For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

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younggunls1
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For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

I did this write up on another site and wanted to share it here in hopes it will help out others with their leak issues. My car is now water tight and better than it came from the factory. Here is how it started.. note: ------ represents moving onto a new post in that thread I had on the other site

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I have been having this issue since I bought the car, during a very hard rain I end up finding the carpet in the rear driver side floorboard soaked. A day goes by and the car smells horrible like dirty wet socks and the smell can not be rid of.

Well that issue hasn't been here since this past summer, and my car has smelled nice and fresh since then. Two nights ago We got some serious heavy rain and wind and the next day my car smelled horrible. Sure enough the carpet was wet.

Instead of just soaking it up I decided to lift the carpet, and I am glad I did, even after I had the carpet dry, there was still about an inch deep standing water pooled in the corner of the floorboard. The foam padding was soaked and even after having a fan dry it all night it did nothing.

So somehow wet carpet led to this:
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I ended up finding the padding under the carpet in the front driver side is also wet and water under it, and the passenger side rear floorboard as you can see in the second photo was wet at some point in this cars life as it looks horrid

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Well I ran the hose while sitting in the car with everything out and holy ****

In a matter of 30 seconds my floor was flooded like 2 inches deep and the whole area where the battery is was flooded.

It was running in from the headliner behind the rear doors and from behind the rear seat. Also opened the trunk and my entire spare tire was under water.

Thought I would add the water worked it's way up to the frame in the middle between the doors (the pillar) and where that long trim piece attaches from the headliner all the way to the floor, with that out, a steady stream of water flowed right from the ceiling.

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The corners of the headliner ended up soaked and water dripping from the edges, and the water itself was pouring out from behind the backrest.

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to be continued in next post
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

Door Seal Leak: The water pools up along the weather striping as you can see in the picture, and when sitting inside it then begins to run in and that is what is causing my pool of water in the back seat as the trail it takes is the exact one that I see by the water stains on the carpet. This also explains why the carpet up front is wet too, as it pools in the same spot, just at the front of the door and runs in there too.

Driver side:

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Passenger side:

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Sunroof Leak: I am not sure how the drains work or where they are, but when I pull the headliner down enough to see underneath when the hose is running outside, water is running down in a few spots.

looking back towards the rear of the car under the headliner. You can see that wire hanging down and if you look just a little to the right of that you can see a water stain on the board of the headliner. It is dripping here, which then runs towards the corner of the headliner and down the trim by the rear seat, and then out under the seat.

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Now what confuses me, is the first time I ran water and sat in the car it poured in like crazy, later on when I did it again (which I was not excited about doing) it did not do this, it just trickled on the headliner when looking back with the flaslight, and I had the hose exactly the same way. This makes me believe something might have been plugged and now it is less plugged...or something along those lines


Trunk leak looks like it is coming down along the tail lights then there is a piece of plastic trim that runs along the bottom of the trunk opening and the bumper, which has a space where water can run in. This is a design issue in my opinion as it isn't broken or anything, just stupidly designed.


It all started with vacuuming up some water in the carpet..and now has turned into a bigger project than I had thought.


I also had the car parked right in the center of the driveway, which means I can't get my Van out for work tomorrow, or her trailblazer in the driveway...wasn't thinking..so I made a makeshift Drivers seat and held the shifter down with both hands so I could move the car lol:

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Last edited by younggunls1 on Tue Oct 01, 2013 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-Nick
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younggunls1
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

OK sunroof drains are blown out so that should fix sunroof leak, however I went further and and the area that the water was dripping from the sunroof track at the rear was a slit in the metal where it ran through, I caulked that shut so that the water is now forced to go down the tube, even if it is comming in too fast.

Will be doing a leak test later today.

Trunk Leak I sealed the area where I believe water was going in with silicone. Will do leak test later today.


I also have the headliner out and stripped so it is ready for the new fabric once it arrives, as I ordered it today.

I will update with pictures of everything and on whether they worked.

Stay tuned..


