Hi! I have an 06 xj8. Beautiful. Never had a problem until recently. I walked up to the car after a heavy overnight rainstorm and discovered that there were two huge puddles in the front and back of the passenger side. I looked into the problem, and found that it could be a few things, but I have eliminated some. It is NOT a heater core leak because it isn't leaking coolant and it isn't an AC prob, because it only happens when it rains. I began to clear debris and leaves from the pollen filter and it seemed to help. Now, there seems to be a slight leak in the front. Very slight, but it's there (a little bit of water) and it fogs up the windows during a rainstorm, even when it is parked! Please help!

 

You need to put this in the forum for X350 cars. The syndrome is not unknown with these, so someone should be able to help.

 

First you may need to have this post moved to the x350 forum. Also you might look into the sunroof drains.

 

Hope this gets resolved!

 

As pointed out, you may get far better responses by posting in the X350 forum.


Based on what I've learned over the years with my '04 XJ, the two most obvious areas that come to mind that will result in water in the foot wells:
1 - The drain line for the pollen filter box is plugged. As you have found, the pollen filter box is a wonderful collector of leaves and other debris. You need to clean them out, and ensure the big drain line at the bottom (front/passenger corner) is clear of debris too. I use a garden hose and spray the box out, and spray down the drain line with to make sure it is clear. When clear, this drain line should be easily able to keep up with the hose turned on full blast spraying directly into the drain line.


2 - The sunroof gutter drain lines. If you have water pooling in the sunroof gutter, one or more of these are plugged. There is a small drain line by each front corner (about 1/2" back from the front edge) that you should be able to see fairly easily when the sunroof is fully retracted. There are another similar pair in the rear, but I don't think you can get at these without pulling the headliner off. Since these drain lines are smaller in diameter, it does not take much for them to clog or have diminished flow, at which point they are easily overwhelmed in heavy rain When the gutter over flows, you will typically only see water dripping from the underside of the glove box and the puddle in the foot wells. I have unclogged these by running a piece of flexible wire down a few inches of the drain line and/or with compressed air. When working properly, these drain lines should be able to drain a full gutter in about 10-15 seconds.


If you do have standing water in the foot wells, then you need to lift up the carpet from the door sills so you can sop up the water that will have accumulated under the foam padding of the carpet. You just have to pop off a plastic trim piece that runs along the door sill. There is a large bundle of wires that run along under the carpet on the edge of the door sills. The water that gets under the carpet has nowhere to drain, and will sit there doing potentially bad things for as long as you leave it.


Good luck clearing the clogged drains.