Drain hole cleaning methods?

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71plumdemon360

71plumdemon360

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Good Evening,

I had some cabin water leak issues (through my air vents) and noticed my inner-fender drainage holes were jammed with debris. I spent about 10-minutes using a coat hanger and quickly realized this method is ineffective and a pain :banghead:.

Anybody have any suggested methods to clean these hard-to-reach areas?
 
You wont want to hear this, but you probably have a rust issue in the cowl. VERY common in A body Mopars. Lots of post here about that issue. MT
 
Only way I know is pull the vents so you can get up from the inside. "Rig" some small hose to your shop vac, "stir it up" in there with various bent metal objects. Stay out of your wife's silverware, LMAO
 
I ran water down the vent grill with a garden hose and used the wire to keep clearing the drain hole till crap stopped coming out.
It worked pretty well.

Of course this method would kind of suck if it really was rusted through, but it would also probably answer that question for sure.
If the drain holes ended up draining and you still had water leaking in, then you know you have some rust holes.
 
Take the fenders off,open the vents,get the carpets out, and remove the floor drains. Flood it with water, and use compressed air.The river of water will float most of it over the vent lips and into the cabin.
lol.
I did this before the paint went on.If you dont get the sanding dust outta there, you will be sorry.
lol
anyway, that was my solution.
 
the debris that flushed out from there likely stopped again behind the dog leg portion of front fender. If you don't have rocker moldings you can remove 2 bolts and pull that section outward a little. be aware of spacer washers that drop out so they get reinstalled. After actually working to clean these areas routine flushing at high pressure car wash becomes the best plan.
 
Awesome suggestions guys, thanks for all the info!

Well I was able to clear the drain holes enough so i had water draining, a lot of water actually. I noticed some water (not much) still got into the air vents, does this mean I have rust holes?
 
not necessarily. One can spray water in directions that it wouldn't go normally.
Another member had removed/deleted the window washer nozzles. one of those open screw holes allowed water to drip directly into the vent box. Point being rust holes aren't the only holes. If there was a way to pull outside air to interior from somewhere else and delete the cowl vent grille, that's what I would do, along with adding a cabin air filter.
 
71plumdemon360 said:
Awesome suggestions guys, thanks for all the info!

Well I was able to clear the drain holes enough so i had water draining, a lot of water actually. I noticed some water (not much) still got into the air vents, does this mean I have rust holes?
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Don't discount the possibility that it's the windshield seal............
 
Got it! The rust comments had me freaking out a little :tard: . I will do a thorough inspection of the surrounding seals/areas and use some of the suggestions to clean my drainage areas. Thanks again guys :prayer:
 
RedFish said:
not necessarily. One can spray water in directions that it wouldn't go normally.
Another member had removed/deleted the window washer nozzles. one of those open screw holes allowed water to drip directly into the vent box. Point being rust holes aren't the only holes. If there was a way to pull outside air to interior from somewhere else and delete the cowl vent grille, that's what I would do, along with adding a cabin air filter.
Click to expand...

I've been contemplating putting in some sort of cabin air filter, possibly just cutting a round piece of low density foam to fit in the top of the passenger side aid intake. What did you do RedFish?
 
rednesss said:
I've been contemplating putting in some sort of cabin air filter, possibly just cutting a round piece of low density foam to fit in the top of the passenger side aid intake. What did you do RedFish?
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I haven't done anything but wishful thinking
 
I also had a bad passenger side leak. Turned out it was not coming from inside the cowl area, but water, doing what water will do, was coming in somehow from the area under the hood where all the pieces of sheet metal make a sandwich. I think through surface tension, it was going down, and then back up under the ledge where a lot of people mount the electronic ignition module. I ended up sealing up under that lip, and the leak went away.

Capture.png
 
rednesss said:
I also had a bad passenger side leak. Turned out it was not coming from inside the cowl area, but water, doing what water will do, was coming in somehow from the area under the hood where all the pieces of sheet metal make a sandwich. I think through surface tension, it was going down, and then back up under the ledge where a lot of people mount the electronic ignition module. I ended up sealing up under that lip, and the leak went away.
Click to expand...

Sounds familiar. I dug out as much of the old sealant as i could all the way across under that seam. Then resealed with neoprene roof caulk. That was actually ( at least so far) the final step in a long clean out and leak finding ordeal. Before that were leaks in the windshield gasket and holes in the corners of the metal, wiper pivots. Rust pinholes around the hole to the heater box. One that really had me for a while was right under the cowl drain hole. The flange you could see was fine, but the lower part was rusted away, so the water pouring out of the hole went right into the car.

As for the original clean out question... Before i did all that leak stop stuff,- I first tried wire in the drain holes (fenders off) while flushing water from above. Found there was too much to fit through the drains. Let it all dry out. Ran a small vacuum hose up through the heater box hole working it all the way across and sucked out as much as possible. Then used air hose from every angle possible to stir things up and vacuumed again. Repeated that several times.. When i had most of it cleared i went back to water flushing, blasting through every hole at every angle possible till no more crap came out.
 
Great image redness :cheers:. Update: Cleared drainage area. After heavy rain last night came to wet carpet again:banghead:! Found large gap in windshield weatherstripping/gasket, off to auto glass shop tomorrow. Pulling seat, carpets, and air vents next weekend (when I have access to a garage) to search for rust.

I have kept this car stored dry (for the most part) since I bought it in 2008, but water most likely made it in with previous owners. Fingers crossed the floorboards aren't too bad:pale:. The trunk leaked and I replaced the weatherstripping first chance I got, I also removed the minor rust found under the spare. Hoping for an easy fix for any damage I may find under the carpet as well.
 
I open up the interior air doors and use an air compressor. It does blow into the interior but it's at least out of the cowl area. I do this to every car i have ever owned
 
Sedanman said:
I open up the interior air doors and use an air compressor. It does blow into the interior but it's at least out of the cowl area. I do this to every car i have ever owned
Click to expand...

wear eye protection works wonders
 
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