Well this is disconcerting. Installed a new OEM cowl about a year ago, maybe less. All part of the water entry prevention trifecta. I even applied some light sealant. Guess I should have applied more! Today I noticed my HVAC whistled. One of the things I ignored. But it whistled a lot more and air flow seemed restricted. We had some rain last night with some of the strongest winds in years. Decided to pull the filter, its soaked. Checked the cowl. There is a very, very slight bow in it already but as you can see in the pic its not enough to really see. I pulled it up which made it worse. Tap for now across the gap, will take it all apart and re-seal it. Probably create a cover for the inlet too. Very annoying! I am certain the extreme wind was part of the issues, driving the water in.

Oh, as for the whistling I think its filter cover. The foam is in bad shape that sealed the edge. Probably caused by a the wet filter so air was being pulled in from the cabin. I am going to replace the foam.

 

Interesting as I’ve recently replaced my cowl and have new noise from the HVAC fan...I’ll have to check mine.

 

Replacing cowl won't solve the leak problem. If you take the cowl off you realize that air intake box is oddly on the angle and left corner is sticking out past bottom off the windshield.It sticks out only about 1/2 inch, but this is just enough for water to enter when it travels down the front glass and under the cowl dripping down into the box and ultimately air duct, filter and ultimately carpet. It does not matter if the cowl is new of old, when it buckles it allows water to enter the dreaded air duct system and filter.To alleviate this problem permanently, you have to bend a drip cup out of aluminum and secure it the air intake in the way that it does not restrict air flow and at the same time preventing the water to enter the air chamber with enough overlap to drip past the box and shad water into the engine bay.I did not riveted mine but only secured it with some industrial caulk and it still holds after 10 years or more.Hope that helps.

 

I replaced my A Pillar and cowl trim with new a few years ago and have been fine since then. I did notice that you have to push harder than you would think to get the cowl trim into place. No wet carpet since then, even after high pressure car washes.

 

I used one of those flimsy-plastic (not sure what material it is actually) license plate blanks that the dealer has lying around after they sell a car.....just epoxied that thing to the pollen filter box. Air can still flow from the sides but I didn't leave much gap at all on the FWD side of the box. I was advised on this operation by a trusted LR Tech.

 

Yeah, I will rivet or JB weld something. Makes you wonder if Rover ever tested these things with water. Being the UK that should not have been hard.

 

I bought a new Cowl before Christmas, along with the 'kit' to seal the A Pillar trim pieces properly. Will probably do these procedures soon. Will be using plenty of silicone caulk. Will also follow the advice in this conversation, and fabricate something. I will also be checking that all sunroof drain tubes are properly connected, in good condition, and not blocked.

 

Ok, flameout on. This is probably the most hacked job I have ever done. I plan to re-visit this to do a more professional job with some nice sheet metal. But for now I needed something durable and workable. Ah! Old license plate! Also I wanted to use the existing holes with plastic rivets - same used all over the truck. But they just did not hold well enough. So I decided to rivet it in place. Rivets are aluminum so I can drill em out easily enough. I think this will do just fine for now as hacked-up as it is.

 

Not the prettiest solution, but it looks like it works.

If you had not posted pictures and simply said problem solved, we would have never considered you a true artist. I commend you for admitting to an ugly fix. I does inspire me to work on the problem now before my new cowl starts to warp. With planning, I can have a pre-made piece to install rather than having the car down for repair while I get creative to find a fix.

I do recall putting my old license plates in the bottom of the tool box, so I may already have the material needed, just need to move the "manufacturing phase"

Thanks for sharing.

Jeff