I noticed the sound insulation under the rubber floor covering in my 1998 crownvic was wet when I replaced the power brake booster. I've been trying to track down the leak for a little while now, and found that most of the firewall grommets leak a little if I spray water onto them with a garden hose. So out comes the RTV sealant, and i sealed up the vacuum hose grommet under the windshield wiper cowl and the big electrical wiring grommet near the brake booster. I also tightened down the powertrain control module bracket on the firewall.

Today, I left the car outside in heavy thunderstorm rain and noticed that the floor sheetmetal has water on it again. Upon further inspection, I noticed a small stream of water flowing in between the hood latch cable and it's firewall grommet. This is certainly an oddball place that you probably would not think to look for water leaks.

It would be a good idea to lift up the carpet in the driver's footwell area of your crownvic and check to see if the sound insulation underneath is dry. If not, you'll want to trace down the water leak before your sheetmetal floorpan starts to rust through from the inside out.

I should mention that my water leaks around the hood release cable were relatively slow. I did not have to dig out the shop wet/dry vacuum after each rainstorm. However, water that gets under the rubber flooring just seems to build up and never evaporate. The cumulative effect of collecting the rain water from numerous rainstorms over the course of several months can leave you with a very significant quantity of water in the sound insulation under your floor covering.

Here are some pictures from a salvage yard visit that I took to make sure that i didn't miss any possible water leak points.

This car with the front clip removed is an early 1993 model crownvic, but the firewall remained mostly unchanged during the 1992-2002 model years.



 One thing that is different with the early 1992-1994 crownvics versus the later cars is the way that the upper control arms attach to the frame



Do note that the engine is not sitting properly in the engine bay. The salvage yard sold the transmission and various sections of the front frame. In the process of removing these parts, they cut the engine mounts and left the engine sitting loose.



The pcm bracket on the 1992-2002 cars is removeable. It's bolted to the firewall and there's foam insulation in between. The hole cut into the firewall is the same on the 92-94 cars as on the 95-02 cars, but the pcm bracket itself is different because the early cars have an eec-iv pcm that has a different sized connector than the later cars with the eec-v pcm.





Here's the power brake booster from the side. If you look closely, you can see the foam insulation in between the booster and the firewall. The later cars use a thinner gray insulation foam instead. Aftermarket power brake boosters usually do not include replacement insulation, and often require reuse of your existing insulation. This is not always possible since the insulation sometimes shreds when you try to remove it. So you might find silicone rtv sealant in between the firewall and booster on some cars.



This car has an extra non-factory hole drilled through the firewall near the big wiring harness grommet. It is suspected that these wires were added for an aftermarket car alarm siren.



Here's the passenger's side of the car. On this side is the hvac blower motor box and the evaporator core.

One possible leak point that the 92-94 cars have that the later 95-02 cars don't is around the radio antenna grommet. The later 1995+ cars have the radio antenna integrated into the rear window glass instead of using an external mast antenna on the front passenger's fender.

Another oddball leak point point that you'll sometimes encounter on this side of the 92-02 crownvics is around the foam which seals the evaporator case to the firewall.



This is a civilian car. But in the police world, you'll often find extra holes cut into the big rubber grommets in this area. Sometimes, you'll find extra holes drilled through the sheet metal too. Some police departments fill up the extra holes with silicone or ducttape, others leave the extra holes open waiting for water to leak through.

Also in this area is the hvac fresh air vent, there have been numerous hard to pinpoint leaks around this part in crownvics over the years. You can read a motorage article about this topic by clicking here.



Here's are a few pictures of a 1997 crown victoria police interceptor retired from the federal us marshals service

On this car, there is an extra hole drilled through the firewall that the vehicle upfitter added to accomodate extra wiring.



When this car was decommisioned, the extra hole drilled through the firewall sheetmetal was covered from the inside with duct tape. But some departments are not so clean and would leave this hole open causing difficult to locate water leaks. Some departments even leave random unused wires in place when they sell off their retired police cars. Differentiating which holes & which wires are ford oem ones and which ones were made by an aftermarket vehicle upfitter can be difficult for someone not familar with the crownvic.



