I noticed my passenger side carpet in my 03 L was getting wet last week in our humid weather. Took it in to Ford Monday and tried to explain everything to them. They called back later and said they couldn't find any water dripping inside and had I just read about this somewhere and wanted to have the fix done on my truck. For the second time I explained it leaked last Fall and it leaked last week - I tried to get to the drain through the firewall but with the shield over it I couldn't do anything - it was only a last resort that I had to bring it back to Ford so they could tear it apart. They called the next day and said it was fixed - they had caulked it and tried putting an elbow on the drain but the shield wouldn't fit over it so off came the elbow and back on went the shield. I drive it home - see there is no water dripping out from under it - feel under the carpet and it's all damp - back to the dealer. They are clueless if they can't actually see it dripping somewhere - finally decide they are going to have to pull the whole condensor unit and housing and see what's going on. Odds are my 4000 mile truck will be semi-trashed by the time I get it back. With summer coming on I suggest anyone with a new Lightning to keep an eye on the passenger side carpet. Mine gets wet on top of the carpet but under the floor mat.

 

i have the same problem........only i cant see the A/C dripping. I can feel a soaked carpet but can never catch it. and i've neevr turned the a/c on. only turn it to the cold air. figured i wouldnt let the hacks touch it and just live with a little water.

 

I dont have a lightning but i do have an 03 reg cab f150 flairside Sport .. and well i had a leak too.. Only my leak was from a bad seal or something.. I have a vinyl floor matt instead of carpet. Well oneday i was driving and i heard water as i made a turn. the water sounded like it was running from one side to the other. When i got home i pulled up the panels on teh passenger side to see what was going on. I discovered TONS of water.. I lifted the vinyl foormat and found my insulation or padding stuff whatever ti is... soaking wet .. well i had heard this water running sound LONG before i had checked it and well i didnt think much of it. Happens to be that Everytime it rained water was coming in. I took it to ford and showed the guy the padding and how it was soaking wet.. he said that it should be covered by warrentee .. well it was.. anyway.. they pulled out my seats.. my entire dash.. and everything else to get to the inside of my truck by the firewall.. I had some sort of seal thing that wasnt sealed properly .. Took them abotu 3 days to fix it but now everything is fine.. I suggest that you pull up ur panels and ur carpet and try to find an idea where the leak is..i thought it was my A/C too but it wasnt... goodluck with your water leaks or a/c leaks but be sure u get it in asap or get it fixed asap.. and if they have to remove ur dash be sure they check to make sure theres nto a single rattle.

-TJ

P.S. If i can get a digicam sometime soon ill try to get some pics of where it was coming from.. Im sure we have the same Base Trucks as far as like the metal and stuff goes lol obviously we have diff interior/engine and all that other good stuff those beautiful Lightnings have..

 

Yeah, I'm dreading the inevitable rattles, marred up panels and other damage. The mechanic looked at mine when I took it back and said he couldn't see where it was leaking and he couldn't fix what he couldn't see!!! Fortunately they brought out one of their senior guys before I could respond to that.

 

I took mine in last Friday....dropped it at 1 and they called at 4:45 and said to come get it...no problems since

 

if you've ever turned your climate control **** to the "panel&floor" or "defrost" setting then you have indeed turned your a/c on.

also expeditions and navigators of our body style are infamous for having water intrusion issues around the front windshield area, I assume that "heritage" f-150s have the same problem.

later,
chris (a so called "hack")

 

Some more info from a previous thread in case anybody is interested

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=156309

 

" [QUOTE]Originally posted by Wookie
[B]Here is a pic that I gave to the dealership to show where the water was entering the cab. I could squeeze water from the black foam that I have drawn an arrow to.



Hope this helps.

Joe"

yah i definitly agree with Joe on this.. that is teh exact same location that my water leak was comign in at and soaked my foam.. But mine im pretty sure was water from A/C and rain water from outside.. because here in houston it rains ALL the time and i had drained all the water out to do a test with it myself .. sure enough allt he rain water was in there.. but yah like i said that pic that guy wookie posted is most likly the same place our 03's are leaking (i know it was for mine)

 

Pulled my carpet up this past weekend to run some cables, mine was soaked underneith too. Been too busy this week to venture into the service dept.