---------


Ok guys final update and lots of pictures, hopefully this info will be of help to anyone who has leaks in the future.

The car is now water tight and put back together, except for the headliner, as I am waiting for my material to arrive.

Sunroof Drain leaks:

There are 4 drains for the sunroof, one in each corner.

The rear ones the water runs down the sunroof track inside the car, all the way to the back, where the outlets are and the tubes then run down along the rear window and exit behind the rear wheel.

These were plugged so I blew them out with an air compressor. Also, when they were plugged the water would build up enough to run through a slit in the metal track on each corner, which then would cause the water to run on the headliner, down the trim and out under the rear seat. To make sure water is always forced down the tubes if for some reason it was comming in too fast, I sealed these slits up with silicone:

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Next you have the front drains. The problematic one is the Drivers side. It runs from the sunroof down along the windshield, behind the dash/firewall and out behind the front wheel.

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When running water on the car, I was getting water running right from the corner under the dash where the parking brake is where you can see the cardboard like piece on the floor:

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The problem with this sunroof drain is a poor design on GM's part. The white tube that runs down from the sunroof connects to a black tube further down. There is no clamp on this tube so it simply slips out and all the water then runs into the car.

The connection for this tube if you look at the picture above, is along the side of the car about 5 inches above the top of the parking brake arm. The only way to get at it is pull out the dash, or thanks to the internet, I was able to find another way to get at it by removing the parking brake assembly so you can get at the rubber barrier above it and cut a hole.

When I did that I found this:

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I re-attached the hoses and used 2 zip ties to keep them together. They won't be coming loose ever again.

Now that I had my sunroof leaks fixed I needed to turn to the door seal leaks. The rubber seal on the car which the door presses up against when closed, was somehow getting water on the inside of it and then draining into the car.

You can see the water pooled up here where it runs in:

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And from the inside it looks like this (This is a picture of the passenger door):

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I needed to find out how this water was getting here so I pulled the door panels off and ran a hose over the car once again.

If you look at this picture you can see the rain barrier on the door, which when the water runs in the door it is supposed to then run out of the holes just above the bottom of the rain barrier, however as you can see the seal/caulking on the rain barrier is not tight, so the water then runs out the bottom..resulting in it pooling up on the weather seal and then into the car.

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So I got out my silicone again and permanently sealed up the bottom and a few inches up along the sides (if I should need to replace a window regulator I can simply peel it off and then would have to re silicone it again when I am finished)

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Passenger door:

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After doing this I did another leak test and low and behold you could watch the water run inside the door and then out the holes..after opening the doors the seals were bone dry, like they are supposed to be.

I then checked the back doors, which were not leaking into the car, but the seals were still a little wet, so I pulled those panels off and re sealed them up as well. Did another leak test and now the door seals are completely dry.

So now the car is water tight and I can start putting it back together.

Before I did that though, I wanted to protect myself one step further from having to rip everything out again if for whatever reason some water would work its way into the car again. I decided to seal up the foam on the underside of the carpet so that if water would get on the floorboards it would not easily soak into the foam, as it took me 3 days of fans, sitting in the hot sun, and squishing, to get the foam dry and water free..something I don't want to have to do again.

So I glued plastic to the bottom to prevent it from soaking water.. I also drilled a small hole in the corner of each rear floorboard where the water liked to pool up and painted the drill holes to keep from any rust forming (even here in Florida). This should make sure any water that gets in won't pool up and will drip out the bottomI didn't remember to get pictures of the drill holes though. It may work, it may not, but I feel better that I took this extra step. :

Image


While I had everything out, the headliner was loose in a few places so I decided it would be a good time to replace that. Here you can see I have the fabric removed and am half done removing the old foam backing of the fabric from the headliner board:

Image

I finished that up and it is ready for the new material, once it arrives I will finish it up and then that will be the last thing to be put into the car..for now the car functions just fine without it.

