Leaking!

[DanLB]

Hi

We have a strange one , our 2006 (late) XT4 model rav , during the holidays , one morning , the passengers sides , front and back , were sopping wet underneath the floor mats , with no visible signs of where the water came from.

So i ran my eye the best i could over all the seals , and other than slight dampness on the inside of the sunroof , cannot for the life of us see where it came from (no staining anywhere in the car upholstery)

So , dried it up best we could , and checked the car every day or so , and its been OK , yesterday ,massive rain fall , today , lo and behold , absolutly sodden again , but cannot see where its ingressing!

We are befuddled! , who do we approach to check all our seals etc , and does anyone have any ideas of how so much water can get in , with no visible signs of how it got there!?

We have had only 1 or 2 frosty nights in the last 3 weeks!

Cheers for any advice!

[Davrav]

Have you checked the drain holes in the sunroof gutter? If they are blocked water will build up and seep in.

[DanLB]

I thought i had , i understand now its a process of elimination so i need to go over the car in daylight witha fine toothcomb to try to identify where the leak is happening , i might have to buy one of those large car covers in the meanwhile seeings as its monsoon weather at the moment !

[Treborv8]

A car I once had had the same problem the fix was to make sure the pipes from the sunroof gutter were free of debris also where the pipes exit under the car this was where my problem was.

[gjnorthall]

There was a TSB for this problem a few years ago. Water enters the passenger side because of a leaking foam rubber seal on the cowl assembly (the plastic panel at the base of the windscreen). The water gets into the car during heavy rain etc via the fresh air inlet which is just to the rear of the glove box. The problem sometimes starts after replacing the windscreen. The solution is to install a modified sealing strip part no: 53244-42040 costs around £10.

The problem has been sorted on many RAV's - the odd one with a problem turns up now and again.

You'll also need to lift the carpet to dry the floor and replace the pollen filter which will have been doused with rainwater on many occasions.

[Davrav]

There was a TSB for this problem a few years ago. Water enters the passenger side because of a leaking foam rubber seal on the cowl assembly (the plastic panel at the base of the windscreen). The water gets into the car during heavy rain etc via the fresh air inlet which is just to the rear of the glove box. The problem sometimes starts after replacing the windscreen. The solution is to install a modified sealing strip part no: 53244-42040 costs around £10.

The problem has been sorted on many RAV's - the odd one with a problem turns up now and again.

You'll also need to lift the carpet to dry the floor and replace the pollen filter which will have been doused with rainwater on many occasions.

Are we talking 4.2 or 4.3 RAV Gareth?

[DanLB]

Hmmmm how would I take carpets up ? They are fitted under the cars internal body?

Also, when we had a few days less relentless rain last week the carpets had almost dried so if I could just find the exact fault......

[gjnorthall]

4.3 model. Please see TSB attached.

Cowl _leak REVISED.pdf

[gjnorthall]

Mop up any free water in the carpet with cloths / paper towel. Unclip the finisher along the sill and fold the carpet back towards the centre of the car. Remove the foam pad and polystyrene block and dry these indoors. Leave The carpet folded back overnight - longer if possible.

[gjnorthall]

The job is easier than would appear from the TSP - it becomes self evident once the top cowl cover is removed. Theres a cover plate which is plastic spot welded to the underside of the top cover. On a couple of occasions I've seen the plastic welds come adrift so the cover plate is insecure. This is best secured with pop rivets or small nuts and bolts

[DanLB]

Hi all

many thanks for your help so far , the car was actually in the dealers this morning as we wnated them to check over the exhaust they fitted , whilst it was in we asked them to look at the leak , they checked it all over and said no outlets were blocekd . anywhere , and in their opinion , and without incurring costs by doing water tests , the windscreen needs to come out and be resealed........reckons water is getting in behind it

any thoughts?

[gjnorthall]

Show them the TSB - they should be well aware of the issue - it's been around long enough! All they needed to do to confirm the root cause would have been to check the pollen filter - this would either be wet or at least indicate water ingress. Searching for blockages, removing the windscreen etc are all futile actions and a total waste of money. Solving the problem as previously described is £10 of parts and around 40 mins labour.!!

[DanLB]

1. Cheers , cars on its way back now , and i would never have paid a dealership to look at it , the car just happened to be in there anyway , i fully intend following your course of action you kindly specified yesterday !

[DanLB]

There was a TSB for this problem a few years ago. Water enters the passenger side because of a leaking foam rubber seal on the cowl assembly (the plastic panel at the base of the windscreen). The water gets into the car during heavy rain etc via the fresh air inlet which is just to the rear of the glove box. The problem sometimes starts after replacing the windscreen. The solution is to install a modified sealing strip part no: 53244-42040 costs around £10.

The problem has been sorted on many RAV's - the odd one with a problem turns up now and again.

You'll also need to lift the carpet to dry the floor and replace the pollen filter which will have been doused with rainwater on many occasions.

Hi, where can i buy the part you refer to ?

[Davrav]

Contact Kingo:

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/user/34014-parts-king/

[bothwell_buyer]

I've had a few problems like you describe and its always been the windscreen seal.... especially when the screen is replaced, fitters never put enough sealer around the whole screen. I had one screen done on a previa where we found no sealer down the passneger side of the screen!

