leaky boot and water in footwell

Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:06 am

Not long had my e30, first one of hopefully a few. Bought as a project to replace my ford (bollox) shedfesta.
Opened my boot to find the top of the boot lid soaking wet and the right hand side storage compartment half full of water. Got the water out, adjusted the boot so it sat lower but it is still happening. Also i have water gathering in my passenger footwell, thankfully iv got no carpet.
How can i solve this?

Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:05 pm

could be a few things in the boot, lift the boot seal and see if the waters coming in from just above the lights, where the seals meets the black plastic thing.

could be the seals around your back lights, is your Ariel tight? could be that?

Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:21 pm

Hello Rokit, had the same thing with mine just after I'd bought it. The easy bit is to check your sunroof drain tubes as these go into your boot bins and then out through a hole in the side wall- make sure it actually goes through the hole otherwise it just drains into your boot. After that there's money involved. Check your rear light seals, is there any water in your lights, if there is your seal has gone and water comes in. Next it's your boot seal. From there mate I guess it's if anything is out of line and allowing a gap where there shouldn't be one.
I've got water coming in the drivers footwell at the moment but I've just checked the sunroof drain holes and think I've cleared a bit of a blockage, hopefully (fingers crossed!) that'll do it! Oh, I found net curtain wire to be very helpful when clearing sunroof drains!!!!!! Hope this helps, stoner

Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:58 pm

always good to pull back rear boot carpeting below and around the inner rear wing....on a few of mine water has got into the right storage compartment through either a small rusty patch on rear of inner wheel arch or through a rusty patch directly behind the rear bumper. but gotta take up carpet to see them.

Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:59 am

Rokit,
I have the same issues. Water collects at the right storage depression (beneath right rear lights) and water collect under both driver and passenger seats.

a. Water in boot (right and left side) - as stated by the others, water may seep thru the foam gaskets around the rear lights. As water flows from the rear window down the channels around the boot opening, it naturally falls smack into that area. Silicon helps, but only for a while.

b. Water beneath driver and passenger seats - this was a bit serious for my case. I don't have a sunroof, so nothing to do with that stuff. Had the dashboard removed to trace the leak, and it came from many points. Battery tray in the engine compartment rusted through, which meant water/fumes came through the firewall right above the steering column shaft. The same leak meant rust all the way down beneath the carpet (between the clutch pedal and dead pedal) as water pooled beneath the driver's seat. This also meant the car fogs up quite easily in hot weather with windows up (high humidity inside which the aircon struggles to cope with).
My accelerator pedal had a hole on the floorpan

which was quite scary...
On the passenger side, wasn't too bad, but the leak seems to come in from the aircon hoses (or heater matrix) entering via the firewall.

Will upload some pics of the respray, welding, and rust-treatment on my bag-o-bolts...

Regards,
Piperzero

Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:40 pm

Folks,
As stated earlier, here're some pictures:

Removing the battery showed very rusty tray...
Water managed to leak thru all the way down towards the steering shaft UJ coupling.

Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:57 pm

Here's another angle...

Just above the point where the clutch reservoir tube enters the firewall, rust has made a hole about 2-3 fingers wide. No wonder I kept feeling moving hot air on my knees and thighs, even though I was freezing from the aircon...

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:05 pm

Wow thats rusty! How much did you pay? What car is it?

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:08 pm

mine had its mot today and had a slight leak turns out that my suspension mounting is corroded!!

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:13 pm

bmwe30mtech wrote:Wow thats rusty! How much did you pay? What car is it?

It's my old 323i, currently in the sprayshop for some much needed un-holing, welding, de-rusting....

Had to do quite a bit once we found out how the water entered the interior!

Cost-wise, painting it Titanium Gray II (paint code A36) inside and out would be about 260 quid. Plus another few hundred for the welding stuff. Retrim would be about 100-150 quid.

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:17 pm

Rokit wrote:the top of the boot lid soaking wet

Condensation can collect on the boot lid and the inside of the rear quater panels. The water runs down into the boot wells on either side of the car.

There is a rubber bung at the bottom of each well that should have a small hole in to let the water out. This hole gets blocked up and you get your own in car swimming pool. Find the bung and push a small screwdriver through the hole to open it up.

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:17 pm

Chicken, I know how you feel! Esp when you have guys with the face-lifted version that have galvanized steel who keep sneering.....ha,ha,ha!

Oh well, here's how bad it was from inside...

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:21 pm

Facelift are not galvanised, none of them.

Thats a very cheap paint job and re-trim!

Best of luck with sorting it though.

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:30 pm

Hehhehe...imagine my shock upon seeing this...

It's 0130hrs here, and I need to catch some sleep. Will upload more pics tomorrow then...

Piperzero

Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:37 am

Morning (or evening) folks!

Here are more depressing shots of what rust can do - especially in a humid tropical country....

The chaps had to cut away part of the firewall beneath the steering column shaft, and rebuild with new metal plate. Basically the whole floorpan, from the driver's rear seat bolts in the floor forwards to the firewall had to be refabricated...

On a happier note, here's the battery tray after welding...

Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:44 am

And here's the driver's firewall after welding in new plates...

These are the passenger's firewall - not as much welding.

Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:51 am

Nothing much on the outside...

Rokit, I do apologize if I inadvertently hijacked your thread

Just wanted to share how much damage can be hidden away beneath the carpet trim unless we strip out everything....I'll shut up and lie low now....

Piperzero