I'm trying to better understand how rain is channeled around the car, and I've seen a few sparse mentions in the forums of rocker weep holes, holes that allow water to escape from the areas under the door sills. Not from the doors but from the car's body under the doors.

Once or twice it's mentioned that these can become plugged with debris. One thread even talked about the holes being crushed closed from lifts missing the jacking points.

When I lifted my '97 today and went under I didn't see anything that looked like engineered holes, though. I only see a few points that look like gaps in the seam.

Can anyone clarify what these weep holes are supposed to look like and where they're located? Pictures are a plus, obviously.

 

Volkris, I can't say where the exhaust goes are, but I've heard of folks clearing them out with snake like tools from the top. Got any wire, or old guitar strings? Bet you could see it protrude from the bottom if you fed it through from the top. (Top = see the 4 ports,1 each side corners under hood & trunk nearest passenger compartment).

John

Just reread your question. Guess the only weep holes I know of are under trunk and hood. easy to find if you live near pine trees, leaves and pine needles seem to build up right over the openings.

 

As far as I know the only weep holes are on the bottom of the doors. The front cowling has a drain located on each corner by the fenders. The drain hose is routed inside the wheel arch liner to the outside. The convertible run off is channeled around the the trunk. Other than that no other drains would be needed.

 

Thanks for the replies.

So the big question here is, We always say the water goes from the front corner drains through the rubber pipes and into the wheel arches, behind the wheel arch liner, but how exactly does it get from that space out of the bottom of the car?

When I pour water into my corner drains I don't see it coming out directly below the drain. It actually leaks out along the rocker seam with drips going back farther than the jacking point. In fact, here's a picture looking back from my right hand wheel with the arch liner pulled out of the way. The corner drain dumps into this volume, and if the angle was slightly different you'd see the rubber pipe that connects to the drain.

The bottom left hand side of the picture goes back under the door, so as water goes back there it needs to get out somehow.

I just found this stated in one thread: "they are small channels at the jacking reinforcements to the pinch welds underneath the rockers, front and rear". I missed that last night, but it sounds about right. I'll have to see how clear those small channels are tomorrow.



For the sake of searchers who might be able to use this image, there is the coolant overflow tank and the cruise control stuff

 

Here are some findings that might help other people.

Firstly, yep, rocker weep holes are part of the lift points. Here's a picture of my front right point showing the gap where water can flow out.

Secondly, well as background my right side front floor gets soaked whenever there's rain. I've been trying to track down the leak on and off for a year* but no luck so far, which is why I'm trying to fully understand the rain drain path. Here's what I noticed over the weekend, though: the right side drains from the corner cowl drain through the rocker weep hole pictured below, but the left side drains between the body panels as can be seen in the second picture.

So: non-leaky side drains through the body panel gap. Apparently this is how it's supposed to flow. Leaky side drains through the rocker. Water is flowing through the corner drain, through the rubber tube, into the wheel arch, and from there going deeper into the car's body.

I believe I found a seam where the seal had been compromised, so I've patched that, and we'll see if it solved anything during the rain forecast for tomorrow.

* I've read all the threads in the forums about AC drains, the subfloor panel, etc, etc, so no need to bring those things up



Rocker weep holes are in the jacking point

Rain water flowing from the corner drains under the hood

 

There are also three or four of these running along the bottom inside of the sills/rockers on each side, around 18" apart:



The opening is only around 1/8" wide so will clog easily.

 

Thanks @michaelh ! Is that an orange something or other sticking up into the hole?

 

LOL - no - it's a power cable running up the barn wall for one of the temporary LED floodlights I've rigged up to improve the lighting.

The drain hole is more obvious that the pic. shows. The flash has taken all the shadows out.

I stripped back a length of copper mains cable to use as a poking tool.

 

When jacking, I always use an ice hockey puck between jack pad and my cars....... works great and very safe!

Adrian, founder member Seattle Jag Club. Happy New Year