Hey Guys,

My truck's cowl is leaking. I resealed the upper part under the wipers infront of the windshield. It appears that its leaking on the driver side where the cowl drains. I think the driver side fender needs to be removed, but after looking at it more closely, I don't know if that is going to do any good. It appears that the outer wall of the cowl is double walled, so removing the fender will not give access. Is this true?

Does someone know how to get in there to see whats leaking? Is there possibly a grommet or something that could be leaking?

I don't know what to do at this point.

 

I had that same problem on an old Nissan pickup. Frustrating as heck. I finally ended up taking the top grates off the cowl and going through with a tube of silicone sealant of all things. Not a very professional fix, and it didn't stop the whole leak because I could not reach it all, but it got me through the winter until I could sell the truck. Just an idea, although not a great one.

 

Make sure your cowl drain is not plugged. The cowl is not sealed, so if the drain is plugged and water backs up, you will have water intrusion

 

The cowl is draining properly.

There is a body seam where the cowl meets the firewall. From the factory there is black goop on it to seal the seam. I used seam sealer over the entire seam.

Will taking off the fender give me access to see whats going on?

 

Sorry to ask but....what the heck is a cowl? lol

 

the thing that goes mooo. no really, the place in front of your winshield, where the wipers are, with the holes in it is the cowl. remove the trim from the bottom of the windshield. remove the wiper arms, and the screws inside of the holes on top, you can barely see them. I think there's 4, or 5. remove the screws on the face of this sheat metal under the hood, the rubber hood seal is fastened here too. close hood part way, and pull the cowel straight up, watch out the antenna is hooked on to it. lay it on the windshield, and clean the whole area inside of it. you will see where the seam between the fire wall, and the toe board comes toghther. use seam sealer, and smear it on real good. let it dry, and test with a garden hose. if no more leak, put everything back together. pia, but if you take your time, not too bad to fix

 

For the record, you DO NOT need to removed the trim at the bottom of the windshield. There are probably 6 screws on top of the cowl, then another 5 or 6 against the firewall part under the hood, and it comes right off.

 

good to know, I never tried to take it off without removeing the trim. that would save the headache of possably bending the trim. Thanks.....

 

Does anyone know if removing the driver side fender will give access to the inside of the side of the cowl?

 

no, it wont, but there is an area near the bottom that can only be cleaned out while the fender is off

 

How would I go about fixing the leak in that area then?

 

pull the fender, and clean it out... Theyre not that hard to install/remove

 

see my earlier post, #6

 

I have already had the cowl off and cleaned out everything. I used a dowl rod to clean out the drain area. Alot of crap was flushed out with the garden hose. I put new seam sealer all throughout the areas of the cowl that I can get to. I cant reach that far down in the drain side behind the fender. What I need to know is how to seal up a leak that is down in that area.

If I pull the fender, do I have to remove the headlight bezels and parking lights etc?

 

Cowl area over parking brake area


Inside seams next to parking brake.


Firewall seams


a screw hole in cowl area, good place to start rusting and leaking. Those screw holes(5 of them) held up the power windows/power locks wireing harness


See that drain hole I'm pointing to. Check yours out it may be plugged up causing water to fill and spill into cab through a bad windshield seal on bottom of the windshield.




Also check the roof drip edge, that seam will leak and water will flow down the "A" piller in wind up in the same area as a cowl leak. Chasing leaks are fun aint they?!?!