So i bought this car around a week ago, the floor behind my driver seat was soaked today. I dried it up with a towel and a few hours later it was soaked again. It is not raining out and has not rained since I bought the car, soooo no leaking from T-tops or the hatch. I found the drain plug DIRECTLY underneath that part of the carpet, slightly pulled on it and water came out.

My questions are what can I do to fix this? Pull the plug out? Does it go straight to the carpet from there or is there water stored up between it and the carpet? Do I replace it with a new one?

Also, I have constant headlight and interior light flickering whenever it gets some gas and goes above idle.

Thanks for any help guys

 

Cars don’t really have drain plugs. They have plugs that are needed in the painting process. When the car is dipped the car would form air pockets if the plugs where in place. As a general rule the plugs are spot welded in place. To remove it you would have to remove the carpet and either drill out or hack away the spot welds. In any case you are removing something that was not designed to be removed.

I think you are going at this the wrong way. Seems to me your car has a lot of water under the carpet. After you drain it and drive there is more because you did not get it all. There could be some under the driver’s feet and whenever you accelerate it just goes to the back. Your main focus should be finding the leak. After you find the leak just jack the car up in the front, remove the rear seat and lift the carpet and shop vac as needed but it is a waste of time until you find the leak.

While you have the carpet up check for rust. It is a very common issue with cars that have a leak and very common in the 4th gens to have no floor under the carpet at the feet of the back seat. Sounds like you still have a floor but if you see rust starting under the carpet you need to treat it to make sure the floor stays there.

 

I agree with Gorn that the water was stored somewhere inside, either under the rear seat (most likely) or under the front seat. Then vehicle movement caused it to run to the rear floor. The leak is almost certainly from above (windows or hatch or t-top). It may have been dried up by the previous owner in trying to hide the leak, but it was not anticipated that the stored water would reappear so soon.
There is a rubber plug in the floor area (see photo of my 98), but it simply drains from the floor. It is slightly possible there is damage to the under-body allowing water to be sprayed up and into the floor area but that should be visible from underneath.

 

Gary that is the plug I was talking about. It hasn't rained in almost 2 weeks. You're saying all this water has just stayed in the front of the car and goes straight back where it comes through the carpet? And how do you find a leak? This sounds just as stupid as tracing wires, I stopped driving my cherokee due to electrical issues, now I'm about to stop driving my week old car due to issues that require the same idiotic process. I don't have the time or the will to pull the carpet and do all that to find a leak.

 

Unless there is a gaping hole in the floor, I can't imagine another good reason for the water being there. I never noticed where there might be a dip in the underbody that might trap water. You can remove the rear seat cushion very easily by removing just one bolt at the seat bottom front. Then examine the carpet and floor just under the seat to see if it is wet. If it is, the water came from the rear most likely.
It is always possible the owner left the windows or hatch or t-top open during a recent rainstorm and the water was everywhere. You could just wait to see if it returns with the next car wash or (?).


Edit: I just removed my driver side rear seat and noticed a fairly large "well" there that could keep a lot of water captive. There are also some depressions under the front seat.

 

Ya it just seems pooled up on the driver side floor areas. I cleaned it all up as best I could for now. There are no areas on the sides where it seemed to be dripping from, where it would have to drip down into the middle of the floor area. Under the back seats is completely dry. It is literally on under the driver floormat and the back seat floor mat. And theres is no way it could drip off the T-tops down to those spots either. And all the weather stripping looks in great shape.

 

Ok then, another possibility is that there is a displaced grommet in the firewall on the driver side that is letting water spray inside when you drive through a puddle. I should think there would have to be a big hole and lots of puddles to make that much leakage though.

 

When I brought my 99 home I found a very similar issue. These cars have a thick insulation pad under the carpet and that holds like a million times more water than a lake has. Anyway It took me a while to get all the water out of mine and I used towels, a shop vac and then once I got about 95% of that all dried up I put a ceramic heater in the car blowing hot air under the carpet that I propped up with a piece of wood. I had to remove the seat to do this but it was worth it. After a couple of days of the heater in the car I had the water dried up 100%. My leak was the rear area of the T-top and I fixed it by removing the old rotten foam rubber part of the moulding and regluing it with a moulding adheasive. Dont fret too much about the water, diligence and a little time will get it all taken care of.

For your headlight issue, go take the car to O'Reilly's and have them check your charging system. You may have a bad alternator.

Massey

 

That sounds right. I recently had the flickering interior and headlight issue. The alternator on the car was a 1-year old lifetime guaranteed rebuild from Autozone. I had the guys at AZ test it and it passed their setup. I insisted they swap it for another one. They agreed and the flickering light problem disappeared.

 

Ok, ill clean it up as best I can for now and wait til it gets wet out and see if it gets more water. I know the plug directly below the carpets drip out water when I pull on them.

And ya I work at Les Schwabs so I figured it was the Alternator but I haven't had a chance to test it so I'll do it at work sometime soon. Thanks for the help guys.