Milligan1

My 15 F150 2.7 has been at the dealer for 13 days now for a water leak into the front passenger footwell.

8 weeks ago my cracked windshield was replaced by safelite. About a week after that I noticed water in that footwell and figured someone spilled a waterbottle there.

2 weeks later on a trip out of town in very heavy rain, water starts coming into the cabin from the upper passenger windshield and also from the a pillar handle next to it. Safelite in the area replaced the windshield and remarked that the other guys did a sloppy job.

For the few weeks since then, the footwell gets wet but it was not been raining. Safelite paid to have the carpet professionally cleaned because the vehicle was having an increasingly moldy smell.

After the cleaning it was dry but the next day without rain the foot well was wet even trout the vehicle was not driven after it was cleaned.

I took it to the dealership that day and they saw the soaked carpet and smelled the smell. They rerouted a hose but have not found a leak. They professionally cleaned the carpet but the mold smell is so bad they are replacing the carpet.

How often do mystery water leaks happen? Where is all the water coming from without rain that a factory trained tech could not find? AND THE BIGGEST QUESTION I KEEP ASKING AND AM NOT GETTING AN ANSWER TO IS WHEN THE WINDSHIELD WAS LEAKING AND WATER WAS COMING THROUGH THE A PILLAR HANDLE, DOESNT THAT MEAN WATER WAS INSIDE THE FRAME? AND DOESNT THAT MEAN WATER WOULD MOVE DOWN WITH GRAVITY AND POTENTIALLY POOL SOMEWHERE AND THEN LEAK INTO THE FOOTWELL? AND WOULD THAT NOT BE A SOURCE FOR A CONTINUAL MOLD PROBLEM SINCE THE WATER IS TRAPPED INSIDE THE FRAME?

My insurance company has been staying involved and safelite is aware. The ford service advisor told me that they want me to bring the vehicle back if I have any more problems once they get the car back to me.

Does anyone know if I will have a chronic mold problem with this scenario? Has anyone heard of this? I appreciate ford doing the right thing but it seems too coincidental to have an unrelated leak after a leaking windshield. And just to be clear, the day the windshield was leaking, it was a lot of water.

My insurance company has offered to send out an adjuster. I guess if the leak comes back or the car still smells I will have them do that before I consider bringing it back to ford. Not interested in a chronic mold problem/smell but this is not a clear lemon law problem because I still think it is related to safelite's poor work. What a pickle!

GLT68

Since replacing the windshield is where this all seems to have started, the first step should be to have it removed and resealed. It would be easy for water to pool inside or on top of the heater box and leak back out later on. As far as the mold goes, the box would dry itself out, so if they replace the carpet and the padding, you should be fine as long as the leak is fixed.

CollinM

At the dealer if we have a leak and cannot find it we bring leak specialists in. At mine atleast

Milligan1

Thanks. They did have the leak guy come and he could not find an active leak. I suppose as the post above mentioned, may be dealing with old water. If that is the case and the dealership is accurate saying it is not leaking now then replacing the carpet should end the nightmare. I called the dealer yesterday and the new carpet was in and they were supposed to install the new carpet. Unfortunately nobody ever called me back to tell me the truck was ready.

GAllen

Hi all:
I have a 2022 F150.
I have same problem and it is becoming more and more bizarre. Apparently when it rains, water is coming in the rear top opening(opening to fresh air box??) of the cabin air filter compartment.The problem originally showed up as no airflow through any vents: top, middle, or bottom. Fan was operating fine. The first time it happened, about 4 months ago, I thought perhaps it could be an electronic hiccup as so many things are computer controlled nowadays. I cycled the engine start a couple times to no avail. Waited a day, and next day was ok. However, I now believe I was fooled into to thinking it was ok when really what happened was the cabin filter was soaked(blocking airflow) and dried out overnight. Fast forward 4 months. About two weeks ago, airflow problem reoccured. After some internet searching, I was prompted to check the cabin filter. It was soaked! (We had just had a good day of rain a day (or few days) prior. I reached my hand into the filter compartment, upwards and over the opening, bending my fingers downward, discovered about two inches of water! I siphoned it out, a lot of water came out, maybe a quart or 2 quarts. Then I created my own “rain shower” over the top of the truck and checked the cabin filter compartment. again the back area was full of water, and it was dripping down into the fan area which is below where the filter would normally be. A little more background info. I had the windshield replaced by Safelite in June prior to these events. After my rain test I was convinced the windshield must be leaking. Today I took it to a different Safelite dealer (First replacement was done in a different state as I was traveling) They removed windshield and said that the sealing of the windshield was perfect. There were no problems found, so they reinstalled the windshield. They informed me that they thought there was no way that water could get in there because the windshield went down over the entire area. And additionally, they thought metal walls sirrounded the area. However, then they showed me with a water hose that if you put water in the outside vents located between the edge of the hood and the windshield wipers that the water would mostly run through the vehicle and onto the ground underneath the truck, but looking inside, it was again running into the area behind the cabin filter compartment and down into it. They were as baffled as I now am! So, next I will get an appt with a Ford dealer. I’m really concerned in where else the water might be going. It it definitely running down into where the fan motor is but what else?!. Not a happy camper.

UPDATE 12/13/23: I believe I’ve solved the problem. I took a video by inserting my phone through the cabin filter compartment, up and over into the area where water was collecting. I noticed on the far right side there was a deep drainage “pit” where there was a little standing water and debris/dirt. Using a wet vac and homemade smaller hose attachment I was able to clean this area out fairly well. Then I put some water in that area and it did run out below the truck. We’ll see when we get some good rain again if problem is solved. Fingers crossed. Still from video attached. Update 12/17/23: We had a massive rain storm yesterday. Checked the area where the water was collecting and getting my cabin filter wet. DRY!!! HAPPY CAMPER. And avoided the hassle of taking to the dealer which couldn’t get me in for a month!!

Area behind cabin filter compartment collecting water.