Water Leak on Floor - 2006 Town Car

[81spacetiger]

Ran my '09 TC through an automatic carwash yesterday and lo and behold I had a wet carpet on the back passenger side when I pulled around and started to vacuum the interior. Stopped by Lowe's today and bought a length of rubber marine and auto seal with the self adhesive tape on the back. Took apart the cowl and there was a section of the factory seal that had just disintegrated and was completely missing. The hardest part was removing the sticky tape and glue residue. A little heat from my heat gun was all that was needed though and it came off with a little elbow grease. Cleaned it all up with a little isopropyl alcohol and applied the seal making sure to leave no gap between the points where it joined. Got everything all back together and fired up my pressure washer and purposely blew water all around the cowl area. No water made it through.

Also to note: I bought a bottle of Concrobium mold remover and preventative and soaked the back seat carpet and let it sit for a few minutes before using a towel to dry it up. Hopefully that will ward off any mold growth from starting.

This is the weather strip I purchased and used. Installation was easy and it is very flexible.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/M-D-10-ft-x-19-32-in-Black-Auto-and-Marine-Seal-Rubber-Marine-Automotive-Weatherstrip/1038917

Did you clean out the discharge port? For mine, black dirt clogged the port but it didn't looked plugged because of the color. It was only when I put my finger up the opening that I found all the dirt; water slowly washes the dirt to the port over time but doesn't have enough pressure to force it out. Eventually the dirt builds up to plug the discharge port...

 

[TC_Owner_GA]

Did you clean out the discharge port? For mine, black dirt clogged the port but it didn't looked plugged because of the color. It was only when I put my finger up the opening that I found all the dirt; water slowly washes the dirt to the port over time but doesn't have enough pressure to force it out. Eventually the dirt builds up to plug the discharge port...

While I had the cowl section out, I inspected and cleaned the plastic very good. I even took the rubber flap off that covers the drain chute. Everything was cleaned before reassembly. Even the painted metal base where the seal sits was cleaned. Let's hope this fix lasts a good, long while.

 

[DadOf6]

Trying to address leaks in my '03. I thought I would have had the situation addressed after resealing the cowl area. Somebody had it apart before but they didn't replace the foam and left it poorly assembled so it wouldn't even seal if the foam were perfect. So I thought the problem would be fixed. Based on other comments I also puttied around the drain that comes out in the wheel well. I washed the car and saw no evidence of new water.

Yesterday morning we had a relatively short, light rain. After I took the car out that afternoon I happened to lift the passenger floor mat and much to my dismay there was a visible wet spot again and then I found wetness in the rear passenger foot well again too.

I checked the A/C drain and it seems clear. I checked the job I did under the cowl and it still seems good. I checked the door drain holes and they were clean. I do have a moon roof, but it seems to be sealing tightly and looks clean around it. Some of you mentioned windshield leaks, but is the original Carlite windshield, I haven't seen any evidence of the seal failing and I hesitate to spend money on getting it worked unless I can positively identify it as a problem.

Right now we are almost in a drought and are getting very little rain. I hate to see what these foot wells are going to look like if we actually get a real downpour like we should at this time of year.

What am I missing? What else should I be looking at?

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

Well if there was water getting in and you don’t lift the carpets it takes a long time to dry. Also, if you put sealer around the cowl fresh air intake and it still leaks then it could be coming in from the firewall where the hood release passes through. Also, if you have a sun roof, the drains are probably clogged.

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[DadOf6]

Well if there was water getting in and you don’t lift the carpets it takes a long time to dry. Also, if you put sealer around the cowl fresh air intake and it still leaks then it could be coming in from the firewall where the hood release passes through. Also, if you have a sun roof, the drains are probably clogged.

Thanks for the input. I would think a leak around the hood pull would go into the driver's side foot wells? Those are bone dry.

Also when I fixed the cowl, I pulled the plug under the rear passenger footwell and had a couple of my younger children take turns dancing around in there until it stopped dripping water. That left it still damp, but no longer sopping wet. Then I left the mats out and cracked the windows for a couple of hot, dry days. No water was noticed despite repeated checks until after yesterday morning's rain.