And here is how it looked without anything in the car other than the dash itself:

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And for anyone who wants to know how to remove the backrest, after removing the bolts on the bottom, there are 4 clips that hold it in near the top:

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Simply pull the seat out enough from the top so you can see the clips from above and use a flat head screwdriver and push the tops of the clips down to compress them so that you can pop them out.


In conclusion

I hope this will be of some help to the next guy who has water coming into his car. Also I hope it can help prevent issues for some people, go run water on your cars..if your door seals are wet, then water is getting into your car, even if you don't see it...so you need to fix the seals on the rain barrier inside the door. Your carpet might not be wet, but I guarantee the foam on the underside of your carpet is..so do yourself a favor and fix the problem before it becomes a mold infested, horribly smelly issue
-Nick
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by bobgto65 »

Nice write-up. Did you fix the right front sunroof drain? It also comes apart under the rubber on the firewall, just like the left one. You have to remove the glove box and it is to the right of the glove box under the rubber. Mine was leaking there also. While you have the carpets out, power wash them after spraying and scrubbing with carpet cleaner and a stiff bristle brush, and they will look just like new. Yes you will have to dry them again but it is worth it, and you may have to take the plastic off the bottom or the foam will never dry. You can put the drivers seat back in and cable tie the shifter to the vent duct under it if you want to drive the car.

My trunk well filled up also, due to the weatherstripping on the trunk and water leaking in at the bottom lip. You can bend the metal up a little (where the weatherstrip snaps in along the bottom and re-seal the weatherstrip with 3M weatherstrip adhesive. I had a little free time and went fishing in the spare tire well and caught a 6" Bass. Water also fills up in the rear center plastic panel and then when you open the trunk it empties into the trunk lid and drips down into the trunk. You can drill a couple holes along the bottom of the trunk lid inside the outer lip at the bottom to let it drain out.
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by nubuilder »

I never did find my trunk leak. I replaced the seal and that didn't do it. Couldn't see any obvious places. My solution was drill two small holes where the water pooled first and POR-15 the spare tire well. I should probably check how that's been doing....
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

Ya I think I did the pass side too..I cant remember it was years ago. I waahed the carpet and used carpet cleaner and then sucked it dry..I did take all the plastic off when it was drying but after that put plastic over it to keep any water from soaking up if it ever got underneath again which is unlikely now that I fixed theb issues
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by 00Beast »

Yeah, I'm definitely glad I never had water leaks in my car. Nice write up!

Also, there's some more info in our Techinfo section, especially for the doors:

http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 11470.html
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... c1688.html
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by 1oldman »

Nice write up. Thanks!

As for the right rear passenger door leaking around the door frame (if I read it correctly), our '92 was that way from the factory. The dealer had to re-align the door to get the door seal to seat. I never was able to get the trim around the front passenger door and carpet to set properly after that. - BC
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by gweg_b »

Great write up! I know the pain!

I had my interior out from September of last year to July of this year. Was kinda crappy, but that was due to issues getting a replacement sunroof (my original was broken), winter rolling in and lasting forever, and then me deciding to completely upgrade my stereo system.

I had planned to do something similar with my door seals. I got it all back together, and it started leaking again. I removed all the old stuff, cleaned, and put in new stuff, and it still decided to leak. So, I'm thinking before it gets too cold, I'll do what you did and use some silicone to stop those nasty door leaks.
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

Thanks guys..just thought it would be nice to share this for others in the future if they run into the same issues I did..it took me a lot of trouble shooting to find all the the leaks and I know something like this would have saved me a lot of time!
nubuilder wrote:I never did find my trunk leak. I replaced the seal and that didn't do it. Couldn't see any obvious places. My solution was drill two small holes where the water pooled first and POR-15 the spare tire well. I should probably check how that's been doing....
I can't remember but I think my sunroof fix also fixed my trunk leak..I am assuming you have a sunroof..check the rear drain lines as if one came loose it could be draining into your trunk. After blowing out and fixing all my lines I had no more leaks.


