Water Ingress in Passenger Footwell

[fufkin]

Hi all,

 

My 2nd of 2 posts.

 

Last year I lifted all the carpets to dry out the car after having the dreaded water ingress.  Luckily it was when we had the heatwave so it dried out pretty quickly.

 

Anyway, it has returned with a vengeance and I have no idea where it's coming in!!!

 

I've removed the battery tray and cleaned underneath, but it all looked like it was draining as it should.

 

I've removed the pollen filter and it was dry as a bone underneath and I couldn't see any evidence of water getting in that way.

 

Are there any other areas I should be looking at?

 

I'll be getting the carpets up Saturday to dry it out.

 

Many thanks in advance,  fufkin.

[tuningmania]

To "fufkin" - I remember, that between the PVC case of pollen filter and the chassis, must have rubber seal. Check if it is there at all and if it is closely and not pinched..

[fufkin]

Thanks tuningmania, I will re-check that, but all looked ok last week when I had it apart.  I also checked the battery tray as these are both known culprits.

 

I'm interested to know if there are any other usual places to look.  Someone also suggested the bonnet catch bung.

[Taede]

If you have a sunroof, check the drainage.

Bottom of the doors could also be a problem I believe.

Bonnet catch bung, would that not automatically be on the drivers side? For that matter, do you have wet carpets on passenger, driver, or both sides?

[fufkin]

Hi Teade,

 

I don't have a sunroof so it's not that.

 

I've never looked at the bonnet catch.  I was just putting it out there to try and find all possible causes.

 

When the carpet comes up, I will check the drivers side as well.

 

Where do I look in the bottom of the doors to see if it's the problem?

 

Many thanks,   fufkin.

[Taede]

On 11/10/2012 at 21:40, jimbof said:

Give the driver's door a good soaking (particularly the window), and then have a look at the door rubber to see if there is any water on it. On mine the seal between the carrier (which has the motors mounted to it) and the door had perished / been damaged by a poor repair. It was letting water in between the door and the door trim, over the rubber and into / under the carpet. A surprising amount was coming in this way. Sealed it with Shell Tixophalte which has the advantage of working on wet surfaces and being easy-ish to remove (messy though, like roadtar in a tube). See youtube video here (picture / thousand words yada yada)

 

 

Lifted this from the water ingress thread (good read if you haven't done so yet btw)

[jimbof]

Unfortunately removing the pollen filter itself proves nothing - did you actually take out the plastic housing for the pollen filter, so that you could see the chassis opening with the upturned metal lip?.  The water coming in that way goes under the pollen filter housing, and amazingly (though brilliant design) gets "wicked" up through the perished seal, over the metal lip of the chassis and down into the floorpan.

But the doors are another good route in.  Good luck.

[fufkin]

Ok, the carpet is now up and as suspected there was a pool of water in the floor of the car.  I've dried all that up now, but just waiting for the carpet to dry.  I'll be putting a dehumidifier in there overnight to try and speed things up.

 

I'm still getting a battery drain, so I suspect maybe a fault elsewhere.  I had the battery and alternator checked and both working fine, but I have read that a faulty alternator diode can cause battery drain.  I'll keep an eye on it to see if it drying out fixes this problem.

 

@jimbof: Yes, I removed the complete housing for the pollen filter and everything was bone dry, including the foam seal.  It was a bit of a pain to get it out.  I suspect someone has been at it before, because the plastic deflector that the windscreen wipers go through is cracked and doesn't quite seat properly against the windscreen.

 

@Taede: Thanks for the video.  Now that the pool of water is gone, and the carpet is up, I will give the car a good soaking to see if I can identify where the water is coming in.  I'm working all week so I'll get to that on Friday when I have some sunlight.

[jimbof]

The equivalent hole on the other side of the bulkhead (that the ECU housing is bolted to) also lets water in.   There are videos that show water being poured in the area around that housing and making it's way under the housing and into the car.

 

Anyway, good luck.

[fufkin]

@jimbof I will check that also.  Wouldn't that cause water to drain into the driver's side of the car instead?

[jimbof]

Hadn't clocked that it was only passenger side (I just got a notification due to the quote).  In that case it really is most likely a door or the pollen filter.  The recommended replacement for the foam filter seal isn't another foam seal, it is a piece of butyl rubber type sealing cord.  Hopefully you'll work out where it is coming in.

[fufkin]

Hopefully now the carpet is up I can finally get to the bottom of it.

[bigjohn]

On a previous car with a leak having removed the carpets I dusted the floor/bulkhead with talc to try to highlight water ingress. In that case it was a Volvo estate which had a sunroof drain leak.

 

Remember there are multiple types of water that can cause ingress - outside rainwater, climate control condensate and coolant from the heater matrix although the latter is usually obvious due to its colour.

[fufkin]

Hi @bigjohn.  That's a good idea about using talc.  The car is still drying out but once I get a chance to test I will definitely do that.  We've not had much rain since the carpets have been up, so I haven't noticed any more coming in.