 

[FrankAA]

Trying to address leaks in my '03. I thought I would have had the situation addressed after resealing the cowl area. Somebody had it apart before but they didn't replace the foam and left it poorly assembled so it wouldn't even seal if the foam were perfect. So I thought the problem would be fixed. Based on other comments I also puttied around the drain that comes out in the wheel well. I washed the car and saw no evidence of new water.

Yesterday morning we had a relatively short, light rain. After I took the car out that afternoon I happened to lift the passenger floor mat and much to my dismay there was a visible wet spot again and then I found wetness in the rear passenger foot well again too.

I checked the A/C drain and it seems clear. I checked the job I did under the cowl and it still seems good. I checked the door drain holes and they were clean. I do have a moon roof, but it seems to be sealing tightly and looks clean around it. Some of you mentioned windshield leaks, but is the original Carlite windshield, I haven't seen any evidence of the seal failing and I hesitate to spend money on getting it worked unless I can positively identify it as a problem.

Right now we are almost in a drought and are getting very little rain. I hate to see what these foot wells are going to look like if we actually get a real downpour like we should at this time of year.

What am I missing? What else should I be looking at?

Good luck, I've had one leakage problem after the other on this "luxury car".
Just keep searching the internet-- It could be a number of things as other folks pointed out, these things leak all over the place.
I've simply given up and purchased a carport to put over mine and try to avoid driving it in the rain😂 (where I currently live I don't have a garage).
Also, the carpet is super easy to pull out-- I posted an ad on Craigslist and found a guy willing to pull my seats and carpeting out and dry it for a good price, however after seeing him do it I wish I would have just done it myself ( very easy).
As mentioned elsewhere, it will take forever to dry. The padding underneath is very, very thick.
Welcome to Old Lincoln Town car ownership 👍

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

Thanks for the input. I would think a leak around the hood pull would go into the driver's side foot wells? Those are bone dry.

Also when I fixed the cowl, I pulled the plug under the rear passenger footwell and had a couple of my younger children take turns dancing around in there until it stopped dripping water. That left it still damp, but no longer sopping wet. Then I left the mats out and cracked the windows for a couple of hot, dry days. No water was noticed despite repeated checks until after yesterday morning's rain.

The water leak from the hood release will get the passenger side wet. Can’t hurt to check it and refresh the seal just in case. I can’t remember what part of the floor was wet in an 07 I had where the culprit was the hood release. See YouTube for other ideas on leaks. I seem to remember something about the doors. Maybe you also didn’t seal the cowl area good enough. Oh and clean out that little drain rubber flap under the hood in the cowl area. When that gets full it will cause backup and water gets in.

 

[Unk]

Have a 2006 town car and when I'm driving it and it rains water shows up on the floor of the right rear floor. Cannot see anywhere that it is coming in. Has anyone had this problem and know the solution? Had a 1/2 inch of standing water on last trip and the bottom plug is tight. Thanks

The water is actually entering the car from under the hood, by the heater box. It follows the wiring harness in a channel from the heater box to the right rear floor.

______________________________

 

[DadOf6]

Good luck, I've had one leakage problem after the other on this "luxury car".
Just keep searching the internet-- It could be a number of things as other folks pointed out, these things leak all over the place.
I've simply given up and purchased a carport to put over mine and try to avoid driving it in the rain😂 (where I currently live I don't have a garage).
Also, the carpet is super easy to pull out-- I posted an ad on Craigslist and found a guy willing to pull my seats and carpeting out and dry it for a good price, however after seeing him do it I wish I would have just done it myself ( very easy).
As mentioned elsewhere, it will take forever to dry. The padding underneath is very, very thick.
Welcome to Old Lincoln Town car ownership 👍

I would park it in the garage but that is taken up by my Miata and my wife's Sienna. The Miata needs to stay out of the rain or it will turn to rust like most of the NA Miatas. The Toyota's dash doesn't like the sun and turns to goo if left out too much.

Pulling out the carpets seems pretty extreme, but would give a great opportunity to find leaks that are invisible to me now. I may come to that and give me a chance to really detail the areas under the seats.

The thing is people don't pay a lot for a luxury car because it will last forever, otherwise Audi, BWM, and a number of other luxury brands would have gotten a lot better or gone out of business. They buy them for comforts, conveniences and cachet not found in lesser cars. The thing about these old Town Cars is the luxury comes on a platform that is relatively cheap and easy to work on and maintain. I will solve this problem and I am thankful for any help I get along the way.

