2006 Jaguar XJ8 L 73,000 miles. Sunroof. After a rain or a car wash I'm getting standing water in my right rear footwell. I can vacuum it dry and it will stay dry until it rains again, or when I go thru a car wash again.

I dropped the headliner and removed the right-rear trunk panel to inspected the right-rear sunroof drain tube. Solidly connected, not brittle, no holes, no kinks. Blew compressed air through line and it's clear.. Through visual inspection both ends are connected and secure. Emptied a bottle of water into each corner of sunroof and it quickly drained to the ground thru the tubes. Not a problem with the seals around the sunroof or around the rear door. The carpet below seat is dry and along the right- rear pillar is dry along the inside with no signs of ever being wet. Seals look new. When driving no wind noise from around door. Suggestions?

 

All I have are the two TSB's but it sounds like you covered them.

 

Ok, first - don't pour water into the sunroof channels to test. They are not designed to hold water or have a rush of water going through those channels. Odds are your sunroof channels are fine.

Second, check the front drains on the sunroof for good measure (of course this would not be a contributor to your water in the rear foot well)

You will find that the water ingress made its way beneath the carpet to the floor panel/foam. I would pull the front seat and get a wet vac in there.

Finally, with the TSB. All might look well with the door seal but you will find its the small gap between the body panels that channel the water behind the seal, into the gap and it finds its way to the rear foot well.

I would perform all the suggestions in the TSB with the marine clear silicone. I did them all as I had a notorious water intrusion issue after sorting the sun roof drains.

Once completed - no more water in rear foot well.

 

As oboonano suggests, you will definitely have water pooling under the carpet/foam that you need to get out, as there are large bundles of wires that run along the right side footwell. Though best to pull the seat, if you park down hill, you can probably get most of it by pulling the front passenger side door sill off (it and a couple other offending pieces of plastic just pop on and off), then pull the carpet/foam back from the front footwell.

 

Thanks abonano. I've checked all 4 of the sunroof drains. All flow freely and exit the vehicle. Not a problem with any of the 4. I had vacuumed the carpet dry a couple days ago, after having taken it through the car wash. Got it to the point of being just slightly damp to the touch. Two days later and it's soaked again. I use the car daily, and run the A/C daily as well. It's possible that it could be condensation seeping under the front carpet and settling in the right-rear floor. Next step is that I'm going to remove the rear seat, the right front seat and pull up the carpeting. From that, I should be able to identify where the water is coming from. With those pieces out I'll also go over each seam in the technical article and seal them. It may take me a couple of weeks to schedule the down-time to get this accomplished, but will follow-up.

 

To answer your question, no. The water for sure is getting to the rear floor pan from either the gap in the door panel (under the seal) or trunk (another prone area) I know it doesn't seem like it's possible (trust me I've been there) but it certainly is..

No need to remove the rear seat. Just the passenger side seat removed will give you more than enough room to get the carpet up. Rest assured you'll find standing water on the floor pans and that foam will be soaked. You'll also find water might have found its way to the front floor pan as well. This was the case with my car.

I thought the same.. Wet vac the carpet, dry to touch and all good. Nope, I had water in both rear foot wells (drivers side was due to clogged sunroof drain)

Had to remove both seats, wet vac foam and floor boards and ran a portable heater in car on/off for 2 days to get everything dried up..

Thumbs up on performing those TSB's. If you run into issues or have questions PM me.

 

Abonano... I've been reading about blocked A/C evaporator drains on the XJ8. It's a possibility that I'm going to look at. It's humid here with temps in the high 70's. I'm using the A/C and there's no water draining from underneath. I'm going to get the car up enough to crawl underneath to see if I can find the evaporator drain tubes that are supposed be either on each side of the transmission or near the firewall. I've read that they're about an inch in diameter. Having the front seat out will help to get at the blower motor under the dash. Might as well clean it all out with a disenfectant.

 

Passenger side of the trans tunnel if memory serves. Don't blow air up it. Typically that blockage would leave water in the passenger front footwell but it's a good idea to check it as it should be draining.

 

Is this drain easier to get to from underneath, or from in the cabin? I've pulled carpet back from passengers side footwell. Water under both front and rear carpets. Water dribbling down from A/C unit -condensation. After drying, with no air on, it remains dry. Can't see evaporate core from blower motor hole. Blew in 8 oz can of evaporate core foam disenfectant to clean out evap core. Can only assume it did it's job at this point, because can't even get in there with an inspection mirror to see it. Going to spray in another can to be sure. I do not not see the A/C inside drain on the passenger side. Before taking apart driver's side want to be sure of the side.

 

Access it from underneath the vehicle and a reminder to NOT blow compressed air up the line -

Edit, if you use compressed air, use low pressure. The core matrix sits in a box and the clog is likely where the drain connects to the box. Careful what you push up there as you don't want to puncture anything or tear the line loose.

I think you have to remove the dash or parts of it and the floor duct to get at the box from the inside. This isn't very common on x350's but it can happen. Make sure you cabin filter is clean and no clogs there also. I would remove the filter, and the filter housing and clear out any leaves/ crud.

 

I know these are different vehicles but a gent named Kevin posted this on the XK forum. Now keep in mind the XK drain ends above the transmission and is a duckbill type which often clogs or sticks shut so the problem is different there. The intent of me posting this attachment is to give you an idea of where the drain is on the interior of the car and you can see access is not easy. I can only assume it's similar on the XJ but don't know for certain.

Second, a common trick on the XK side is to close all vents and put the A/C on full blast.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

I posted this on another forum, but thought I would share it here.

I also had water accumulation in the driver's side passenger foot area of my 2004 XJ8. I first cleaned out the drains, then removed the headliner, then sealed the panel gaps and chased all other posted information including in the TSBs. No luck.