Basically the majority of the leaks in these cars is caused by the sunroof drains being plugged or disconnected.
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by Dean »

A few ideas on the trunk leak: I found 2 in my journey: http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 39872.html

1. Check the weld seams along the channel beside trunk lid gasket. You can do this by having the trunk open and running water down the rear window, so it runs along that channel. I found that a weld point that looked fine was actually leaking in:

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2. Check the trunk gasket. I had leaks in these 2 places:

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It may be that you pull, seal, reseal & even replace the gasket and it doesn't resolve it. This was my experience. So after the last time I resealed the gasket, I took a guess and bent the lip you see in that picture upward to meet the trunk lid more firmly. I was afraid of going too far, misalinging the lip, etc., but in the end I just bent it as vertically as possible. These leaks stopped then.

3. Check your gas cap area. These models are prone to water collection & rusting in that area, and it might be able to rust into the trunk paneling.


I am not sure how bad it is to have an open hole in the bottom of your car to drain water from leaks. I doubt that much noise or dampness can come in to cause problems. But I do know that letting war keep coming through your car can be very damaging. Judging from your pictures, your car has been taking on water for a long time (I have some rust spots forming where your pictures show a saturation of rust on the floor). I also think that the plastic on the bottom of your carpet could serve to trap water (especially if your door seals fail again - remember the carpet mounts under the trim where that has been leaking in!). I pulled some off from the bottom of my carpet which looked like they were left over from manufacturing and a lot more water came out of the carpet sponge.

Good job on stripping the interior and fixing all those leaks!
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by RJW50312 »

SWEET WRITE UP!! I am dealing with this issue now. I ordered new carpet from rockauto.com and it cost me like 150. I plan on pulling the seats and console and then following your write up, i will do this this weekend. Thanks alot man! :banana: =D> :beerchug:
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by MrT »

Hello young..... nice 2002 sle. I have the same 2002 sle in the same color. Fortunately, I do not have any water leaks.
I like the paint job on the engine cover. Did you do this yourself ? I am thinking about painting my cover also. I bought my sle in April, 2013 and spent this year getting the regular maintenance up to speed. Need to do front struts next.

Car looks sharp.
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by Franksdad »

I agree with mr t engine cover is awesome you got a write up for that?

AWESOME WRITEUP BTW,

@rjw any idea how big of a job replacing the carpet is?
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by younggunls1 »

Thanks guys. Ya I had a short write up on another forum for the enginecover. I'llget it on here ttonight when I get

from work.

Btw replacing carpet just requires removing everything and laying it in.. Not hard at all
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by RJW50312 »

Franksdad wrote:I agree with mr t engine cover is awesome you got a write up for that?

AWESOME WRITEUP BTW,

@rjw any idea how big of a job replacing the carpet is?
I have been a little busy with the headliner. If you do the headliner, use a wire brush and minimal pressure. i pressed a little hard and got into the fiber glass underneath. not a hard fix. If you have time, spray a coat of adhesive on the board and let it dry then put the fabric on. I was told by a pro to do this because the glue likes to soak in too much. something like that!
take your time and its a pretty easy fix. the front drain tubes are a bi%ch to get to. the drivers one you need to take the three nuts off the e-brake bracket and move it aside to cut your access holes in the rubber. i will install my carpet by this weekend and let yall know how bad a job that is.

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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by MLM »

Bringing up this post. I found standing water in the battery tray and passenger side floor pan of my 2000 SSEi, and evidence of water intrusion in the trunk. I followed the advice of the OP (very nice post by the way) and tore everything out of the interior except the dash, console and driver seat, flooded the roof and doors with a hose and could not find any leaks. Sunroof drains and door seals are working fine.

Finally figured out that the water is coming in from the left rear wheel well by the fuel filler tube through a bad body seam. The seam looks fine (there is no evidence of a crack and no light is coming through) but obviously it has separated from the floor pan enough to let water and dirt in. I found a ton of gravel and dirt in the trunk so now it all makes sense where the water was coming from.

Image

Once in the trunk the water runs forward behind the left back seat and across to the battery tray on the passenger side. The water also runs rearward into the spare tire well. It probably only happens when driving in the rain from wheel splash. I've had this car for 14 years since new, no collision damage or anything, and this leak has probably just started within the past few months for no obvious reason.

