Wet Rear Carpet

[Mitchen]

The war against the wet continues..

I’ve eliminated my rear bench water leak.. and thought that was the end of it (it was water trickling from the boot). However today I was finally putting the rear interior back into my coupe for the first time in 8 months, and by sheer luck noticed a very small stain on the rear PS footwell carpet that I thought I should investigate.

I decided to pull the carpet back as far as I could without taking out front seats and centre consoles etc. and low and behold it was soaked underneath on both sides. The outside of the carpet is dry but the thick sound deadening and the floor pan are soaked! Luckily no rust appears to be there.

I pulled back the front carpets and they seem fine. The deadening was dry as a bone. Bulkhead behind the glovebox seems okay. I Really couldn’t be arsed to strip the entire carpet and dig real deep. It’s one thing after another with this car and water leaks atm. It’s worth noting I had to drive it for half an hour through floods and torrential rain a couple of nights ago.

Does anything spring to mind with wet rear footwells? Any common culprits. Or am I going to have to go back to stripping the car and water testing every nook and cranny again

[mark_i]

i would leave the rear seats out, and then pull up the PS carpet. Use a really fat roll of newspaper to keep the carpet off the floorpan.
Water is so hard to trace so you gotta work backwards from where it appears (just like rust)
Your previous pics show water appearing from the sound deadening under the rear seat back.
I had this problem with a leaking radio aerial gromett.

[Mitchen]

The leak on to the rear seat has been sorted. It turned out a weld that’s between the boot aperture and the rear screen had gone, creating a very small hole that was very hard to spot. Water was tricking down this hole on to the boot floor and then running down to the rear seat and sitting there. I sealed this and now for the last 2-3 weeks there’s been nothing on the rear bench. Hence why I was finally putting the seats back in yesterday.

I’m pretty sure the wet carpet is unrelated.

[mark_i]

as i recall, the thick foam under the carpet stays wet for an age.
If you've fixed the rear seat leak, i would keep the rear footwell carpet up and away from the floorpan either to help dry it out or observe any further water getting in from an area not related to the boot/rear window weld.

[Mitchen]

That’s a good shout. I’ve not got the motivation yet to take the interior, front seats out again and strip it. But I’ll take the handbrake centre console out and peel the carpet back as far as I can go.

Please tell me there’s not a sunroof drain in the b-pillars of a coupe

[Mitchen]

So I did some digging today. Started lifting the carpet.. but then ended up going all out and took the whole carpet and interior out! So it’s leaking in the front and running to the rear. NS front seems pretty dry, some dampness. Drivers front footwell was absolutely soaked!! Both rears are wet! Water seems to be dripping down into the OSF from below the centre of the dash, around the heater box area.

Assumed it’s the matrix or valve.. but the coolant doesn’t seem too low. Thought I’d check the elephant trunk, pulled it off and water came gushing out! It was completely blocked with gunk! Unbelievable considering I only replaced it a few years ago. And it’s spent most of those years in dry storage. Either way, I’m guessing this is the cause! I’ll have to get a new one as this one is so rigid and hard to get around the lips of the drain pipe.

[DanThe]

Was just going to suggest pull the carpet out as it will never dry properly otherwise, good to hear its a blocked rubber drain and not a rot hole!

[Mitchen]

Was just going to suggest pull the carpet out as it will never dry properly otherwise, good to hear its a blocked rubber drain and not a rot hole!

Thank the Lord for that! Although it does make me wonder how long it’s been blocked and how long waters been sitting on that bulkhead

[DanThe]

Well, your a lot closer to having the heater box out for some foam gaskets to be changed!

[Mitchen]

Talking of foam gaskets. This escalated quickly..

Decided to see what was going on behind the scenes. My heater box foam was perished.. and I found some nasties.

Nothing a good wire wheel can’t fix. Going to put some red oxide primer on it tonight and then maybe satin black it. Should last years

[flybynite]

Get some jenolite on it before the red oxide. That is what I use as belt an braces to get the bits the wire wheel misses.

[Mitchen]

Get some jenolite on it before the red oxide. That is what I use as belt an braces to get the bits the wire wheel misses.

Good shout. I don’t have jenolite and my motor factor doesn’t sell it.. but I have got some kurust knocking around. So I’ll coat it in that