Got the dreaded water in the wheel well in the Scout. PITA when living on the west coast of Scotland! A bit of investigation shows that it's entering the wheel well from a preformed hole in the metal skin of the boot under the plastic trim at the rear and towards the off-side. The question is how's in getting there. It's not from the rear wash wipe as the water has appeared with the car unused. Has anyone else experienced similar. Could it come from aerial or roof bar mountings leaking? I was thinking of changing the aerial amp as radio reception is poor. Could there be a connection?

check the vents. In the hatch there is one by the passenger side rear light and in the drivers rear corner.

Thanks, I'll give that a check. I guess there must be a seal round the light clusters too, so I'll investigate there as well.

In past threads there have been some reports of leakage from the rear washer supply.

There is some 'T' pipe link that commonly pops. Is the rear screen wash working?

Yeh, definitely not screen wash related. Dried it out last night and then tonight more water and car hasn't been used.

I also have this, it was like a mill pond. :sun:

I would suspect rear lights. Try running fresh coat of transparent silicone sealant around them (of course while lights removed).

If I could just get some dry weather I'd get out with the hose pipe and try to find the source of the ingress. Round the lights is certainly one area I'll be investigating though.

There have been reports of water entering through a damaged / perished rubber bung in the spare wheel well, but since your car hasn't moved for a while I guess you can rule this out.

Another common entry point on the estate is the high level brake light.

Edited 4 April, 201511 yr by silver1011

When I had this issue, it was the boot seal. That was replaced back in 2010 iirc and not had an issue since.

Garage have reseated a rubber grommet where rear parking sensor wiring runs into body and say that's fixed it. Not had chance to test yet and currently enjoying some sunny weather (at last!) so will aim to confirm over weekend.

There have been reports of water entering through a damaged / perished rubber bung in the spare wheel well.

 

Do I get a prize if the fix works!?

I think the grommet is behind the bumper. From there it appears it was pooling in what I can only describe as a box section from where it was then running through an oval shape hole in the metal and into the wheel well. It's a lousy description, I know, but I suppose what I'm saying is that the grommet isn't actually in the wheel well!

Still got some water getting in. Going to need a big more investigation. Silver1011, you could yet be right.

Edited 11 April, 201511 yr by Sarge

Try sitting in a closed boot (with a trusted helper)and a torch and ask them to hose the rear of the car down bit by bit.

I used to own a Morris Marina. It was well named and after sealing the rear lights it still leaked and then I drilled drain holes in the boot floor.

I can see where the water is entering the wheel well, just can't figure out how it gets to that point. Garage thought it was the grommet carrying the wiring for the rear park sensors but it's actually coming from above them. It's as though there's a double skin and I can see it's point of exit from the inner skin but can't see where it gets past the outer skin and into the gap in between, where it then seems to pool before overflowing into wheel well. Bit of a long shot but if bobt68 is still out there, did you solve your leak, because the description of your problem sounded very much the same as mine.

I had exactly the same problem.

 

I dried it all out then left it so I could hopefully trace where it was coming from.

 

It was leaking in through the rubber bung that the parking sensor wires go through.

 

I took it out, cleaned everything then smothered it with some Loctite flange sealant I had lying around. I chose this stuff and it never truly sets and remains flexible but is fully water repellent.

 

Problem solved!

 

Phil

Have you tried squeezing the rubber seal around the boot, down near the latch / lock mechanism?

 

There were reports that the drain holes in the seal were becoming blocked or were set in the wrong position preventing water from escaping.

 

Slamming the boot shut forced the water out of the seal and straight into the boot...

Oh yeah... I had that too.

 

I cut some holes in the bottom of the seal to let the water drain out.

 

Phil

Run some water coloured with a dye to help pinpoint entry of liquid..

I did check this but the holes in the seal are on the bottom edge and do seem to work as I'm not getting a build up of water inside the seal itself. However I think I'm going to go back to checking all possibilities again!

Ok, update on this is car is back from garage and this time they replaced tailgate seal. My own testing seemed to suggest the aerial could be the problem but the garage checked this and couldn't find any ingress there. So I'll see how it goes over the weekend.

Just had the same problem on my 2011, 1.4 TSI hatchback. Wife complained of a musty smell at rear and on investigation I found a swimming pool in me wheel well. I dried it out as best I could and left it for about 1/2 hour in the pouring rain. On returning, it had a little bit of water sitting in the well again. I checked the boot lid seal and, as said earlier, I found the seal drain hole at the uppermost point and a pool of water accumulating to the left of the boot lip as the car was parked leaning over to the left slightly. I cut two small holes with a scalpel at the lowest points in the seal and I was surprised as to how much water poured out from inside the seal!

Anyways, its now sitting outside in the rain and I'll post back if it has an effect.

My boot has been bone dry since I cut the holes in the seal.

 

Hopefully it will fix yours. If not then check the rubber bung in the wheel well as that was also leaking on mine (was filling up very quickly with both leaking!)

 

Phil