2016 HSE, wet floormats, and can't find the drain ends!

[greiswig]

Hi, all,

Feeling pretty incompetent. Floor mats on driver and passenger side front were recently soaked after parking level, outside, in steady rain. I pulled the roof rack off, and opening the sun roof doesn't show a LOT of material there...maybe a thin film of dust. But whatever, it's been a long time.

I yanked off both the air intake grills, and in neither one can I see anything like a drain tube end, or a hole where one once was, or anything like that. I did try feeding nylon w e e d whacker line from the top, hoping to trace where that came out; it dead-ends after a few feet, but I can't see where.

Any tips and pointers on how to locate these items? Pictures with arrows appreciated!

 

[greiswig]

Never mind...I found the tricky piece of foam rubber behind the intake that needed to come out. So I found the exit, at least. Now I just have to figure out if the drain is intact and working.

Now, there are also drains for the rear, right? Where do THEY come out?

 

[powershift]

Use an air compressor to blow out the drains. You could rent one and still save money DIY.

 

[thebruce]

yea standard issue on all LRs.

The front drains are in the air intake behind the foam insulation. I would take mine to a gas station to shoot a little compressed air in it and now use one of those $30 battery powered air compressor devices. Works perfectly. Remember to open the sunroof slight, get a towel around the drain (or you will get a bunch of crap all over the interior) and dont hit it with too much pressure or you risk blowing out one of the elbows in the tube.

The rear drains are routed behind the wheel arm liners. You have to peel them back a little bit to access. But my rears typically dont clog, only the fronts. The only time I have ever seen water in the rear was on my prior LR3 where there was so much in the front passenger well it sloshes to the back of the car when driver. Was a mess.

As long as I clean mine out every 3-4 months im ok.

 

[txfromwi]

Just for general info.

The cowling at the bottom of the windshield warps, whether or not it has been garaged.
Look at the seal at the bottom of the windshield, water can get in there.
Once it's apart, you will see that your air intake is on the passenger side and water can flow into that air intake.
This is diagnosed by the water being on the passenger side floor and not on the drivers side.

Fix is a new cowl.

 

[greiswig]

The rear drains are routed behind the wheel arm liners. You have to peel them back a little bit to access. But my rears typically dont clog, only the fronts. The only time I have ever seen water in the rear was on my prior LR3 where there was so much in the front passenger well it sloshes to the back of the car when driver. Was a mess.

Thanks for this. Not sure what you mean by the "wheel arm liners?" You mean the plastic liners in the arch for the rear wheels?

As difficult as it is to pull the intake grills off without breaking something, and given the way things are constructed, it's very tempting to put an extension on the front tubes to bring a port to the lip of the grill so I can just blow it out periodically without needing to take things apart. Either that or I need to rig up something so I can blow through from the top side.

 

[greiswig]

Just for general info.

The cowling at the bottom of the windshield warps, whether or not it has been garaged.
Look at the seal at the bottom of the windshield, water can get in there.
Once it's apart, you will see that your air intake is on the passenger side and water can flow into that air intake.
This is diagnosed by the water being on the passenger side floor and not on the drivers side.

Fix is a new cowl.

Thanks, @txfromwi. There is indeed a small gap near the passenger side on that cowl. The driver's side sunroof vent did seem clogged, but the passenger side did not. So maybe the cowl was the source on the passenger side.

Is there a good source for that cowl? And what's the expected life span for that thing, anyway?

 

[douglastic]

I had my cowl - and both A pillar trims - replaced by Safelite along with my new windshield (insurance covered all)
Just took some asking on my part

Also, not sure if the LR4 still has the same poor fresh air intake design as the LR3 (underneath the cowl)
If so, I also highly recommend that you add a cover shield as shown (below) underneath even a new cowl

It is a known water entry point for us
you can see the added sheet metal sitting on the cup-like intake scoop, that protrudes PAST the drip line of the glass. POOR design.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/attachments/lr3-28/25312d1428195984-windshield-cowl-change-018.jpg

 

[greiswig]

I had my cowl - and both A pillar trims - replaced by Safelite along with my new windshield (insurance covered all)
Just took some asking on my part

Also, not sure if the LR4 still has the same poor fresh air intake design as the LR3 (underneath the cowl)
If so, I also highly recommend that you add a cover shield as shown (below) underneath even a new cowl

It is a known water entry point for us
you can see the added sheet metal sitting on the cup-like intake scoop, that protrudes PAST the drip line of the glass. POOR design.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/attachments/lr3-28/25312d1428195984-windshield-cowl-change-018.jpg

Interesting. I'm not sure whether the new version is any different. It looks like that image is taken with the whole cowl removed? This is all I can see:

 

[douglastic]

correct, remove cowl to get access - the problem is underneath it
also unfortunately, I think the a-pillars must be removed first in order to then remove the cowl
so have new clips on hand