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

By the way, some people have experienced water coming in from underneath the car where the bolts for the seat go. Also a place worth checking

 

[btesar]

Thanks for the input. I would think a leak around the hood pull would go into the driver's side foot wells? Those are bone dry.

Also when I fixed the cowl, I pulled the plug under the rear passenger footwell and had a couple of my younger children take turns dancing around in there until it stopped dripping water. That left it still damp, but no longer sopping wet. Then I left the mats out and cracked the windows for a couple of hot, dry days. No water was noticed despite repeated checks until after yesterday morning's rain.

Before you drive yourself crazy, I would ensure the carpet is in fact dry.

I had to take mine out and dry it for 5 days in a combination of the sun and a dehumidified workshop. The foam sound insulation on the bottom of the carpet seems to hold gallons of water.

While mine was out, I keep troubleshooting the leak to ensure I fixed it. I have gotten to the point where I can remove the carpet or put it back in the car in about 30 mins.

While it's out....you mind as well steam clean the carpet ;-)

Once you get this fixed, you will thoroughly enjoy the Town Car.

Good luck and be methodical.

Brian

 

[FrankAA]

I would park it in the garage but that is taken up by my Miata and my wife's Sienna. The Miata needs to stay out of the rain or it will turn to rust like most of the NA Miatas. The Toyota's dash doesn't like the sun and turns to goo if left out too much.

Pulling out the carpets seems pretty extreme, but would give a great opportunity to find leaks that are invisible to me now. I may come to that and give me a chance to really detail the areas under the seats.

The thing is people don't pay a lot for a luxury car because it will last forever, otherwise Audi, BWM, and a number of other luxury brands would have gotten a lot better or gone out of business. They buy them for comforts, conveniences and cachet not found in lesser cars. The thing about these old Town Cars is the luxury comes on a platform that is relatively cheap and easy to work on and maintain. I will solve this problem and I am thankful for any help I get along the way.

Trust me, pulling out the seats and carpet is super easy👍, totally blew my mind when I watched the guy do mine, he had it all out in no time.
If yours ends up like a swimming pool as mine did, that's the only solution to completely drying it due to the thickness of the padding underneath the carpet.
As for my comments about the Lincoln Town car in general, the reality is that Ford has known about these problems for a long, long time, and that's the fact that pisses me off-- they didn't fix these problems.
Lincoln won't do nothing for us however when my 10 year old Lexus' dash started melting Lexus replaced the dash as well as the door panels for free (however that recall has ended, I believe).
One of my problems I suppose is that I tend to compare every vehicle to toyota/lexus quality, and most vehicles fall short. That's all.
Of course I acknowledge that Toyota and Lexus have had a few problems here and there as well.
Whatever the case may be, I genuinely love my land yacht when it's running and dry 😂.
Unfortunately it's once again in the shop for a power steering issue which was fixed last month 😂 (this time they say that it needs some sort of gasket).
Good luck with yours 👍

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[Vinci]

FWIW, I didn't care for the Permatex silicon route on my cowl either, and while I've used the weatherstrip from Lowe's referenced above, I'm not convinced it is thick enough for this job or what its longevity will be exposed to under hood temps. My car had already been done once with silicon, and was starting to leak again when I got it.

I went with what we used to call Permagum, which I believe was a brand name, but is now just generically called duct seal. Here's the Lowe's link. It's cheap, and about the consistency of Play Dough, and is good to 350 deg F. Older cars used it extensively on seals like this, and it was common to see the seals intact 25+ years after production when I was restoring old muscle cars. Automakers went away from it because it largely has to be shaped and applied by hand, it's too viscous for a robot to easily do, whereas less durable silicon is not.

The other part of this I've not seen mentioned in this thread is that you really should remove both halves of the cowl cover. The driver's side half requires a windshield wiper puller to get the wiper arms off. There was a lot of trash on that side in my car, trying to clear the drivers side drain from below would have only lasted until more trash got washed over to block it again.

 

[DadOf6]

Before you drive yourself crazy, I would ensure the carpet is in fact dry.

I had to take mine out and dry it for 5 days in a combination of the sun and a dehumidified workshop. The foam sound insulation on the bottom of the carpet seems to hold gallons of water.