Not looking forward to that after the great care they took with my 2001 that I ended up selling once I got it back, it just wasn't the same after the hacked on it for 6.5 weeks.

 

Damn, I bet that there are TONS of people that have this problem with their trucks and dont even know it. This should be listed as a recall. It seems to be a lot of the 03's and i guess the 04' heritage models.. when i took my truck in to the dealer, it took them about 2 days to fix mine because they had to replace the foam and let the truck dry out. but it sux that they had to remove my entire dash to fix the problem. im just thankful ive only had body problems and not engine problems.
-TJ

 

I'm with DJThomasJ. We both had the same problem but he had the A/C problem and I assumed I had the same thing. Turns out it was a leak in my windshield. The weatherseal strip was bad or something, I wasn't paying too much attention, too happy to get my truck back. I also have an 03 Sport XL RegCab. But they ran a leak test and found it in my windshield. I noticed the problem when I would accelerate on the passenger side. Pulled up the door sill and there was TONS of water in the channel underneath. It took an overnight stay for them to fix it. Mainly to replace the pad (vinyl floor) and to let it dry.

-Blake

 

My stupid service department - I have it back from the second trip for repair. The first time I took it home - parked it in the driveway with the motor running and found no water underneath. Felt the carpet and it was very wet. I read the service receipt. It said pulled shield off, caulked at firewall, put elbow on, shield would not fit over elbow, pulled elbow off and put shield back on.

Took it right back and service tech says they have to pull condensor and housing. Two days later I pick it up right at closing as service manager is driving away. I drove it home and left it running in the driveway for ten minutes - not one drop of water on the ground on a very humid day. Felt the carpet and it's dry. I pulled the kick panel and threshold last week to make sure it wasn't wet under there so it's easy to lift the edge of the carpet and stick my hand under there - it's comes out wringing wet. I pull out the service receipt and it says pulled shield off and put elbow on!!!!!!!!!

The next morning I'm waiting in line for the service dept to open and the service manager walks up and asks whats up. I tell him they haven't fixed the car yet. Twice they have given the car back to me with wet carpets and without checking to see if they fixed it - so far they have managed to transfer the leaking water from running down on top of my carpet to underneath my carpet now and I don't consider that an improvement. I ask how hard is it to see that no water is dripping under the car in this humid weather and to check out the carpet to see if it's getting wet? Sorry he says, but our ace mechanic isn't here today to work on it - I can leave it over the weekend or bring it in Tuesday. I fight off asking if this is the same ace mechanic who has screwed it up twice already?

I'm reading up on Arkansas's Lemon Law and will be back down there Tuesday - and wound tight.

 

Dude find ur self a new dealer, someone that actually is aware of the problem. Obviously many of us have had the problem and have gotten it fixed, so im sure many dealers know exactly what the problem is. but your dealer well they seem to be *******s and not know what to do because this shoudl not be an ongoing problem. i dont know if theres any other ford dealers everywehre over there where you live but even if not.. u should still find a new dealer. Here in houston theres a million of them and ive been to 2 of them that dont have a clue what their doing. i finally found the best one that gets it done right on the first time everytime. I hope u find one like that because thats major bs that they keep screwing u around. goodluck

-TJ

 

Unfortunately I think there are only two SVT dealers in the State and the other one is way up in the NW corner of the state. With only 4000 miles on it I hate to take it somewhere else yet. In Arkansas they get 3 chances to fix the same problem, then you get to write the manufacturer directly and give them one last chance to fix the problem. If they can't then they have to replace the vehicle or buy it back. It's not rocket science and they should know what they have to do - it's just getting them to do it and then getting the inevitable rattles fixed and broken interior pieces replaced afterwards. They are stupid - they think the owner is ignorant and won't listen to me. I guarantee I know more then this mechanic does. He was looking around under the dash with a flashlight and turned to me and said "I can't see any leak. I can't fix it if I can't see it." Before I could respond to that the senior technician came out and said they would have to pull the housing - but they didn't. I think they are about out of choices since it looks like they tore the foam gasket at the fire wall the last time.

 

but this is such a common problem how come it has to be an SVT dealer? i thought all ford dealers had svt's even so its still an F150 and the f150's have the same problem. Those people are screwing you over it shoudlnt be that big of a deal to fix and they are beign lazy with your truck.