Sin_Chase

I have never had any boot water ingress issues before, or at least apparent ones. For a while when setting off in the morning after rain I could hear a slushing about noise on the back right of the car but always assujmed it was additional water draining off. Appears not!

Popped the bonnet to get some bags out and a good 3 inches of water. It has been raining all day after all. Went ahead and ripped out all the boot lining stuff and soaked up the most of it with a towel then set about finding the source. Having heard the noise before I thought and HOPED it was the drainage line on the drivers side. Got a torch out and shone down, low and behold - standing water.

Tried with a barrel cleaner from one of my air rifles first but was a little too thick gauged. Could not find a wire coat hanger so got creative and took a string off an acoustic guitar

Got it about halfway down from the top down but got it all the way through from the under chassis drainage point upwards. The water actually drained as soon as I touched the upper hole but wanted to be doubly sure. Not only was there standing water but there was a retention clip! One of the plastic ones with a Phillips headed plastic screw in the middle. Not actually sure where it is from but it's been there some time. Seems like someone lost it and just left it there. Got it out with some fiddly suction action (oeo err!)

Once fixed checked everywhere I could for dampness but surprisingly could not find any where I might expect to find some. The cavity around the suspension chassis mounting point was FILLED with water though. Needed to get plenty of kitchen towel down there to soak it all up. Put a heatgun over the whole lot after to try evaporate as much as possible. Pretty happy with the result.

Another 'contributor' to the amount of water seemed to be some shifting of the rubber in that drainage area. There is the wiper blade like sill which runs along the length of that corner but there was also like a U shaped bent piece of plastic below it - some kind of channel for water to run down? Mid way there appears to be an almost rectangular section that juts out a little. This had pulled away from the underside of the rubber sill (nearest the exterior body) and resting against the interior side of the sill. Was actually leaving a good inch of open area for water to freely run down. No idea how it ended up like that but I am not surprised if it was the main cause. Pushed it back in and *fingers crossed*

Just need to make sure it's water tight when it next rains now!

Floppy

Good effort Sin_Chase Keep us updated on how you get on. Hopefully it'll be warm and dry for a bit though so that the rest of it can completely dry out.

This is something I've been thinking about with my car as I have no idea whether MattyC did the drain holes at some point, for example when he installed the new roof

Unfortunately I don't think there's an easy way to check?

Bassoctopus

If there is still ingress change the light gaskets next

loftust

For more info, have a search for 'boot leak' and my thread on boot leaks/general drainage will be revealed

It's a simple process, and will ensure the longevity of your sills/rear arches.

dennohue

This is a useful link: Leaking in Boot

Sin_Chase

Cheers for the links guys. Looked over a couple of old threads while researching and felt a little sick when I read through the possible leak points!

Will refer back if I keep getting ingress but I sure as hell hope not.....bumpers been off after someone crashed into me and since been repaired so god knows what's been fiddled with down there.