If you thought Mouse Motel was bad

Refer to http://www.avian.org/~hobbit/pix/cowlgutter.jpg for the
visual. I had been hearing *water* sloshing around in this area
when driving or even just rocking the car, and took things apart
this afternoon to investigate. Long story short: those two drain
holes were *completely* plugged with organic matter, and there was
about an inch of standing water in the whole cowl piece that just
wasn't going anywhere. It was totally disgusting, like a little
pond with a mucky bottom right there under my hood. As soon as I
dug my finger around in there and pulled out a wad of brown goo,
all the water on one side drained out behind the front wheel as
it's supposed to, and then the same on the other side.
.
Bottom line: it's worth pulling the wipers and plastic air baffle
off every so often and cleaning out that black metal "rain gutter"
piece under there. It does a very good job at keeping water and
crud off the back of the engine, but apparently those holes aren't
quite enough to keep it working right forever -- just like any other
gutter, it needs periodic cleanout. With all the rain, pollen, and
bits of trees we've had falling around here this spring, it was
evidently just too much at once.
.
_H*

 

http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/TIS/...2ye/x040001.pdf
the first page may help; you don't need to disassemble the wiper
assembly, but after removing it the 7 9mm bolts for the cowl gutter
are fairly obvious.
.
_H*