Date:         Thu, 4 Jan 2007 18:29:46 -0800
Reply-To:     Nathaniel Poole <npoole@TELUS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Nathaniel Poole <npoole@TELUS.NET>
Subject:      Re: LEAKING WINDSHIELD SEAL
In-Reply-To:  <002d01c7305e$c86e7650$6501a8c0@study>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Water is nefarious. I discovered something similar, but it was right inside
the van itself, in the passenger area. The first clue was discovering water
in the battery box. Today I lifted the carpet from the plywood underlay, and
found that the wood was damp and rotted in three of the corners. I stripped
this out and found muck and some rust in these corners. I cleaned everything
off but had to find out where the water was coming from. Because of the
battery box, I decided to check out the area of the passenger door, on the
wheel hump. Lifting the rubber liner, I found it was wet underneath, but
just at the top of the wheel and back. The water had to be coming from the
door.
I hosed the door down on the outside, and sure enough water was dripping out
of the air vent on the door. I pulled the door panel off and found that
sometime in the past, someone had cut the plastic liner to get at the
mechanism. Rain water was dripping off the bottom of the window, down the
inside of the plastic between the door and the panel and dripping out the
bottom of the vent. From there it ran onto the wheel hump under the rubber,
back to the back of the battery box where it ran down to the floor under the
plywood. From there is ran along the channel to the corner behind the
driver, where it then ran to the back corner.
Where you see the water is rarely where it's coming in.

A bit of packing tape and caulk, and now it's dry.

Judging by the condition of everything, this has probably been going on for
years. Because somebody cut a sheet of plastic inside a front door.
I swear I'm going to get A PO voodoo doll.

Nathaniel


On 1/4/07 4:16 PM, "Jerry" <jbvelo@BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote:

> ALL, you may have seen several posts last week
>
> about leaky windshield seals on Vanagon's. I finally
>
> fixed mine so I'll relay to listeners what my problem was.
>
> It wasn't the antenna seal, I did install a new antenna
>
> but I new I had an effective seal there.
>
> I thought I had my problem leak fixed until I drove my
>
> Vanagon the same day.  I parked the vehicle for a while
>
> while it was still raining and when I returned there was
>
> rainwater standing in my rubber floormats on both sides.
>
> I waited for another warm day(60 degrees) and parked
>
> the Vanagon facing the bright sunshine.  Previously I
>
> used silicone sealant on the lower corners of the windshield
>
> extending the sealant coverage toward the middle of the windshield.
>
> I pried the seal away from the body channel with a butter knife
>
> and squirted a good bead of sealant between the seal and the
>
> windshield channel.
>
> I didn't put any sealant at the top corners extending down
>
> toward the lower corners on each side. Seems the rain water
>
> was leaking in at the top corners of the windshield seal and
>
> running down the seal channel to the inside of the vehicle.
>
> Drove me nuts for a while.
>
> BOTTOM LINE:  Be sure to seal the entire circumference
>
> of the windshield between the seal and the frame seal channel.
>
> I think mine is finally sealed, I'll know in the morning!
>
>
>
> Jerry
>
> KY 88 GL BUS-ter