cabin leaks

[fusilier]

Finally after many frustrating months g nearly years I think I've finally resolved the rain water leak into both sides of the footwells ,.It started when my heater matrix blew whilst ticking over and wasn't spotted until my son who was the custodian of the car at the time saw what he thought were copious amounts of smoke ( steam) emanating from the car. He did me a favour by starting the car whilst in storage .
I knew the carpet was wet prior to this so to relace the matrix I had to take the passenger seat and the carpet to dry out so I took the opportunity to r trace the water ingress. This was in 2021 so with feeble attempts which included the replacement of the door frame seals and using the car with just the rear and driver seat in no carpet, ( not impressed BMW by the price nor quality) its taken until today for me to believe that I've finally cured the leaks. Simple task was to remove the door inner plastic shields which although looking ok was letting water bypass into the cabin , these were replaced with heavy gauge plastic heavily glued especially at the bottom of the doors with a strip of denso taped again additional glue applied . After many soaking with a hose pipe (even though its been hammering down in s Wales ) it looks like I'm now in a position to restore the interior safe in the knowledge that there'll be no more misty windscreens nor must smell within .
One strange leak which still exists is rain water into the off side boot well which I've identified as entering through the fuel flap , but only when its open.
I recently replaced the fuel tank vent pipe which included the catch bottle tucked inside the inner arch .There's no corrosion there and I also replaced the rubber gasket which fits around the neck of the pipe feeding the petrol tank , its only leaks when the flap is open ??

[Alyman]

Good work - did you take any pictures as you fixed the front leaks? It's something I need to tackle on mine - I've taken to keeping it in the garage almost all the time now, as I noticed the front wells becoming damp after some heavy rain. Planning to take the carpet out and do the hosepipe test in the summer.

Not sure I can help with the boot leak question - sounds weird! Maybe take a look at where the central locking solenoid comes through? If the car is unlocked, then it will be in the 'retracted' position, which I guess might mean there's a way through for water. I suppose the design expectation would be that the petrol flap would generally be closed, so that might not have been seen as an issue. Just speculation though - I'm not near my car at the mo so can't check what it looks like.

[Contours]

May be no harm to check the firewall for water ingress on both sides where you have wet footwells. Rust is unfortunately making a prolonged attack on these cars at this stage. Water in the boot pockets is usually caused by worn out rubber gaskets in the rear light clusters.

[martauto]

Water in the boot pockets is usually caused by worn out rubber gaskets in the rear light clusters.

Seconded !!
Dont try and skimp, buy from BMW on here, mine were actually the cheapest as well form Cotwolds.

Mart.

[fusilier]

Good work - did you take any pictures as you fixed the front leaks? It's something I need to tackle on mine - I've taken to keeping it in the garage almost all the time now, as I noticed the front wells becoming damp after some heavy rain. Planning to take the carpet out and do the hosepipe test in the summer.

Not sure I can help with the boot leak question - sounds weird! Maybe take a look at where the central locking solenoid comes through? If the car is unlocked, then it will be in the 'retracted' position, which I guess might mean there's a way through for water. I suppose the design expectation would be that the petrol flap would generally be closed, so that might not have been seen as an issue. Just speculation though - I'm not near my car at the mo so can't check what it looks like.

Hi , no sorry no picture , its a straight forward job which I combined with cleaning & regreasing the window mechanism and applying contact spray to the central locking solenoid connections. I also checked the condition of the bottom of the doors which are fine so applied some waxol just to keep ii just so . The plastic I used was clear heavy gauge from screw fix ( I know the OEM item was a still available for few years back but chose to keep my hands out of my pocket)..
I also removed the door card barrier plastic sheet which I cleaned up and reapplied using a heavy duty spray adhesive .
Thanks for the comment about the fuel flap central locking something I will definitely look at . the rear light seals are fairly new amd a good splashing of talcum power hasn't has shown they're still holding up . As stated ,check the fire wall especially around the battery tray area as I found that I had a slight leak around the cable grommet at that point .