Water leak driver side-98 Ranger 2.5L

[Jay11]

Today I pulled out the seats and carpet, to chase this leak with a water hose. After opening up the wiper access in the engine bay side I found it pretty clean. Other folks find debris that blocks and creates the leak. Mine's very clean. From inside the cabin I found water streaking down as per the arrow below. Seems I have a different cause for this problem. Any one else has dealt with this and how?

On the engine side I found water leak here

And here is a pic of the wiper access space.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So, this looks to be more body and glass problem so I’m gonna move it over there.

 

[SenorNoob]

Since your arrow is right along the seam, I'd guess dried out seam sealer.

 

[Jay11]

I came across this link, is this the seam and fix you are talking about? => here

 

[SenorNoob]

Sounds like it.

 

[Jay11]

How do you get to the seam sealer? Removed the fender, cover under steering wheel, ran water on the cowl and jammed the hose on the holes marked on the photo. Eventually there was a leak at the same spot. To view the exact leak spot, looks like I have to remove the foot brake pedal mechanism. Am I on the right track?

 

[SenorNoob]

So is it leaking where the parking brake cable goes thru?

IIRC those holes are supposed to be the drain. If you're blocking them and filling the, cowl up something is gonna leak pretty quickly if it doesn't run out the other side.

 

[Jay11]

Finally located the leaks. One was where the accelerator cable goes through and the other was a dried seam sealer, way above the parking brake cable goes through. I then sealed the pockets in post above but drilled 3 holes at the bottom to drain it. This pocket was holding water up to the side holes level. In all I would say it's not necessary to remove the fender panel. First check the cowl makes sure there's no debris blocking drainage. Next if you still have a leak, work from the inside until you have exhausted all your leads before you move to the outside fender panel. As you can see from the pics the fender panel doesn't give you access to much.
I used an exterior rated thermoplastic sealant used on windows. It's very thick, very tacky, silicon like and holds very well. I figured it won't be exposed to the elements and will hold at least just as well as it does when applied to exterior windows.