Coupe with wet carpet

Slam

Member
SE London/Kent border
Hi I'm at my wits end ! I've looked at the problems with water ingress and checked mine out. The passenger footwell get saturated. I have read about door membrane and I have just fitted a new one when I fitted a new window regulator. It's not the aircon as I dried the carpets out and the car has not been used but it has rained its its soaked again. I have removed the wipers and taken the scuttle panal off and clean it all out and water seems to run out through the drain offs at either side ok :headbang: anybody got any suggestions please.
 
I suppose to narrow it down to window or windscreen you could secure a waterproof sheet across the car to cover the windscreen one rainy day and then the door/window the next rainy day? Alternatively grit your teeth and use a hose pipe to induce leakage with someone inside the car?
 
Sometimes it can be the alignment of the door seal itself? Are they perished or out of shape? Try some Gummipfledge on them to revive them if they are. I think you can also pull the seals up a little to change the contact point with the door to see if that helps.
 
Thank you for the suggestions I will give this ideas a go. The seals don't look perished or untowards.
 
Is it getting wet on top of the carpet or underneath? I had a leak that was caused by the drain tray (whatever it's called) not sitting flat on the windscreen. Water would go underneath the one bit that was sticking up and fall onto the heater blower (I think that's what it's called) and from there it'd come into my car and go underneath the carpet, not on top though.
 
ERX said:
Is it getting wet on top of the carpet or underneath? I had a leak that was caused by the drain tray (whatever it's called) not sitting flat on the windscreen. Water would go underneath the one bit that was sticking up and fall onto the heater blower (I think that's what it's called) and from there it'd come into my car and go underneath the carpet, not on top though.
Ok some further investigation and all I can say is what we're BMW thinking of when they designed the drain off system. The actual drain fitting on mine when fitted was still "loose" but in position so any water running around it runs straight through and around the sides of the drain and in to the footwell next to the speaker. So as you say any water running down the windscreen and getting under the plastic tray that fits against the screen runs straight into the footwell. I have ordered another drain tray and I will fit that with silicone around the edge and remove the screen scuttle panel and refit with a bead of clear silicone against the screen. I cannot believe that plastic scuttle panel is basically all that stops the water ingress. I hope you understand my ramblings.
 
Forgot to say came to this conclusion with a hose pipe and a contortionist buddy doubled up in the footwell.
 
Don't rule any thing out. Once had a wet passenger footwell in a MK1 primera. The leak was in the driver's side of the rear windscreen. Water was traveling across the roof lining and down the door pillar. :o I ended up sat in the car in the middle of a storm, with all the seats and carpet out. Hope yours is a easier to trace. :wink:
 
Slam said:
Ok some further investigation and all I can say is what we're BMW thinking of when they designed the drain off system. The actual drain fitting on mine when fitted was still "loose" but in position so any water running around it runs straight through and around the sides of the drain and in to the footwell next to the speaker. So as you say any water running down the windscreen and getting under the plastic tray that fits against the screen runs straight into the footwell. I have ordered another drain tray and I will fit that with silicone around the edge and remove the screen scuttle panel and refit with a bead of clear silicone against the screen. I cannot believe that plastic scuttle panel is basically all that stops the water ingress. I hope you understand my ramblings.

It's not a great design and I was wondering if I'm missing some kind of extra waterproofing under the bonnet as I wasn't sure how anyone could expect that piece of plastic to always stay flush on the windscreen and block all water from coming through. I didn't order a new one, I bent my one back into shape. I also waterproofed the heater blower with butyl tape to stop it from leaking again.

I hope your leak will be fixed as yours sounds like it's leaking from a different spot to mine. I had a bit of a nightmare with my leak, even took the roof off to change the drain pipe because that was broken, but didn't fix the leak (convertible ofc). Only could find the source of the leak once the carpet was fully out of the car.
 
Back
Top Bottom