Water leak

cj10jeeper

Lifer
 Lichfield, England
I have a water leak that is allowing water ingress to the passenger footwell. There is no visible route that it is following, but if I leave the Z out in the rain a puddle will be sat next to the door sill on top of the carpet.

OK, so that I don't spend forever looking for the source are there any common weak spots on the Z that I should check first. Window seals, drain vents, etc.?

A new windscreen fitted, but that was days after I got the car so cannot point the finger at that (yet)

Any pointers much appreciated
 
There was a (quite detailed) how-to on Z4um how to check/unblock the drains, it sound like this is related. I'm sure someone on here posted it originally though, so hopefully someone will let you know.
 
That's a great find - thanks and something I'll do in the near future.

Would this actually cause excess water to enter the passenger footwell? Looking at the location of the drain I don't think it could get to the front from there.

I think I'll be looking for a leak on the screen, door to hood seal, etc.
 
Ah maybe not, I never actually read it once I'd found it :lol:

Send a PM to PeteH because his ///M was in the dealers a few weeks ago for a similar problem, something to do with a seal on the inside of the door IIRC.
 
I found in mine, that if you pull the kick plate forwards, or backwards and realign the door seal that stops the water for a while.
It appears to enter the cabin at the point where the kick plate meets the door seal at the front of the car.

Another solution could be to run a small bead of silicon at that point to encourage the water to leave the car, rather than collect in the passenger footwell.
 
I'll give that a try as it seems to be in the right area.

Seems it's time to get the watering can and/or gently hose and see where it gets in.
 
my 03 plate was just back in the stealers for water getting into the cabin on the pasanger side and it turned out to be the plastic film between the door and the door card hadnt been sealed correctly when they were in at the door fixing the locks before i got the car!!! seams to have worked what ever they did,think they just stuck it back onto the door with some silicon or other sealer,might be worth a look.....
 
here's the deal here:

my z4 is an 03 and has the problem cj10jeepers expressed in his first post.

i have been there done that and experienced a whole lot BS from BMW Philippines about this leak causing so much more leak and trouble.

anyway bottom line here is the problem:

when leak is from heavy rains, car is moving or not:
once your door panel has been opend for whatever service reasons, (most common are broken window clips, loose window, broken regulators, etc) chances are the dealer did not put the inner door membrane and panel back together properly. the effect is water from the window channel goes inside the inner door membrane and goes inside inbetween the inner door panel and metal door down to your door sills travel to the lowest point on the sill, then drops to the carpet.

OR

when leak occurs when driving fast even when there's small amount of rain:
rubber defect on your door sills(part#51727125651 or 2), poor contact between this rubber and door plus pressure of wind pushes water to go in and tracel also to the lowest point of the door sill and then drops to the carpet.

To test:
put a hose with regular garder pressure to the window seals, no more than 10 seconds your innderdoor panel will have water leaks
 
Sounds like a common thing then! Just found by chance my pass footwell is getting wet too!

So did any of these sort your problem out cj10jeeper?

Going to have a look at it later.
 
An old thread.

I did 2 things. 1) added an extra hole in the door seal at the lowest point near the front of the door to allow any water on the seal to go through the seal and out. If you look carefully you'll see there are already holes in it. Not sure if they were for water or to let air pressure out when closing the door.

I also sealed the membrane on the inside of the door that looked as if a previous owner/mechanic had damaged it in a few places.

Never had a drop of water in, in the last 2 years. :thumbsup:
 
Ok thanks, thought i'd revive an old thread rather than start a new one :D

will give that a go, hopfully sort it out :thumbsup:
 
Only been here five minutes and helped already - EXACTLY the same problem and location I have, at least now I know where to look to fix it! Thanks.
 
Just noticed a leak into the passenger footwell,is it worth putting a drain hole into the lowest part of the door seal and see how that goes or check the door membrane as well,rather than stripping the door down and finding that OK.
Any tips on getting the door card off would be helpful. :thumbsup:
 
I had this yesterday also, but with the amount of rain around I'm not surprised, mine seems to come in from around the top of the door by the tweeter, and flows round to the area shown in the photo. The doo hadnt been opened in the rain.

If it happens again I will look into putting a hole in the seal as CJ did.
 
Going the door seal route to start with tomorrow(weather permitting :x ) and see if that solves the problem if not will try the door membrane after that.
 
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