Both my RAVs have been done and I now have a contact who does the screens for me and shows me what he's doing at the time !

The RAVs body Shell flexes and even through time the seal can fail.

I have no idea about the rubber seal thing mentioned earlier as my old RAVs don't have that.

[DanLB]

Thanks for all comments folks

Have the carpet up now and the polystyrene and foam underneatg are dry but I have bought them indoors anyway and left the carpet up ( though we are lucky as the backing off the carpet is sort of vinyl and water hasn't got through the carpet

Removed the pollen filter after finding out how on you tube and it was wet on each side but not in the middle and the space it sits in was damp with water on each side so that along with dealership already checking the sunroof vents are clear means that I should be purchasing the part mentioned and sorting that out via the pdf kindly posted ?

Cheers

[gjnorthall]

Evidence of wetness on the pollen filter is a sure sign that rainwater is entering the passenger compartment by trickling down the walls of the fresh air inlet. Fitting the modified cowl sealing strip will solve the problem. Note that the PDF is for a left hand drive car - the procedure is the same on a right hand drive car but note that the air inlet is on the left hand side of the car. The measurement to the end of the new seal is from the cut line on the left hand side of the car - rather than the right hand side shown on the PDF.

[DanLB]

Thank you GJNorthall , i have arranged to buy the parts from the guy you mentioned , and have taken your advice as above on board.....thanks again

[DanLB]

Morning All

I just thought i would report back after fitting the foam block as recommended.......

The job was simple enough, it took about 2 hours but that is obviously taking our time to pull it apart properly and putting all back together properly, lo and behold, i left kitchen towel dotted around the front foot well and along the side of the door overnight, heavy rain, and this morning, kitchen towel is dry so thank you that advice

I need to obtain two of the little plugs that are on either side of the cowel assembly, it`s hard to describe what they are exactly but in any case removing them meant they were not going back in again, so have used a simple nut and bolt, silicone sprayed, but i know this isn’t ideal, does anyone know where i can get a couple of these?

If you look at the pdf for the job it’s the two clips/plugs on stage 7....

Also , and this is the most irritating ,there was no sign of any foam at all where described on the pdf , either in the `wrong` place that caused the issue with other RAV`s or in the place where the replacement foam was supposed to go , i don’t understand , is it possible it gets forgotten at factory ?

Also, how come it just suddenly started pouring water in, was i just unlucky?

Anyway, thanks for all advice and to PARTS KING who sorted me out with the parts

Cheers

[gjnorthall]

The 2 clips can be ordered from a Toyota dealer. Strange that there was no foam present though it has been known to be removed when fitting a new windscreen. Any chance that a previous owner has tried to "sort" the problem The leak often starts when something is disturbed and the angle of the car when parked can affect the amount of leakage.

[DanLB]

I can see that looking at the air inlet dimensions , that the angle of the car and/or hard cornering would splash any standing water down into the pollen filter just because of the shortness of one side of the inle , the thing that confuses me is that where toyota would have installed the foam incorrectly , by all accounts! , there is no sign ,so if removed someone did a really thorough cleaning job , but then didnt bother with installing fresh foam , be it in the `incorrect` area or the correct area as per the pdf you posted , in any case , again last night , heavy rain , car dry so thank you mate.....pity the dealership arent so clued up...

[DanLB]

All this ***** rain ! A week of no leaks and now in more rain a slight drip again coming from under the glove box , driving us mad am sure we fitted the part correctly and followed all the instructions to the letter

Gutted as now in the dark again, any ideas ?

Cheers

[gjnorthall]

Disappointing after the early positive signs. I've outlined below some possibilities recognising of course that you've taken a lot of care, so some points won't be valid.

- Check that the bottom cowl is draining and that a depth of water isn't forming around the vent duct.

- The louvre on the underside of the top cowl is attached to the cowl by plastic spot welding - I've seen these spot welds broken and the end result is that the louvre is a little loose and doesn't fully bite into the foam block.

- Although theres a measurement method for where to fit the foam block - in case of any errors - just check that the two ends of the block go beyond the two ends of the vent duct.

- Look along the base of the windscreen to check that the rubber lip of the top cowl is tight against the glass - if theres a gap, the foam block is curled over the bottom edge of the glass preventing the top cowl from going sufficiently far back and sealing properly. Also a gap means that excessive water will flow through the gap and sit on the foam block. The foam block shouldn't be fitted to high - the top face should be in line with the edge of the glass - the top edge of the foam shouldn't be under the glass.

- On the original installation, there should have been a length of foam under the windscreen and another along the lip of the louvre on the top cowl. I know you said there was no foam present - any chance that the foam on the louvre was missed and is still in place?

The modification does prevent the ingress of water but intuitively it's not a robust engineering solution - you're depending on the lip of a louvre biting sufficiently into a foam rubber block to stop the passage of water. Consequently everything must be just right to get a good seal.

[DanLB]

Hi, just touching back on this , checked all the above , and all was well , this morning , wetness UNDER the front passenger side mats , not on top , so totally befuddled now , if it was the same leak surely would drip onto the mats and then engress under depending on volume

Back to square one!