My sister has just been back from Uni for a few days and I said I would fit a new speaker as one of hers was broken. Sorted that (replaced it with a skoda one hehe) and decided to clean out the inside of her car. On doing so I found a load of water in the passenger footwell :thumbdwn: .

I pulled back the carpet and insulation, which was going moldy and reeked, and started trying to find where the water was coming in from. Dad poured water by the corner of the windscreen - though it didnt seem like much was coming in that way. The wheel arches have plastic protectors so you can't see whats going on in there either :(

It was going dark by then, so we rigged up a fan heater to try and dry it a bit, as she has had to head back for Uni.

Has anyone got any ideas where the water might be coming in from or if anyone has had a similar problem? :confused: Its an M Reg (1994 I think) Fiesta 5 door Equipe. Any help appreciated. I have put it all back together for the moment. I tried a google search with no success!

Open the bonnet and check the gutter along the top of the bulkhead - there may be little gaps in the corners where the welds either don't meet or haven't been sealed, and water can pass through and run down under the dash - you may even be able to see water marks if you shine a torch into the footwell and have a good poke around. The other things to check are that the drainage hole in the base of the door isn't blocked, and that the door seal hasn't come away from the metal or split.

from what i remember , the wiring goes through the bulkhead in that area , big black grommet , make sure this is fitted correctly, also make sure a previous owner hasn't poked a hole in it to fit alarm/amp wires through

some of those Fiestas leaked like sieves, so any bulkhead seam could also be letting water in

Heater Matrix if it's the MK III.

It's directly in front of the gear stick under the dash and if damaged will leak into the passenger or drivers foot well.

If you have the half length dash it's not as hard as you think it might be, if you have the full length dash it's a dash out job.

Another option which I had to fix on a MK III was there are some holes in the floorpan at the edge by the door.

Take the plastic off, take the carpet and sound proofing up and stuff a load of newspaper in there to let it all dry out.

Then get some plastic repair tape, degrease the area and put a piece of tape over the holes at are visible.

I can only assume these are to allow the sills to breath, however if water is getting in there then are there holes in the sills?

Third option is the door seals if cut do allow water in there, so it might be worth checking the seals behind the speakers are intact.

As mentioned above,check the heater matrix.

Another thing to look at is the floor near the passengers left foot as sometimes the underseal can trap water in and hold the water in rotting all the underpan.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I wish I had the car outside so I could go and have a look at the points you have raised - will send the link to my sister. I will try these things when Im at my sisters and have five minutes spare.

Many thanks

We were selling a Nissan Sunny that leaked in water. Puddles in the footwells after the really wet spell.

We saw drip marks on the dash. So was prob leaking through the windscreen and behind the dash. As it formed puddles in the rear most likely the rear door seals or something were also shot.

The water will come from top to bottom. So sit in the car and have someone pour water from the roof.

Dad poured some water in whilst I sat inside. I hadn't removed all of the carpet and couldn't easily tell where it was coming from. :thumbdwn: The car hasn't got a sunroof though we both thought it was the windscreen seal. I will be looking more closely at it when I am next at my sisters house (she is in Swansea so its a bit of a trek as I m in mid wales!)

Cheers for the tips.

IIRC, the windscreens on these are actually sealed by the window seal, so if it looks like it was cracked or badly damaged then it's worth getting the screen refitted with a new seal.