Ford Transit Water Leak Fix - Mike Mas

[IdleUp]

Hello B Forum Users - Soon after I purchased my Transit van, I noticed the drivers side rug would on occasion get soaking wet. So each time, I lifted the rug and stuck a fan in in the cab and finally got it dried up thinking it might have been an evaporator freeze-up or blocked evaporator drain. After checking the drain only to find out it was working properly, I noticed a few days later the drivers side floor was wet again. Finally after going a week with the AC off, the floor still getting wet so I looked elsewhere.

After a few more weeks with the problem - I noticed that every time I washed the windshield, the rug became wet again. After a few more days to research the problem further I found the source. There is a water tray at the base of the windshield which catches the water from the shield and disperses away from the engine and electronics. The problem is, Ford made a bad decision regarding dumping the water from the tray.

Instead of diverting the water to the ground - They instead designed a water diverter on each end of the tray which takes the water and dumps it right between the inner and outer front fender. Evidently inside the fender there is a void or opening which allows the water to leak into the cab and fill the floor cavity.

What’s even more Strange - Ford actually put a large insulation pad between the fenders where the water dumps right on it, keeping it wet. Anyhow to remedy the problem - I removed the two tray water diverters, then installed two 5/8” hoses on the overflow drains at each end of the tray. I then ran the 5/8” hose through the engine compartment so all the water now is released under the cab.



Notice on far right you can see the fender opening where the diverter dumped the water






Since my Water Episode - I found numerous post on forums from other owners with wet floorboards. To my knowledge, Ford has not issueed a bulletin on this problem. While many Transits vans are not effected with this problem, I assume that during manufacturing some of these inner fenders were not caulked properly. Regretfully I threw away the diverters which dumped the water in the fender - but you’ll have no problem finding them on your van.



Finally - I also included an image showing a large void at the lower end of the windshield sides where water will trace down the shield and dump onto the firewall - this should be caulked with silicon. To prevent any rain water from entering the fender openings (below) I made cap to seal them as shown below. I performed this fix nearly 8 months ago and my floorboard remains perfectly dry. Yahoo !

Enjoy - Mike





There are the two caps I made to seal the top of the fender openings