I can hear the sound of water "sloshing" around coming from under the dashboard of my '06 Freestar. I know there have been reports of cowl leaks but this is freaking ridiculous.



Does anyone know if there is a TSB from Ford on this? Or, does anyone know the steps to drain trapped water from under the cowl and then where to seal the area that leaks?

Thanks in advance.

 

* Bump *


Anyone?

 

Have you been using the air conditioning a lot recently?

 

No, but we had a little thing here called Irene. :-D

The A/C condensation drain is clear....

 

Now we know what it shouldn't be from and what it is probably from this is what I would do.
Pick a location where you think that water might be located and drill a 1/16 hole where you can put silicone to seal, and see if that allows it to drain. If not try a few locations.
After you get an idea where it is then maybe you will have an idea how it got in and can seal the openings.

 

I'm going to have to think about that; not too anxious to drill too many holes on the outside of the lower cowl hoping to strike water.

The "sloshing" sound sounds fairly loud inside the van so I'm wondering if the water could be in the defroster plenum. I might probe inside first keeping a funnel attached to a hose nearby.

Never buying another new Ford.

Never.

 

Time heals a lot of wounds and some hard feelings.
Even new babies are born with some problems.
Appreciate your sense of humor, many times that was all we had to solve some of these problems.
Just think, If you have enough holes drilled , it should dry faster !
I believe you are on the right track checking out the inside where the sloshing is loudest.

 

I guess I agree that time heals some if not all wounds. The thing that really bothers me, however, is that Ford with their 100 years of experience should never be in a position of building cars that do stupid things. Like collecting water in the plenum - that is just plain inexcusable.

The time has come to be past these growing pains in a company with so many great cars to their credit.

Upon further consideration of the situation I have come to believe that engineering is probably not always to blame. In certain instances it's lack of attention to detail at the factory in Windsor Ontario.

Let me prove my point.

Yesterday my Freestar's Motorcraft battery kicked the bucket after exactly 5 years. When replacing the battery I found a Snickers bar wrapper under the battery in the battery tray. You know that has to be from a factory worker.

Such pride! Would a Lexus or Audi factory worker do this? Never.

All it takes is a few jerks with an attitude and voila - we get cars that do stupid things.

My long-time friend just bought a 2011 Explorer that has a rear window that leaks every time it rains. So the question still remains.... is it poor engineering or poor execution?

Well, I don't care what it is -- no more new Fords; they have lost me forever.