Here's a picture showing the hvac fresh air vent and also some wiring which rubbed against the fender apron. You can read more about repairing this harness by clicking here.



Here's a 2000 crownvic with the engine out.



Underneath the windshield wiper cowl, there are a couple components of intrest. In this picture, there's the central engine vacuum distribution block. And to the right of that is a rubber grommet that goes through the firewall to hold vacuum hoses to feed the hvac mode doors and automatic parking brake release.



Unfortunetly, there are parts covering the rubber firewall grommet mentioned above. However, you can clearly see the accelerator pedal linkage firewall bracket. But water leaks around this part don't seem to be a common occurence.





Here are a few pictures of 1994 crownvic with the fender apron removed but fender still installed.

Driver's side

pictures of 94 crownvic taken by Steve83 on www.crownvic.net






And the passenger's side of the car with the fender apron removed, but fender still attached





And here are a few pictures of fixing the rain water leak around the hvac fresh air vent. Do note that the vent itself is not leaking, but rather water is leaking in between the passenger compartment side of the firewall and the foam on the fresh air intake box.

These pictures and the comments associated with them were constructed by Steve83 on www.crownvic.net. And were copied from this supermotors album. It should be noted that Steve83's solution to this problem is the same one proposed the motorage magazine article mentioned above.



This is a common problem for all '92-98 Panthers. Water draining from the A/C system runs out under the rubber flap & then back inside the firewall under the passenger front carpet & collects in the R rear footwell.



To fix the leak, remove the RF wheel & peel the wheelwell liner forward. Clean & dry the area under the drain.



To fix the leak, remove the RF wheel & peel the wheelwell liner forward. Clean & dry the area under the drain.



This is a common problem for all '92-98 Panthers. Water draining from the A/C system runs out under the rubber flap & then back inside the firewall under the passenger front carpet & collects in the R rear footwell.



I used putty sealant for metal building construction that never hardens, but silicone will work as long as it sticks to the plastic, but not the rubber. Since it will run down the silicone & drip off, it's not as important for it to stick to the firewall.




I pulled my carpet to dry it out. The passenger side (R in the photo) is wet & rusty from the leak on the firewall at the HVAC drain.



I pulled my carpet to dry it out. The passenger side is wet from the leak on the firewall at the HVAC drain. I'm also adding a connector & wiring for a power passenger seat.



I pulled my carpet to dry it out. The passenger side is wet from the leak on the firewall at the HVAC drain. I'm also adding a connector & wiring for a power passenger seat.


You can view pictures of the interior passenger compartment side of the firewall with the dashboard and hvac components removed by clicking here.

Hood latch cables
Part Number
 Comments
E3AZ-16916-A 83-84
D9AZ-16916-A 84-89
FOAZ-16916-A 1990-1991
F2AZ-16916-A 1992-1997 (not replaced)


F8VZ-16916-AA 1998-2002 (replaced by 3W1Z-16916-AA)
3W1Z-16916-AA 2003-2005 (replaced by 6W1Z-16916-A)
6W1Z-16916-A
The hood latch cable on my 1998 crownvic is leaking water around the grommet. Replacing the cable with a new one should stop this water leak. Applying some rtv sealant might work too. Also do note that hood latch cables to sometimes fail on older high mileage crownvics causing you not to be able to open your hood anymore.

