and fill the whole space between the edge of the glass and the body with sealant, and than reinstalled the trim.

[sdoan]

You might consider checking your windsheild too, if it was replaced they often develop leaks.

Ahhh, you may notice the windshield trim sitting on the roof - it was the first thing I checked and why I removed the cowl and hood. (the hood had to come off because one of the cowl fasteners had to be drilled out) There was a bit of rust under one of the top clips on the passenger's side, but not yet perforated. Cleaning the edge of the windshield I could see a good contact between the adhesive and glass. Thanks for the tip.

After having the windshield replaced on the '83 a couple years ago I have resolved to pull the windshield myself and fix any rust before allowing the windshield guys to work on it, because they don't care about rust and I do.

BTW I thought I had posted this in the Gallery because the picture of the yard sale car was kinda funny - did someone move it, or did I totally screw up where I thought I was posting?

[ARCHINSTL]

sdoan -
I 'fess up...I moved it as it seemed to be more of a Repair Guide item than a Gallery thread.
I did notice the Jacob's Coat truck in the background, obscured by the flora, and thought that if it were an intentional inclusion you would have posted it separately and not so subtly - or flashed a Full Monty view of it.
Tom M.

[takza]

It was the rubber fitting above the kick panel fuse box. A large bundle of wires and the hood release cable come into the interior through this rubber fitting and the seal for the hood release cable was split. No more water so far.

So now that you've found the problem...is there an easy way to get to these places in order to seal them? Is the location under the plastic fender liner inside the wheel well?

[sdoan]

Takza, you may be able to get at it by pulling the plastic stone shield from under the fender. In my case the leak was from the inverted funnel-shaped boot that the release cable went through that was split. To repair it I first tied a ziptie tight around the split boot. Then made a conical shield by wrapping both the cable and wiring harness with electrical tape to a point out from under the drip rail from the cowl vent. I then filled that electrical tape cone with black silicone sealer. Finally I sealed the inside of the boot/grommet from inside the footbox with more silicone sealer. I don't think I could have done as good a job if I had not removed the fender.

There was also a slight discoloration that came from where the side and top of the footbox meet near the firewall (above the grommet/boot thingy) that suggested a leak. It looks like Toyota had put a sealing strip between the metal pieces while welding up the unibody. I slathered some more silicone sealer on this from inside the footbox (it is inaccessible from the outside even with the fender off).

[sdoan]

sdoan -
I 'fess up...I moved it as it seemed to be more of a Repair Guide item than a Gallery thread.
I did notice the Jacob's Coat truck in the background, obscured by the flora, and thought that if it were an intentional inclusion you would have posted it separately and not so subtly - or flashed a Full Monty view of it.
Tom M.

That truck is probably worth a picture of its own - half art, half, political statement and half graffiti. The owner saw me shaking a can of spray paint and said "Feel free to tag my truck!" Didn't do it though.

[ARCHINSTL]

Mine is not (yet) leaking - so do you think that sealing the stone shield to the fender would eliminate the possibility?
Tke only leak I've had was when the two cowl drip holes became plugged and the water entered through the big blower air access hole. https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... owl#p18306
Tom M.

[sdoan]

Mine is not (yet) leaking - so do you think that sealing the stone shield to the fender would eliminate the possibility?
Tom M.

No, I don't think so. The water seemed to be dripping off the edge of the cowl (below the cowl vents) like it's supposed to do, but it was dripping down onto the cable and electrical harness, which actually have a pretty well designed seal/grommet where they enter the footbox. The problem is that the cable and harness are angled down into the footbox, so any water dripping onto them tends to run down toward the footbox. Usually the water is stopped by the seal but because the seal was split where the cable goes through the water ran right into the footbox. It collected most of a quart parked one rainy night. Sealing the stone shield would not affect this water flow.

[sdoan]

When I first pulled the carpet up and found the rusty spot, scraping it revealed one hole. But...

My brother has lots of experience with repairing rusty foot boxes in old cars and he told me to look under the tar mat that is for sound deadening. Even though there were a couple small rusty spots along the edges of the sound deadening it looked ok. But then I cut away the tar mat, following the rust, and fount that where the mat did not stick to the floorboard, water ran under it and sat and there were more small rust holes.

My brother recommended using a 4" hand grinder with a flat twisted wire wheel. Attack the rust and tar mat with this until good metal is all that remains. Periodically turn over the wire wheel so that you have a sharper cutting edge. Dust and debris will get all over the inside of the car. Kill the rust that remains with phosphoric acid (Ospho or Naval Jelly). He welds the holes closed and then paints with rustoleum or Por-15.

I don't have the grinder so I used a razor knife and scraper. The holes are small and I don't have a welder so I will Ospho, paint and find some of the sticky backed sound deadening and close the holes with that.

[sdoan]

There was also a slight discoloration that came from where the side and top of the footbox meet near the firewall (above the grommet/boot thingy) that suggested a leak. It looks like Toyota had put a sealing strip between the metal pieces while welding up the unibody. I slathered some more silicone sealer on this from inside the footbox (it is inaccessible from the outside even with the fender off).

The rainy 3/4 year is now in full swing in the Pacific North Wet and I realize I should have paid more attention to my own observations - this was still leaking. It seems like the rubber boot of the previous posts was the major leak, but there was (Hopefully was) still a minor leak.

The leak was between the in the top left corner of the footbox. This corner is a joint between the steel inner fender and the steel inner cowl. As the cowl is triple layer (only the top layer grill is removable) it is impossible to reach from the outside. See circled area in the picture below. (Despite the suggestion of the picture I was working from inside the foot box. This was the only picture I could find of the area.)



The metal on metal joint is sealed by some tough rubbery material, but in this car it seems not to have been applied right where the two pieces joined and it slowly leaked. The insidious thing is that I was never able to find the leak by spraying the car with a garden hose - it had to sit in the rain overnight. Last night I pulled the wet carpet and dried everything out. This morning there was a little bit of water so tonight I pulled the lower dash panel, speaker, hood release cable and fuse block so I could get to the joint and squeezed a bunch of RTV silicone into the joint. I'd put some in there before, but it was too far forward. Hopefully the foot box will be dry in the morning! If not I will have to remove the dash and crash-pad to really get at it.

BTW, the sunroof has two drains forward that drain through some clear vinyl tubing through the windshield pillars and into (not below!) the rocker panel below the doors.

[ARCHINSTL]

Would it have been possible to reach this area with one of those spray-type pickup bed liners?

OT, and dunno about others, but my 'puter will not display all of the photo - except when I hit "Reply" to, well, make a reply. Do others have this problem? I've noticed it with various other members' photos. What service (word ?) do you use for posting these?
Tom M.

[sdoan]

Would it have been possible to reach this area with one of those spray-type pickup bed liners?

OT, and dunno about others, but my 'puter will not display all of the photo - except when I hit "Reply" to, well, make a reply. Do others have this problem? I've noticed it with various other members' photos. What service (word ?) do you use for posting these?
Tom M.

The amount of photo you see may be dependent on the resolution (pixel size) of your computer display. I've been resizing my photos to 1000 pixels wide so that they display in the forum frame on my 'puter, but if you are using an 800 pixel wide monitor you may see something different. You may be able to change the pixel size of your monitor in the control panel or you can also right click on the photo and "view image" - that should show you the whole picture by itself.

I don't know about spray type bed liners but I'm guessing it would work. Would you spray from below or try to reach it from above?