I finally found the problem. Above the doors starting at the hood and running to the trunk above the doors is a chrome trim strip. Behind the chrome trim strip, both top and bottom are two - two piece rubber seals. The longest pieces run from the hood to 2/3 the way through the rear door (both top and bottom). From there two smaller strips run, both top and bottom the rest of the way. What I found is a gap on both the top and bottom rubber seals. This permitted water flowing down the chrome strip drain channel path the ability to enter the cabin. Using the passenger side as a reference I deduced how the factory originally positioned the seals. Mine had moved forward about 1/2 to 3/4 an inch. After trying to push the rubber seal it would not move due to friction. I used a credit card between the body and seal to dislodge any places it was sticking - no glue is involved and the seal is free to move by design. Starting at the front I wedged the credit card in and ran it the length of the seal. Then I slowly worked back and forth moving the seal back to where it originally resided. It takes some time. I used a tweezers to pull when my fingers did not work, making sure not to scratch anything or damage the rubber seal. I used this technique for both top and bottom until the seals were back in place. It sounds more difficult than it really is - basically you are just pulling the rubber back into their original position.

I originally thought of pulling the chrome strip, but it would not budge and I didn't want to bungle it. Ideally this would be the best solution as one could easily apply a dab of silicone on the ends to keep them from moving and not affecting the flow of water with a silicone blob.

This solved my problems. I now periodically inspect the seals to make sure they are still where they should be. Good luck and I hope this helps many.

 

Got my dripping water under the dash under control. First, I found a "duck bill" drain on my firewall. My 2006 Jaguar XJ8L has no drains on either the right side nor the left side of the transmission tunnel. None through the passengers nor drivers footwell. Looked all around the transmission with mirrors. It just had to be somewhere close to the air conditioner on the firewall. The only thing I found was under the firewall's insulation in the engine compartment. It's at the very bottom edge of the insulation blanket on the driver's side directly behind the head.my fat hands would just barely fit Behring the head. In the attached photos you can see that I point to it's location with a screw driver. I was also able to fish a thin piece of weedeater line into it. After running line in/out no water exited, but this was the only one found. Hope these help someone.

 

IN my above post I provided photos of what I can only assume is the evaporator core drain. This is the "duck bill" type drain cover protruding through my firewall. Since no water exited the drain, I decided to do what another owner had done and install a drain of my own making. I purchased a 1/4 x 3/8 inch threaded plastic fitting and about 3 ft of 3/8 inch clear plastic tubing from the hardware store. I used an 3M Silicone 5200 Marine Adhesive compound to seal the fitting. Available from Napa, eBay, or Amazon. I drilled about 1 inch behind (toward firewall) the lower evaporator core fitting and associated lower hose. There is a nice flat spot on the housing there. It's also at just about the lowest posing of the box. The fitting will self-thread. After screwing in the plastic fitting I heated one end of the plastic tube and slid it all the way onto the fitting. To allow the condensation to exit, I routed the tube along the black plastic rear heater duct, on the side of the transmission tunnel. I drilled a 1/2 inch hole thru the aluminum floor for the tube to pass through after cutting the end of the tube at a 45 degree angle. This will help it to not be blocked. Please review the photos and let me know if you have any questions.

 

2004 XJ8. 41k miles I have brought this to two shops, a Jag repair shop and an auto upholsterer. Neither could solve the problem after many $'s of work.. Took out headliner, sunroof drains working fine, no leaks there.

They can't determine source of water intrusion.

I reacd the TSB No. B501-13, dtd 17 Feb 2005, both repair shops followed that TSB.

Has anyone solved this type of problem?

 

I have brought it to 2 shops, a Jaq repair shop and an auto upholstery shop. Neither could find the problem. Sunroof drain channels work fine, headliner removed, no leaks with drain piping.

At a loss as to where the water is coming from.

Suggestions?

 

I've had 2 - X350's one of which is an XJR.

Both suffered from water ingress issues. The TSB covers them all.

The trunk area, rear passenger door and front passenger area seems to be the biggest offenders. Again the TSB covers it all.

No need to drill holes, add barbs and drain hoses.

Get good sealant and follow the TSB to the letter and all will be well and dry again.

 

Sorry for late response. I have a similar problem with my 2007. All TSB’s have been followed, sunroof drains clear and tested with headliner out. Problem on mine is that the sunroof seal let’s too much water through and this water overwhelms the sunroof drains,
especially if the car is not level and hence only 2 drains are draining. This was confirmed when headliner was out and you could see the water overflowing from the sunroof drain channels.

Replacing the sunroof panel seal had no effect on my car. Even with a new seal there is a small gap between the seal and the roof opening (enough to slide a couple of sheets of paper through).Problem was confirmed by simply putting temporary tape around the sunroof and voila no leaks at all. I have not found an easy fix to this. This
may not be your problem, but worth a try. Just put some temporary tape around your sunroof and see if it makes any difference.

 

First thought was install a new sunroof seal but that was covered. I would suggest (especially if you removed the drain from the sunroof assembly) place a very small dab of RTV sealant on the drain and reattach the hose. I think this may be part of a TSB but not 100%

I would also ensure the drain channels leading to the drains are clear of any debris. The drain holes can be tricky too. Go in there with a strong flashlight and ensure they have no build up narrowing the passages.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention that with the headliner out I could see where the water was coming from. All 4 drains are clear and flowing well. Problem is too much water coming through the seal on the sunroof panel. If the car is level the drains can handle the water? But when on an incline, the catch channels and drain hoses can not handle the rate of flow. I posted just in case somebody is chasing the same problem. Taping the sunroof temporarily confirms if you have the issue or not. Many thanks though.