my passenger floor is wet too. I keep throwing my empty cans that way and the last little bit spills

 

I thinkl that has a much quicker solution. I applaud your attention to detail.

Brian

 

Cant tell what I'm looking at there, but there is just a hole at each end of the cowl area that allows the water to drain into the fender. Its a rather large hole, hard to miss. You can see if with the cowl cover in place, just open the hood and look down in the ends.

 

The water doesn’t drain out the round hole. If it got that high it would overflow into the heater/ac inlet duct. The water drains out the smaller openings on the left side of the picture. If you park your vehicle on the street, which is crowned making the passenger side the side water and debris drains g the to eventually they may get clogged which happened to my vehicle and potentially others.

 

This is where the water drains out of the cowl. Large hole at each end.

 

That is where the water drains on the outside portion of the cowl. The inside portion where the air intake is for the heater/AC is in the cavity behind the metal you run into if you keep going towards the rear or up in your first photo. The seem shown in the first picture from the inside (original Post) is where the vertical steel panel that is below the fender fastener with the torque bit and the hinge is bolted to meets the curved portion of the inner cowl wall about 8-10 inches behind the hinge. The inner cowl walls runs across the entire vehicle just behind the exsposed portion of the cowl.



This picture shows the cowl wall that was cut but it was opened up further to get the original photo. The rounded rectangular hole is for the rubber plug that is in the cowl wall. The hood hinge has been removed to get this view as well as the black plastic cover that goes over the outer cowl. You can see the air intake and the small lip around it.

 

man i have this same problem. for the second time this year, my 94 flooded the passenger compartment and i spent 2-3 says drying it out! I knew something is going on in that rear cowl area! Thanks for discovering this!

So what's the best way to get back there and clean it? I would think a pressure washer would just get that area wet all over again??

 

You use the pressure washer from the outside. Direct it into the spot behind the hinge. You can't see it and it is hard to get the pressure washer into the area by going between through the middle of the hinge without getting wet but it worked fine for me. You can't get enough water through that small slit to fill the area up. The water from the pressure washer will drain out the big hole just in front of the hinge where the outer cowl drains. Good Luck.

 

After 3 years I have finally solved the nagging wet floor on the passenger compartment. I had determined it was a blocked drain but had been unable to figure out where. Water would collect up in the cowl to the point it would go over the lip of the air intake. I tried to clean the inside of the cowl as much as possible with compressed air and bent wire brushes but had no luck. I finally cut open a cowl at the junk yard so I could see where the drain was. Turns out the cowl on the passenger side drains from a slit between 2 welded panels. This slit is located in the rear most portion of the passage behind the hood hinge where the cowl intesects the fender support framing. You could take off the hinge and use a hooked pick to clean this slot out but I chose to use the pressure washer and a fine stream to blast the crud out and it worked. It is pouring out for 2 days and my floor is dry for the firdst time in memory. Victory was long in coming but now I can put my carpet back down and all finall reinstall the kick panel.

Below is a picture taken inside the cowl with the seam on the left side. YOu can see where the front cowl panel used to be on the lower portion of the photo.



Hope this helps other out. I was never able to find a solution in other forums.

this is great news! I started having this problem this year after 28 years of no problems in the rain. its quite a bit of work to undo the interior and remove the seat and spend 2-3 days drying up the interior.

just to confirm, the first pic is from the inside of the cowl just past the hvac intake towards the fender?

 

Yes

 

There are several slits along the bottom of the inner cowl that lets whatever water that gets in there (idk how it would get in there?) drain into the 'main' cowl area then it drains out each end.

 

90% does drain out but there is still a small lip so water can pool at the edges if the drain doesn’t let it out fast enough. If I remember correctly the drivers side lets the water into the inner cowl near the edge. If the car is level, all is pretty good. If it slants to the passenger side when parked it drains past the slot if it rains hard enough.

Now that I have the front fixed. I found another leak in the rear right corner so my windows are still damp inside in the morning. I just have to figure out how to take the plastic pieces out without breaking them. It’s always something.

 

I just have to figure out how to take the plastic pieces out without breaking them. It’s always something.

You mean this, D pillar “appliqué”? I didn’t name it 😂

 

Well gents, cant thank you enough. I took off the cowl and my wiper motor, found a huge huge mound of leaves and dirt, 29 years worth with the last 9 years being from being under a tree. Cleaned it all out and found all 4 of the drains on the cowl to be severely clogged. The amount of leaves that had broken down and turned into dirt was insane and the dirt was caked and stuck to the body. Cleaned it all out!

I went to the corner where BrianKoss mentioned and it didnt look plugged but i cleaned it with a brush.

I went thru each of the 4 drains plus the edge briankoss mentioned with a long flat disposable razor utility knife. I shoved it in there and cleaned it all out and made sure its open.

During the last flood, I took the plastic cowl cover off and dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water somewhat slowly over the windshield to look for the source of the leak. I did this while parked on the right side of the road. It flooded badly.

I just did the same test again. I did pour somewhat slower to avoid another flood but happy to say all the water drained out. And given the plastic cowl cover is off and all the water from the bucket went straight into the cowl, it still didnt flood into the jeep!

I took a video to show the area Brian shows draining. In the first few seconds of the video most of the water is coming from the ledge above the cowl, but you can clearly see the area brian mention draining later on in the clip.

Video:

I imagine with the cowl cover on and most of the water coming in diverting to the drain, this should fix it.

I never call it good until a few months have gone by, cuz I always eat my words and continue to deal with these types of issues, but I feel good this was the root cause of my flooding.

I also noticed my rear right passenger footwell and the area where the jack goes was flooded. Since new the grommet for the rear passenger door wires was off and on the body side was open. Its never been an issue and every time Ive tried to pop it back on its popped back off. I discovered that from the factory the grommet was installed upside down (or the rubber has formed some sort of memory and forced itself off the body). I removed the grommet from the door, rotated it 180 deg and popped it back on and it stayed on very nicely.

So hopefully I fixed the source both leaks!

 

Can you help me describe where these locations are . At first I thought it was my sunroof so I sealed it off but it’s happening again so I think there is a clog I just don’t know what a cowl is or where it’s located to even start to see if something it clogged

 

I just don’t know what a cowl is or where it’s located

 

Check in, April 2025. Still havent had a flood and we've had some decent rains!

Crossing fingers it doesnt happen again.