While mine was out, I keep troubleshooting the leak to ensure I fixed it. I have gotten to the point where I can remove the carpet or put it back in the car in about 30 mins.

While it's out....you mind as well steam clean the carpet ;-)

Once you get this fixed, you will thoroughly enjoy the Town Car.

Good luck and be methodical.

Brian

I finally took the advice a couple weeks ago to pull the carpet and dry it in the open air. As you said, it took days to dry out even when it was hung up and lots of water was squeegeed out.
While I was at it I found another section of saturated foam to the front of passenger foot well, under the dash. I didn't see any easy way to remove so I squeezed the water out and put a stick under it to let it air out while the rest of the carpet dried on the porch.

The legs of the center console had rusted badly and left a lot of rust crust on the carpet. We got all that scrubbed out of the carpet. While I was at it I coated the metal legs of the console with rust reformer and a coat of paint to prevent it rusting again. Thankfully the floor pans did not have any signs of rust. With the seats and console out of the car it was also a good time to clean and detail spots on them that are hard to get to while in the car.

Before putting the carpet back we tested the leak fix by hosing and pouring lots of water all over the outside. No signs of new water intrusion! We had a pretty good rain this morning and the carpet is still perfectly dry.

Summary: My water weak was fixed by sealing the cowl. The carpet holds too much water to dry without taking it out and can make you think there is still a leak. While it is out is a good time to fix problems caused by the water and give the car a good general cleaning. Also while the carpet is out, check the front of the foot well for more foam holding water.

 

[raiderfan247365]

I finally took the advice a couple weeks ago to pull the carpet and dry it in the open air. As you said, it took days to dry out even when it was hung up and lots of water was squeegeed out.
While I was at it I found another section of saturated foam to the front of passenger foot well, under the dash. I didn't see any easy way to remove so I squeezed the water out and put a stick under it to let it air out while the rest of the carpet dried on the porch.

The legs of the center console had rusted badly and left a lot of rust crust on the carpet. We got all that scrubbed out of the carpet. While I was at it I coated the metal legs of the console with rust reformer and a coat of paint to prevent it rusting again. Thankfully the floor pans did not have any signs of rust. With the seats and console out of the car it was also a good time to clean and detail spots on them that are hard to get to while in the car.

Before putting the carpet back we tested the leak fix by hosing and pouring lots of water all over the outside. No signs of new water intrusion! We had a pretty good rain this morning and the carpet is still perfectly dry.

Summary: My water weak was fixed by sealing the cowl. The carpet holds too much water to dry without taking it out and can make you think there is still a leak. While it is out is a good time to fix problems caused by the water and give the car a good general cleaning. Also while the carpet is out, check the front of the foot well for more foam holding water.

I only had water in my driver's side floor, I didn't fully remove the carpet, but I did pull the driver's seat out, propped up my carpet with scrap wood and let it bake in 90-degree sun for a week. That was enough to fully dry it. The foam that sits directly against the firewall is the hardest to get dry, I ended up just cutting it to make it easier to prop up and get air flow in there. But yea, without that summer heat it's very difficult to dry out that foam near the firewall.

 

[2004tc2022]

Have a 2006 town car and when I'm driving it and it rains water shows up on the floor of the right rear floor. Cannot see anywhere that it is coming in. Has anyone had this problem and know the solution? Had a 1/2 inch of standing water on last trip and the bottom plug is tight. Thanks

Just I did mine last week with cabin filter.

Here are the links to repair

fix leaking

Discussion

TownCar Cabin Air Filter - Lincolns OnLine Message Forum

TownCar Cabin Air Filter 1998 - 2011 Town Car

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Install Cabin Air Filter

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[mikeceli]

Does Ford sell a new seal?

 

[Babyburr]

Does Ford sell a new seal?

They may, but you want to make your own with the refrigerator type seal.

 

[mikeceli]

They may, but you want to make your own with the refrigerator type seal.

I know I could make one, I'd prefer to buy one.

 

[raiderfan247365]

I know I could make one, I'd prefer to buy one.

I hear you, and maybe you are the type of person that really likes everything to be OEM. But this is one of those situations where Ford's engineering of this part is just not good. Find a Ford seal if you really want but I am pretty confident that most of us on this forum who have dealt with this leak would advise an aftermarket solution.