2001 Tracker LT sunroof woes

Thanks guys. I'd call that a cowl cover, or at least that's what they call a similar part on an El Camino.

I have one of those cheap endoscopes. When the weather cooperates I'll pull the cover and run the scope down there. Probably not today, but soon.

Thanks again, I think we may be on to something.

Its one of those places that nobody thinks about. Dirt and leaves build up 9ver the years. I've cleaned several handfuls of nice compost soil out of some cars.

skills4lou said:

need to get out to either side of the vehicle to get to the actual drains.

Click to expand...

Can someone please show me where these drains are? I cannot find them.

L84sky said:

Can someone please show me where these drains are? I cannot find them.

Click to expand...

If you look right where your hood hinges are, you'll see a black hole under either end of the cowl cover where all the pine needles and leaves and muck lay. The same area where you look and say to yourself, huh, I'll think clean that some other time...

I think this is what we're talking about. Beyond where you can see, the water drains down from that tray and into the inner fender liner. As 2013 GV says, there's usually a lot of dirt in there, esp after 20 years. This dirt will eventually block the water from flowing out of the cowl fast enough to beat the inflow. Somehow it ends up on your floor. Thru the heater air intake possibly.

Not to be confused with sunroof drain hose which usually runs down the A pillar and drains ultimately to the same place, I believe.

This is enough to get me started. Now that we've talked this through, it makes perfect sense. In my case that "drain" has to handle both cowl water and sunroof water. I'm guessing this is exactly the problem area I've been looking for.

I suppose I'll have to pull the inner liner and clean all that muck out of there. But I believe it will be worth the effort. Once the weather improves.

The good news is that I think my wet floor problem is limited to the front drains, so I don't think I'll need to pull the rear fender liners. The rear drains will usually collect dirt too, but not as much, and they don't handle the same volume of water. Maybe I'll clean all of them, IDK.

2013GV said:

Unclipping the bellows shouldn't be difficult

Click to expand...

What the heck are "bellows"??

rallison203 said:

What the heck are "bellows"??

Click to expand...

The fancy pleated covers that hide where the sunroof glass mounts to the sliding mechanism on the sunroof

So parking facing downhill is probably the exact wrong thing to do. The cowl drain and the sunroof drains capture practically all the rainwater draining off of the roof.

If those drains are clear you should be able to run a garden hose down through the cowl without getting water in the cabin. Now, having said that if you park facing uphill and the problem goes away then that would be an easy "fix".

I see your point. Under the cowl intake vents you'll usually find the wiper transmission arms. I expect to find the heater air intake in there too, plus a lot of debris. And I expect 2013GV is exactly right, that the water is making it's way into the cabin through that intake rather than draining properly.

So I suppose I need to clean out the cowl area AND the front fender liners.

Incidentally I think this is the same pathway that rodents use to access the cabin. We've had problems there, too. Last week my son and I fished a dead mouse out of his heater wheel. I had a full nest of green moss in mine once, a few years ago.

L84sky said:

Where does that water exit the car?

I see odd shaped openings on either side of the cowl vents.


The plastic cowl directs water into these openings.

View attachment 109683
I can see a drain hole inside each opening but I can't tell where that water goes until I remove the fender liners.

View attachment 109684
But I'm pretty sure those two holes are not the drain for the cowl vents. Where does that water go?

Click to expand...

There's drain holes at the bottom, under those ones in the picture above that lead out into the space between the wheel arch liner and the outer guard / fender

skills4lou said:

No one is going to remove their cowl and inner fender liner to just to give you pics

Click to expand...

I wasn't expecting that but I was hoping someone had discovered where the water exits the cowl area. I don't want to run a hose into the cowl opening until I have a good idea of where the water should be coming out. If the only drain holes are in the blue circles I should be able see them from the wheel well. I will remove my fender liners and take pictures after the weather warms up. Can I assume from your annotation there is no drain hole inside the wiper access area?

I think once you pull the cowl and the fender liners, it will be pretty obvious how the water drains out. At least that's how I plan to approach it.

We get a lot of tree debris here, and rain.

In my car you can actually hear water sloshing around in the rear or sides somewhere, for example going around corners. Wherever it's coming from, I'm pretty sure it collects in the rockers which also have body drains. Eventually it all drains out. My rear floors are dry, so far.

rallison203 said:

once you pull the cowl and the fender liners, it will be pretty obvious how the water drains out

Click to expand...

That's what I'm hoping. Before this thread I had no idea where to start looking. If they are under the fender liners I will find them.

rallison203 said:

We get a lot of tree debris here

Click to expand...

This is not a maintenance issue for me. The car was parked under a carport for the first two years and garage kept for the last twenty. It has never been parked under a tree. I'm just curious about the design and construction of the car.

rallison203 said:

In my car you can actually hear water sloshing around

Click to expand...

I hope it's not this bad:

You will be surprised how much stuff accumulates in there after 20 years of dust just from driving. And yes, about where the blue circles are, obvious once the liners are off, unless that areas full of dirt as well.

L84sky said:

.... Can I assume from your annotation there is no drain hole inside the wiper access area?

Click to expand...

Correct, no drain hole near that access cover, only out at the far edges.