New Member of the leaking windshield club

[SNLCORV]

Hi all- well, after two months owning our new-to-us 2013 Journey, I have found a small puddle of water on the center of our dash after a heavy rain. I am completely new to motorhomes and not mechanically-minded. Where would be the first place you recommend I check or do?

Thank you in advance!

-Scott

[HD4Mark]

Originally Posted by SNLCORV

Hi all- well, after two months owning our new-to-us 2013 Journey, I have found a small puddle of water on the center of our dash after a heavy rain. I am completely new to motorhomes and not mechanically-minded. Where would be the first place you recommend I check or do?

Thank you in advance!

-Scott

First thing I would do to figure out where the water is getting in is grab a garden hose and a step ladder. Start at the lowest suspect spot and give it a soaking. Try not to spray upwards. After each shot with the hose give it a minute.

That's what I did with ours thinking it could be the windshield, the marker lights or even the front cap leaking. As soon as I sprayed the top of the windshield it started to drip. I did the same on the drivers side when it leaked and got all the way to the top. Turned out to be the CB radio antenna.

[georgelesley]

Originally Posted by SNLCORV

Hi all- well, after two months owning our new-to-us 2013 Journey, I have found a small puddle of water on the center of our dash after a heavy rain. I am completely new to motorhomes and not mechanically-minded. Where would be the first place you recommend I check or do?

Thank you in advance!

-Scott

I have been going thru the process of elimination myself. Here are the probable suspects. Any antennas near the front, front cap to roof seal, clearance lites, top of windshield. I have had ours sealtec air pressure tested, it did not show anything. If you were not moving at the time I greatly suspect the water is seeping behind the rubber strip at the top of the windshield. It can be a very small leak that only manifests itself under certain conditions. They are long steady rain, no much wind, not driving. Strong winds or driving will blow the water away from a windshield leak i ran a hose over the top of ours for a long time and could not replicate the leak

The fixes are: front cap to roof seam, caulk or better yet use etnabond tape. Caulk antenna or other opening leaks. Silicone around clearance lites and drill small hole in lens to allow any water to leak out. Windshield leak read excellent repair advice in above posts. A quick way to diagnose a windshield leak is to put a strip of good duct tape above the rubber strip an cover most of the rubber. Wait for a slow steady rain. If it is stopped, then remove rubber, dry and fix as advised above.

If that does not fix it, and I'll bet it will, then caulk and seal every area I mentioned above. Good luck

[erstanfo]

The garden hose is good for marker lights etc. I finally ended up pulling the upper rubber trim back just slightly so that the water ran behind the trim. Then the water really ran down the inside of the windshield. I had previously removed the plastic trim on the inside so I could see the black steel frame and the water run between the frame and the windshield. The plastic trim is J or trough shaped on the bottom edge so it holds water then overflows, sometimes at a different area than where the leak is.

I took it to a local glass company and they replaced the windshield and treated the frame for rust. They offer a lifetime no-leak guarantee. they handled the insurance claim and my deductible sas $500. It was worth it for the peace of mind that it is now fixed right. I had chased the leak for 4 years.

[SNLCORV]

Thank you! To seal the clearance lights, is it suggested to just seal around the orange caps with them on?

[georgelesley]

Originally Posted by SNLCORV

Thank you! To seal the clearance lights, is it suggested to just seal around the orange caps with them on?

Do the base as well where it attaches to the front cap.

[70ChevelleSS]

Originally Posted by SNLCORV

Thank you! To seal the clearance lights, is it suggested to just seal around the orange caps with them on?

It's the base that leaked on ours. The rubber gaskets behind them had dried and rotted. Previous owner used silicone all the way around both base and yellow lens. Two issues with that, hard to remove lens to replace a bulb when it's siliconed on. Second problem was silicone eventually pulled away at top allowing water behind the light assembly. Still sealed at the bottom and sides so water filled up the cavity until it came in through the wire holes. I bought 1/4' wide by about 1/8" thick EDPM weather stripping at HD and fashioned new gaskets, leaving a gap at the bottom.

For the windshield after several attempts to seal the glass I got some 3M molding adhesive tape. Applied that to the backside of the rubber strip along the top edge. It's a spongy rubber tape with adhesive on both sides. We're in south FL right now and got around 3" of rain the last few days. No water inside.

[georgelesley]

I just completed the windshield repair. I hope I can now resign from the leaking windshield club, but I will let some time pass before I claim victory. here is what I did. I attempted to take the vertical side trim pieces off, but decided it was too risky and did not want a broken windshield. So, what to do about the ends of the rubber strip? I climbed the ladder and looked, it appeared to be sealed well around the top of the strips. I did apply some Siklaflex over the top and sides down to the rubber strip.