Hood Latches
Part Number
 Comments
E1TZ-16700-A 80-80 88-91
E1DZ-16700-A 81-82
E6DZ-16700-A 83-87
F2AZ-16700-A 92-92
F2AZ-16700-B 92-92 (Replaced by F2AZ-16700-C)
F2AZ-16700-C 92-92 (Replaced by F4AZ-16700-A)
F3AZ-16700-A 93-93 Before 12/93 (Replaced by F4AZ-16700-A)
F4AZ-16700-A 94-97 From 12/93
F8AZ-16700-AA 98-98 (Replaced by XW7Z-16700-AA)
XW7Z-16700-AA 99-04  (Superceded by 5W7Z-16700-A) (Replaced by SELECTIVE)
5W7Z-16700-A 05-05
6W7Z-16700-A 06-10 (Replaced 5W7Z-16700-A)
Hood latches are not usually thought of as a wear item per say, but they do have a coating on them that wears away over time. Once this coating is gone, you'll get really annoying squeaking noises as you drive your car. You can periodically grease the hood latch with white lithium grease every few months to eliminate this noise. You could also replace the hood latch assembly with a new service part and not have to do any maintenance on the hood latch for many years to come instead.

Hood Latch Strikers
Part Number
 Comments
F2AZ-16K689-A 92-92 (Replaced by F3AZ-16K689-A)
F3AZ-16K689-A 93-97 Use N807601-S417 rivet to attach 16K689 to 16612 hood
F5AZ-16K689-BA Police Only 92-92
F5AZ-16K689-BA Police, Taxi - Russia 92-
F6AZ-16K689-BA Police, Taxi - Russia 92-92
F6AZ-16K689-AA 93-97 Police/Taxi
F8AZ-16K689-AA 98-06 (Replaced by 6W1Z-16K689-A)
6W1Z-16K689-A from 06/19/2006
Most of the squeaking noises seem to be caused by the coating wearing away on the hood latch itself. But the striker appears to have some sort of coating on it too.


Transmission Shift Control Cables
Part Number
 Comments
FOVY-7E395-B 90-92 (AOD #F0VC-7E395-BF; F1VC-7E395-AA; F2VC-7E395-AA from 2/27/90 to 8/03/1992)
F0VY-73395-A 90-90 (AOD #F0VC-7E395-BD; before 2/27/90) (replaced by F0VY-7E395-B)
F3VY-7E395-A 92-93 (AOD-E F3VC-BC, from 8/03/1992)
F4AZ-7E395-A 94-94 (AOD-E F4VC-CA)
F5AZ-7E395-A
95-95 (4R70W, F5AC-CD)
F6AZ-7E395-AA 96-97 (4R70W, F6AC-AA) (replaced by F8AZ-7E395-BA)
F8AZ-7E395-BA
98-02 (Column Shift, F8AC-CA)
1W3Z-7E395-AA 01-02 (Floor Shift, 1W3P-7E395-AB)
3W1Z-7E395-AA 03-03 (Column Shift, 3W1P-7E395-AA) (Replaced by 3W1Z-7E395-AB)
3W1Z-7E395-AB 03-04 (Column Shift, 3W1P-7E395-AB)
3W3Z-7E395-AA 03-05 (Floor Shift #3W3P-7E395-AA before 3/03/05) (Replaced by 3W3Z-7E395-B)
3W3Z-7E395-B 05-06 (Floor Shift, #3W3P-7E395-AB from 3/03/05 to 12/5/05) (Replaced by 6W3Z-7E395-A)
5W1Z-7E395-CA 05-05 (Column Shift, #5W1P-7E395-CA before 2/28/05) (Replaced by 5W1Z-7E395-D)
5W1Z-7E395-D
05-06 (Column Shift #5W1P-7E395-CB from 2/28/05 to 12/5/05) (Replaced by 6W1Z-7E395-B)
6W1Z-7E395-B 06-06 (Column Shift #6W1P-7E395-BA from 12/5/05)
6W3Z-7E395-A 06-06 (Floor Shift, #6W3P-7E395-AA from 12/05/05)
6W1Z-7E395-A From 08/01/2007 Column Shift
6W1Z-7E395-B
From 06/19/2006 to 08/01/2007 Column Shift
6W3Z-7E395-A From 06/19/2006 Floor Shift 5 Passenger Seating
Above is a list of transmission shift cables. It's possible that you could get firewall water leaks around this cable. Sometimes, this cable breaks near the end where is attaches to the manual lever on the transmission too. When this happens, your gear selector lever inside the car won't be mechanically connected to the transmission underneath your car anymore.