1999 4 door

I had my windshield pulled after seeing that there was water leaking between the adhesive and pinch weld on the passenger side upper corner. The glass tech told me that its a flaw in the design of the window in that there is nowhere for the water to drain once it gets through the windshield moulding. Now that I am getting the windshield replaced after some rust repair, whats the best way to keep water out of the channel? The rust was really bad and I'd really like to avoid the whole area from getting wet. It seems like a common problem that many people have posted about but have never shown any preventive steps after the repair.

 

That is exactly where water leaked through in my '00 XJ. Was coming out in the middle just to the left of the passenger side visor.
I had my body guy dealing with some surface rust issues on the hood and roof. Figured this would be a good time to deal with the leak.
Fortunately no rust repair was necessary. All that was required was a remove and replace. He had his glass guy deal with that.
I would suggest buying a new windshield molding.

 

Poppy ****! There is nothing wrong with the glass design. What you have is mostly likely the result of a **** poor install.

I would bet that the windshield has been replaced before, at least once, and the previous installer damaged the pinch weld with his removal tool and didn't bother to prime the pinch weld to prevent it from rusting out the pinch weld.

A properly installed windshield with a quality moulding will not cause your pinch weld to rust out at the top of the glass. Rust in the lower corner does, or can occur over time in a lot of the older vehicles simply from the accumulation of dirt, leaves and twigs etc, etc, etc. Have you ever noticed when you pressure wash your relatively clean car how much dirt and grime comes out from behind emblems and trim? The windshield gathers the same stuff but we don't generally pressure wash around out windows because....well, we are going to clean the glass after we dry the car off. Cherokees with the old clip on trim are far worse than the newer Cherokees with the rubber moulding. If your worried about grime getting in behind the newer mouldings, you can rinse it out with a relatively low water pressure and a plastic or nylon stick to lift the moulding as you go.

I have addressed many windshield and moulding issues in several threads here on CF. I have only been doing glass since 1977 so I might be full of it, or myself LOL.

Happy Jeepin'
TexasTaz38