I found this older post so I'm not the first with this problem (see pics 2 and 3):
blubyu wrote:I just fixed leak number 3 in my Bonneville (number 2 in the trunk). Leak number one was the right side shock tower. I sprayed undercoating around the spot it comes up through the wheel well. Leak number 2 in the trunk was a big one. I had about 2 inches of water in the spare tire well. Turns out it was coming from a seam on the drivers side. A piece of engineering brilliance (not) from GM. There's a hole in the trunk floor and side of car where the gas filler goes through. The entire area is covered with a metal cap and held in place with sealer. The seam was leaking. As you can see from the pics, on the wheel well side, there is zero sealer. There's a plastic access cap inside the wheel well. If you remove it, you can see the inside of the opening which is capped off inside the trunk. I put seam sealer all over the factory seam and cleaned all the gravel and mud from the wheel well side and sealed that also. You can see in the one pick along the base of the shock tower where the factory missed the seam entirely! I sealed that also, even though it didn't appear to be leaking. Looks like the union worker hit the end of the tube and just left it. Great quality control guys!

Here's a couple of the pics I took.
Pic 1 - pic of where factory missed a body seam entirely

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Pic 2 - pic of where water was just flowing in from the factory seam holding cap in place

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Pic 3 - View of cap from the wheel well side - no sealer from the factory at all

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03-SteelBlueSLE
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by 03-SteelBlueSLE »

Cutting to the chase... I wonder how many hours labor in what you did here?. My car's only got 80k and seems otherwise in fine shape. My leak issue makes it a 'mechanics special' though, quite a loss for me on a car I've loved for 6 years. Now, if I were like you and could tear everything out including seats, then meticulously fix everything like you did :hail: I wouldn't be posting here. But being 69 with a fractured spine and being mechanically inept, I'd have to hire someone, probably with a garage, probably a pro body shop.

DETAILS: My leak symptom is 98% in the front passenger footwell, just a wee bit damp in the driver footwell, nothing in back or in the trunk. It started last summer 2014. First, had the sunroof drains checked, A-OK. Next, web research pointed to an AC condenser issue. I had that blown out, the hole in the passenger firewall, a lot of tree debris, maybe last July, and then the carpet dried out by itself, seemed good. Then it was dry for 9 months, until I put the HEAT on one cold morning mid-May. Wet carpet again. So it seemed the heat/AC system was still the issue. But back to blow it out again, nothing, no tree debris at all. Lots of debris up around the wiper cowl, as always, unavoidable. Cleaned that out. Also cleaned out the inside-air filter box. But my mechanic then told me to get a new windshield. I got that done about 3 weeks ago, meanwhile haven't run the AC but maybe 15 minutes since last summer. Now we've had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks and the carpet's very wet again even with the new windshield and a clean AC hole. Then, I just read up about door seep holes. :banghead:
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Archon
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by Archon »

This thread is a couple of years old, and the poster has not visited since this time last year, so you're not likely to get an answer from him. However, at the top of this section is a thread on common issues where your problems are addressed. Neither the sunroof drain tube, nor the door leaks are very labor intensive. If you're able to get into the footwell area, with your back being the way it is, that is probably the hardest part.

Sunroof drains.
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... =43&t=1688

Door Leaks
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 43&t=11470
*Gone, but not forgotten* - Black 2000 SSEi, HIR Headlights, Angel Eyes fogs, 3rd brake light overlay, hi-flo cat, 180 degree thermostat, HS 1.9 rockers, LSx yellow springs, Intense FWI, PCM, shift kit, push rods, and 3.4 Pulley. ZZP Power Log.
03-SteelBlueSLE
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Joined: Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:24 pm
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Re: For anyone who has water leaks - here are your solutions

Post by 03-SteelBlueSLE »

OK thanks Archon. I should've checked on the OP date. Now I'm going to open your links and leave them open until reading time tomorrow.
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