Water in Right Rear Door...

[RASelkirk]

Hi All,

My son (2018 RAM Sport Crew Cab 4x2) was over today and stated he kept hearing a sloshing sound that he couldn't track. I thought of the 3rd brake lamp leak, so just happened to open the RR door to take a look and the door was quite heavy with sloshing water. He had to peel back the bottom rubber strip, front and rear edges, and it's stud(s) to drain it. After draining, we got under it to look for drain holes and couldn't find any.

Can that be right? No drain holes?

We get some pretty stout rains here, including 11" Mon night into Tues this week. I'm thinking he should drill at least one drain on each door, maybe 3/16" or so...

Russ

 

[NJMOPAR]

Sounds like it needs weatherstripping on the door. Check the window channel strip too.
Drilling a hole doesn't fix the leak and that much water in a door will eventually cause electrical problems.

 

[caulk04]

There shouldn't be water in any place that doesn't drain. I'm not certain there's a cavity in the door that doesn't drain.

 

[GTyankee]

There are holes in the bottom of every door

Unfortunately they sometimes get blocked by the weatherstrip

You have a bigger problem & that is,
Where is the water entering the door
On the door shell you only have 2 places for Hinges & 1 place for the locking mechanism

The other access would be the window & the rubber blade that squeegies the water off of the window glass.

Unless that same thing happens every time that it rains or when ever the vehicle gets washed.
I would have to think that the human factor is somehow involved

 

[RASelkirk]

The only entry point we could figure was the squeegee that seals the base of the window. That strip is tight with no gaps, but where else could it have come from? His truck is pretty much an "outsider" at home and at work, and we've had some serious deluges here this week... We'll have to look further for drain holes, the way he drained it was to remove each end of the seal strip and let it out from the stud holes. Those were still a few inches above the low-point, so there's prolly still water in it. The other three doors were fine.

 

[GTyankee]

I am being sincere when i tell you that he needs to take the inside panel off of that door & with the window rolled up

Dry the inside of that door up & maybe use some kind of rust inhibitor

Take the door panel off using one of several Youtube videos as a guide

Stop at any point that gives you access to the inside of the door.

Maybe mist the bottom inside of the door with some light weight oil spray

 

[Ic3scrap3r]

I've seen multiple posts on this on multiple sites. Seems like it is ALWAYS the passenger rear door. It is in mine as well. I just have to open the door and run my fingers behind the bottom weather stripping and leave the door open. It then drains like it should. No problem on the other doors.

As others have said, there are drain holes there, but the weather stripping gets kind of stuck. My guess is that most of us use these with one or two passengers. If we put something in the rear seat area, its usually on the driver's side because it's more convenient. That right rear door is just used much less frequently so that weather stripping at the bottom is compressed against the drain holes really well.

 

[RASelkirk]

I've seen multiple posts on this on multiple sites. Seems like it is ALWAYS the passenger rear door. It is in mine as well. I just have to open the door and run my fingers behind the bottom weather stripping and leave the door open. It then drains like it should. No problem on the other doors.

As others have said, there are drain holes there, but the weather stripping gets kind of stuck. My guess is that most of us use these with one or two passengers. If we put something in the rear seat area, its usually on the driver's side because it's more convenient. That right rear door is just used much less frequently so that weather stripping at the bottom is compressed against the drain holes really well.

I'll see him this weekend and mention this to him. Have you thought about trimming the strip or shimming it out from the door so there's a defined gap? That'll be suggestion he look at doing next...

Russ

 

[RamBoston]

I searched the forum for this exact same topic and low and behold, I found this thread. Yet another reason that my current Ram (my 2nd), will also be my last.