So, I pealed the rubber back and it easily came loose all the way across except for the part under the side trim. There was water there under the rubber. I sw a large gob of Dicor or Siklaflex where the cap curves. It was preventing the rubber from popping into the channel at that point. Since the channel ends in that area anyway, I just trimmed it all away so the rubber would lay flat as possible.

I then cleaned the rubber strip inside and out with Goof Off. Also the cap itself where the rubber pressed against it as well as the windshield. I then applied some 3M super sticky double sided tape where the rubber touches the cap. I then popped the rubber back in place pressing it against the double sided tape.

Finally because of the advice posted here, I covered the entire rubber strip and the area above it and below it with 4" electrical tape. That would have been a bit neater if I had 4 hands and may redo that part when help is available.

I had planned to remove the "C" channel, check for any damage, seal the entire area above it with Siklaflex . We have been quite dry here the past week, and since I was working alone near the top of a 10' ladder and am 71 years old, and rain is coming today and I wanted to finish before it gets here, I did not remove the "C"channel. My focus was to seal it today and stop further water intrusion.

Our unit is only three years old, and I hope the damage if any is minimal at this point, and it is now sealed well enough to prevent any more water intrusion. I am confident I found the area allowing the water intrusion. There was more water there than elsewhere. The passenger side behind the rubber strip was dry.

I highly recommend the 4" wide tape mentioned here. It covers well with about 1" on each side of the rubber. Thanks for the recommendation. I have confidence it will be a first line of defense and the double sided tape under the rubber will be my second line of defense. I will change it every few years as needed.

So, hopefully I can officially resign from the leaking windshield club soon.

[georgelesley]

I can now officially resign my membership in the leaking windshield club. The past two days we have had 1 1/2 inch of slow, steady rain. No water on dash, where there was water behind the upper cabinet before, now dry as a bone. Yea!!

[HD4Mark]

Originally Posted by georgelesley

I can now officially resign my membership in the leaking windshield club. The past two days we have had 1 1/2 inch of slow, steady rain. No water on dash, where there was water behind the upper cabinet before, now dry as a bone. Yea!!

Don't quit the club too fast. My patch lasted a couple of years before I re-joined.

Seriously, I hope yours never leaks again. I still find it interesting this has gone on for so long and has never been addressed by the factory. My SUV is older than the MH and has never had a window leak, including a sun roof. Knocking on wood now

[georgelesley]

Originally Posted by HD4Mark

Don't quit the club too fast. My patch lasted a couple of years before I re-joined.

Seriously, I hope yours never leaks again. I still find it interesting this has gone on for so long and has never been addressed by the factory. My SUV is older than the MH and has never had a window leak, including a sun roof. Knocking on wood now

Yea, you are probably right, I crowed too soon. Still it was good to see everything inside dry. I do expect to have to touch up the caulk at the top of the side pieces and replace the tape from time to time. But that is OK at least I know where the problem is and what to do to fix it.

If I was sure we would never need another windshield, I would slap some eterna bond over the rubber. Windshield replacement would be difficult then unfortunately as would getting it on right the first and only time you get with that stuff.

In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I might have bought a new C channel that holds the rubber in place. That would have made cleaning up the sloppy caulking job the factory did much easier.

Thanks for the heads up I will be watching!

[Purple tent]

I replaced all the windshield weather stripping. When I removed the old weather striping the U channel came off with it. The U channel is only held on with what looks like a double sided sticky tape. So I got some self tapping sheet metal screw with a hex head and using my drill and socket re-attached the U channel permanently. Next I replaced the upper weather strip using 1" eternabond tape between the coach and weather strip. I had to trim off a little excess with a razor knife. When I removed the lower weather strip it was attached at both ends with self tapping screws. So I did the same on the upper weather strip. It made sense to me as when I removed the upper it had shrunk back about 1" over the years. The upper weather strip had 2 long U channels across the top to hold it while the lower had about 10 short ones. I used the part number for the uppers and ordered 2 to replace the 10 on the bottom. Before I put the lower weather strip on I ran a bead of silicone caulk across the bottom of the windshield to seal any leaks. Here it is about a year later and no leaks. All in all Winnebago designed the windshield seal all wrong. So by adding eternabond to the top, using silicone on the bottom, attaching the U channel with screws and replacing the 10 small bottom U channels with 2 long ones it appears to have worked. Hope this helps you

[Kelm130]

Leaky Windshield club to Cracked Windshield club ugh!

Getting ready to pull out of the RV service center where I had them remove and re-chalk on the sides of the front cap (A small job I know but I don't have anywhere to preform the work) Well as I climb in to get ready to leave I noticed a large crack on the lower left corner on the driver side glass. arrrrrgh! Luckily I have insurance that will cover it. I'm just waiting to see what it looks like behind the glass. I'll take some pics if possible just to share.

With these things we own and drive down the bumpy highways one of my favorite sayings come to mind " Its always something .. Never nothing!"