robertj

When I got my XJ, the floors were rusted out, and I had to patch them with new metal. My XJ is my winter beater, and over last winter my floors on driver and passenger side got wet. I read all I could on it, and started looking at the obvious culprits. I couldn't find an issue anywhere, but seeing how my 20 year old OEM windshield was pitted and hard to see through I decided to replace it before taking the Jeep out of the garage for the winter season since i put so much time into fixing the rust and replacing the carpet.

I took it to Safelite, and talked to the technician and described my issue. He found rust after he removed the old windshield on the lower area and cleaned it up with a grinder before installing my new windshield. It's been a week, and we had a huge rain storm a few days ago, and I'm happy to report my floors are bone dry. They would have been soggy after a rain like that before.

Morale of the story in my case is that it was the windshield. I'm probably lucky that I got a good tech, because I'm sure some are lax about it when fixing something like rust.

Ralph77

Yeah thinking you did too. I have a leak in my '00 and was able to determine it was the windshield too. Talked to a glass company and they said they could remove and reinstall the windshield for about $130. That is with me supplying the rubber molding because I wanted a real Mopar one. They pointed out 2 things to me that I already new. First might not be able to get the windshield out in one piece and the second is what you went through. There might be issues going on under the windshield that no amount of gunking it up will fix. He said about $170 with a new windshield but if something else was going on under there then it could be an issue. Just so happens that my Jeep was going into the body shop to get some surface rust issues dealt with. Mostly hood and roof. So I figured I would let my body guy deal with the windshield too. If there is something going on under there he can fix it. If it is just a remove and reinstall all the better.

robertj

The body shop is a good call. I even thought about removing the windshield myself and then taking it to somewhere like Safelite after I cleaned up everything myself. I did get lucky I'm sure, because I have read reviews about installs that leaked worse after they were replaced.

Ralph77

Just got my Jeep back from the body shop and my guy said there was a little surface rust in the channel. But the seal was messed up for about a foot in the area where I indicated water was coming into the passenger compartment from the windshield. Thing about leaks is you may know where the water is entering but the real question is where is it traveling from. Little tip my body guy gave me. When a windshield is replaced it has to cure for a bit. So he told me to keep my front driver's and passenger side windows rolled down a bit and to close doors as softly as possible. Theory being that air can push on the inside of the windshield when you slam doors and affect the seal till it has a real chance to cure. With the windows open the rush of air can escape elsewhere. Something that never would have occurred to me.

robertj

That is a good tip. Thanks for the return post! I'm still dry as a bone, and I hope it fixes your issue.